14) 2006: Miami Heat over Dallas Mavericks

In addition to being one of the greatest upsets in NBA Finals history, this was only the third time that a team came back from a 2-0 series deficit (and it’s happened just two more times since as of 2021). Things seemed dire for the underdog Heat late in game three, when the Mavericks held a 2-0 series advantage and a 13 point fourth quarter lead. That’s when Dwyane Wade took over, scoring 15 of his 42 points in the fourth quarter in the comeback win, then averaging 38.6 points over the next three games as the Heat finished off the series in six. If you ask Mavericks fans (and many impartial ones), the referees played a large part in this result. This was especially evident in game five, when Wade shot 25 free throws and received multiple phantom calls late in the fourth quarter at crucial moments. Things went from bad to worse for Dallas a year later, when they were upset in the first round as a #1 seed. But they did eventually exact some revenge in a 2011 Finals rematch against the Heat that ranks much higher on this list.

13) 1995: Houston Rockets over Orlando Magic

It may seemed odd to label the defending champions as an underdog, but ’94-’95 was a rough season for the Rockets. Team chemistry tanked due to the disgruntled Otis Thorpe and Vernon Maxwell, forcing Houston to jettison two cornerstones of their 1994 title run. While trying to rework the offense around the newly acquired Clyde Drexler, they slumped down the stretch and entered the playoffs as the #6 seed in the West. The old adage about never underestimating the heart of a champion then took hold, with the Rockets upending the #3 Jazz, #2 Suns, and #1 Spurs in succession. Waiting in the NBA Finals were Shaquille O’Neal and the favored Magic, considered the ascending power of the league. Things turned dramatically at the end of game one, with Nick Anderson missing four consecutive free throws, allowing the Rockets to steal a win. Hakeem Olajuwon dominated the remainder of the series and earned his second consecutive Finals MVP, as the Rockets became the only NBA champions that never held home court advantage in any series.

12) 2012: Miami Heat over Oklahoma City Thunder

This might seem strange in retrospect but according to Vegas odds, this was an upset. Even with LeBron James playing lights out and Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh still in their primes, the Heat had a choker label heading into this series. The Thunder had crushed their opposition in the West, sweeping the defending champion Mavericks, putting the aging Lakers out of their misery, then pushing past a solid Spurs team. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden were proving to be a “Big Three” just as formidable as Miami’s, especially after a double-digit game one win at home. But they ran into a buzzsaw from there, with James playing arguably the best ball of his career, and role players Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers, and Mike Miller taking turns sticking unlikely daggers into Oklahoma City’s heart. The Heat finished off the series in five games thanks to three consecutive home wins, signaling the start of a brief dynasty. It led to an unlikely end of the line for this Thunder team, with Harden getting traded to the Rockets later that summer.

11) 1978: Washington Bullets over Seattle SuperSonics

Playoff disappointment was just a way of life for Bullets fans by 1978, having watched their team suffer upsets in the 1975 NBA Finals, the 1976 first round, and the 1977 Conference Semifinals. Team leaders Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes were now north of 30 years old and the title window seemed to be rapidly closing shut. But the stars aligned in the 1978 postseason, with the #3 seed Bullets pulling off successive upsets over the Spurs and the 76ers to make their third NBA Finals appearance of the decade. Their opponents were making their NBA Finals debut but the young, hungry SuperSonics still entered this game as slight favorites. Things sure looked that way after Seattle won game one over the plodding Bullets by overcoming a 19-point second half deficit. But the experience of the veteran Bullets front line paid dividends as the series wore on and the Bullets managed to win game seven on the road. A rematch one year later went more as suspected, with the Sonics cruising to their first title in franchise history in five games.

10) 1955: Syracuse Nationals over Fort Wayne Pistons

Aside from its status as a major upset, this is one of the most intriguing NBA Finals of all time for a variety reasons. It was a last gasp of the NBA small market era, coming right before the Nationals became the Philadelphia 76ers and the Pistons relocated from Fort Wayne to Detroit. A large factor of that Pistons move was having to host games three, four and five of this series 120 miles from home in Indianapolis, because their arena had been already booked for a bowling tournament. It was also one of the closest NBA Finals ever, with every game decided by seven points or less, cresting to a winner-take-all game seven where Syracuse’s George King hit the go-ahead series winner with 12 seconds left. Finally, it was one of the all-time most controversial Finals, especially if you asked George Yardley. The Pistons star firmly believed that one or more of his teammates were on the take, shaving points and/or purposefully losing in a mafia scheme facilitated by disgraced former Pistons player Jack Molinas. No matter how legit it was, the Nationals pulled off the upset here for their first ever title.

9) 1989: Detroit Pistons over Los Angeles Lakers

Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, the Lakers entered the ’88-’89 season as title favorites and entered the NBA Finals expected to defeat the Pistons. Never mind that a 42-year-old, about-to-retire Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was laboring around the court, or that the Pistons were clearly the better team in the 1988 Finals and lost due to Isiah Thomas’ untimely ankle injury. Los Angeles was the two-time defending champs though, and certainly came into this series on a roll, sweeping the Blazers, Sonics, and Suns in succession. Coach Pat Riley attempted to keep his troops fresh with an intense, pre-Finals mini camp, which ended with Magic Johnson and Byron Scott nursing injuries. An already difficult task thus became an impossible one, as the Pistons easily defeated the Lakers in a sweep, winning the first title in their franchise’s history. Though they did return to the NBA Finals one more time in 1991, this loss effectively ended the “Showtime” era. Even more embarrassing for Riley, he had trademarked the term “three-peat” in anticipation of a victory here. At least that paid later dividends, literally.

