Duncanlebron I Know Before This Ride Is Over We Will Meet Again
Shots that decide championships are forever remembered every bit some of the greatest moments in NBA history. They are atypical, defining for everyone involved; but in each of those events, those successes hinged on opponents missing shots that would take changed history every bit we know it.
More than: Who's the most clutch player in the NBA?
This is a focus on those moments. The shots that were inches away from beingness as famous as those that take overshadowed them. These are the biggest missed shots in NBA history.
John Stockton – Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals
The 1998 Finals will e'er be remembered for Michael Hashemite kingdom of jordan'southward Last Shot as the culmination of the Bulls Dynasty, but it was Stockton's risk correct afterward which could accept altered that legacy.
After dropping only one game in their previous ii series, the Jazz entered the '98 Finals more experienced and rested than the team that barbarous to the Bulls the yr before. On the other side, Chicago was at the end of the ride. Having outlasted Indiana in a roughshod seven-game East Finals, Utah was all that stood between Chicago and a 2d three-peat.
The rested Jazz took Game one on the dorsum of Karl Malone's twenty-point double-double before losing three straight in which they were held to merely 74.vi points per game. Utah managed to steal Game five in Chicago before returning home to try to extend the series.
Game half-dozen seemed destined to be the concluding piece of Jordan'south legacy. He poured in a dominant 45 points, with his Concluding Shot to take the pb with 5.2 seconds left interim as the mic drop. Utah had that handful of seconds and looked to Stockton to answer Hashemite kingdom of jordan'south game-winner.
Had the shot fallen, Utah would have had all the momentum for Game seven. Instead, the miss ended Utah's best shot at a title. Stockton and Malone never got out of the second round again with that miss cementing their legacies of 2 of the league'southward best to never win a championship.
The game-winner became the storybook ending to Jordan's career in Chicago. He left on meridian, with one of his greatest performances solidifying a perfect six-0 Finals record.
Stephen Curry – Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals
The 2016 Cavaliers had a good, though mostly unremarkable, regular season earlier turning it on and stampeding through the Eastern Briefing playoffs on the manner to the Finals. The Warriors were the changed.
The Warriors started 24-0, and so finished with the all-time record of all-time with Curry becoming the first unanimous MVP in league history. Afterwards he suffered an MCL sprain in the showtime round of the playoffs, the Warriors limped through the West earlier fighting dorsum from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Thunder in a legendary Conference Finals.
The Cavs entered the Finals healthier and more rested, but the Warriors used their WCF momentum to jump out to a at present-infamous 3-1 lead before Cleveland bounced back to win 2 straight and strength a Game seven in Oakland.
Despite the legendary highlights, the game was a defensive slugfest, epitomized by Draymond Green's 32-point triple-double leading both teams in scoring. After LeBron James' block set up Kyrie Irving'south three with 53 seconds remaining, Curry had a take chances to striking his 483rd three of the flavor to tie the game back up.
Instead, Curry couldn't carve up from Kevin Love, the shot rimmed out and the Warriors never scored again. LeBron split up free throws on the other end and Cleveland had its long-awaited title.
The ripple effects of Back-scratch'south miss are countless. If it falls, the game is tied and the Warriors likely become the terminal shot of the game. If Aureate State pulls out the win, Cleveland falls heartbreakingly short of withal another championship, Golden State completes its dream season and another variable is added to Kevin Durant's impending free agency determination.
Tim Duncan – Game vii of the 2013 NBA Finals
The 2012-13 Heat were at the absolute meridian of their powers. They were the best team in basketball game and, led past a nearly-unanimous MVP season from LeBron, they ran through the Due east with a 66-sixteen tape that featured a 27-game win streak.
The pure able-bodied brutality of Miami was perfectly countered past the beautiful game in San Antonio. The Spurs beautifully weaved their aging core with their new burgeoning superstar in Kawhi Leonard and it resulted in their showtime Finals appearance in six years.
Ray Allen'due south shot in Game vi is a defining moment in NBA history. It'south one of the greatest shots e'er and over fourth dimension has overshadowed the game that followed. Even then, Game 7 was an incredible dorsum-and-forth battle that included a 37-point double-double from LeBron and the biggest shooting night of Shane Battier's life and yet, with just under a minute remaining, Duncan had the ball with a chance to in one case once again even-up the series.
That miss didn't terminate the game, simply Duncan's floor slap became the emotion counter to the jubilation that followed Allen'due south shot a couple of nights before. After LeBron hits a jumper to go upwards by iv just moments afterwards, Miami capped its second title for a squad that promised: "not 6, not vii".
San Antonio got their rematch a year later on, besting the Heat to win their fifth title but that squad has long credited the hurting of 2013 as the catalyst to their redemption. If Duncan's shot falls, information technology's possible they don't push as hard in 2014 and the Thunder – who lost a 2-0 series pb to the Spurs in the 2014 WCF – change their fortunes forever and win a title.
Stephen Back-scratch – Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals
For a player every bit historically great as Curry, he has remarkably plant his way onto this listing multiple times.
Golden State entered the 2019 Finals at the end of a half-decade of say-so, becoming the first team in 52 years to reach the Finals five-direct times. Toronto was in their offset, propelled past arguably the greatest shot in NBA history to win one serial and complete a two-0 comeback to win the next.
Toronto played incredible basketball early in the series against Golden State and jumped out to a 3-i serial lead. Durant's Game 5 return provided a momentary reminder of the superweapon Gilt State had been for the past three years before his Achilles tear created i of the more devastating moments in Finals history.
Game 6 was an incredible battle. Propelled past 20+ points from Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet and Leonard, the Raptors had a consummate squad performance and yet, the Warriors led deep in the third quarter before Klay Thompson's ACL tear and complimentary throw re-archway created notwithstanding another enduring Finals memory.
Toronto regained the lead and was up by three points with 28 seconds remaining. Two Curry complimentary throws cut the atomic number 82 to one before an uncharacteristic Danny Green turnover gave Golden State one final breath with zero dubiety who would take the last shot.
It was a hard wait, but one we've seen Curry hit many times over. Had it fallen, Toronto would accept hosted a Game 7 against an injured and beleaguered Warriors team just it'southward impossible to envision Curry, Green and Andre Iguodala making it an easy fight.
Instead, the shot drew iron and merely a few semantic gratis throws stood betwixt the Raptors and the Larry O'Brien trophy as they completed one of the best runs in playoff history.
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Source: https://www.sportingnews.com/au/nba/news/what-if-analyzing-biggest-missed-shots-nba-history-john-stockton-steph-curry-tim-duncan-lebron-james/1vzzy9asmoqib1tb5mdj9bihj7
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