8) 1977: Portland Trail Blazers over Philadelphia 76ers

The NBA title felt up for grabs in the first season post ABA merger. Two-thirds of the league’s teams finished the regular season with somewhere between 40 and 50 wins, a testament to the parity, and lack of clarity. The 76ers seemed like as good a bet as anyone, seemingly grasping the mantle as title favorites when they defeated the defending champion Celtics in the Conference Semifinals. Things weren’t so smooth for the Trail Blazers, who entered the playoffs as a question mark before pulling off consecutive upsets over the Nuggets and Lakers to reach this far. Julius Erving led Philadelphia to wins in games one and two of the NBA Finals but the Blazers turned things around at home in game three. Maurice Lucas put the clamps on Philly’s George McGinnis and Bill Walton averaged 16.5 points and 19.5 rebounds per game in four consecutive Blazers wins. Even up to the end, it was expected that the 76ers would come back and prevail. Erving and McGinnis exploded for 64 combined points in game six but to no avail, as the Blazers outlasted them in a matinee thriller in Portland.

“Their shared enemy was LeBron James and the Heat, expected to cruise through the NBA Finals, deny the Mavs their long-awaited title, and drive another dagger into the hearts of Cavs fans.”

7) 1969: Boston Celtics over Los Angeles Lakers

Bill Russell’s Celtics had been underdogs before, but never to this level. Boston’s aging core essentially limped to the 1969 NBA Finals, with the veteran core aging and the 34-year-old Russell nursing a leg injury. They entered the playoffs as the #4 seed but, as usual, figured out whatever it took to win series over the 76ers and Knicks and reach the Finals. Waiting was the rival Lakers, who had lost six straight NBA Finals to Boston but now sported Wilt Chamberlain at center alongside their dynamic wing duo Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. Where Russell and Sam Jones labored through this series, John Havlicek picked up the slack, averaging 28.3 points per game. Role players like Larry Siegfried and Don Nelson also contributed above expectations, in a staple element of this Celtics dynasty. It took not one but two clutch winning shots for the Celtics to survive, with Jones hitting a buzzer beating runner to steal game four, while Nelson put away the instant classic game seven with a late jumper. Despite the loss, West played so well in this series that he earned the first ever Finals MVP trophy.

6) 2019: Toronto Raptors over Golden State Warriors
5) 2016: Cleveland Cavaliers over Golden State Warriors

The Warriors made five consecutive NBA Finals starting in 2015, winning three titles. The two that got away did so in spectacular fashion, two of the biggest and most thrilling upsets in NBA history. The ’15-’16 Warriors, with their record 73 regular season wins, will likely keep their status indefinitely as the greatest team to not win a title. Seemingly exhausted, physically and mentally, from the toll of their historic season, the Warriors collapsed after opening a 3-1 series lead on the Cavaliers. An ill-timed Draymond Green suspension didn’t help matters, but the otherworldly performances of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving are the main reason Cleveland secured its first ever title. As unlikely as that result was, the Raptors were an even bigger underdog in 2019, at least according to Vegas odds. This Warriors team had only won 57 games but they were the two-time defending champions at this point and seemingly unstoppable with Kevin Durant in the lineup. That last part was the sticking point, as Durant missed the first four games of the series with a calf strain, then suffered an Achilles’ tear immediately upon his return. With Klay Thompson additionally tearing his ACL, there was no stopping Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors from becoming the second franchise to make history with an unlikely title at the expense of the Warriors.

4) 1948: Baltimore Bullets over Philadelphia Warriors

When four franchises folded after the inaugural NBA season, the Baltimore Bullets were imported from the rival ABL to fill a spot. The established franchises considered the Bullets to be a “minor league” squad but everything fell into place for them in the 1948 playoffs. One lucky element for the #3 seed Bullets was an inexplicable playoffs system in which the top two seeds faced each other in the first round. The x-factors were their mid-season acquisition of talented, young center Connie Simmons, and the presence of Buddy Jeannette, their veteran player-coach who had previous experience winning titles in the NBL and ABL. The Warriors took game one over the Bullets and opened up a 21-point lead in game two when things swung drastically. Showing their hubris, Philadelphia attempted to run up the score rather than milk the clock and the Bullets took advantage in a comeback win. Baltimore rode that momentum to a series victory in six games, as Warriors star Joe Fulks struggled to stem the tide. Despite this success, the Bullets folded just seven years later due to mismanagement.

3) 2011: Dallas Mavericks over Miami Heat

2011 marked the one and maybe only time that the Cleveland and Dallas fandoms came together like Voltron. Their shared enemy was LeBron James and the Heat, expected to cruise through the NBA Finals, deny the Mavs their long-awaited title, and drive another dagger into the hearts of Cavs fans. Things went according to plan in game one, with the Heat winning comfortably by 12 but a funny thing happened in game two, with veterans Shawn Marion and Jason Terry leading the way to a Mavs upset. The pattern from there: Dirk Nowitzki playing unstoppably on offense, one or two supporting players stepping up, while one of the Miami “Big Three” struggles. James was notably the black sheep in games four and five, both Heat losses, adding to the (later proven silly) perception that he didn’t have the fortitude to handle the biggest pressure. Not only was Nowitzki’s first and only title, it was also a career capping achievement for Mavericks veterans Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, Caron Butler, Peja Stojakovic, and Jason Terry.

2) 1975: Warriors over Bullets

There was a significant gap between the powerhouse Bullets and defending champion Celtics and the rest of the NBA in the ’74-’75 season. Both teams finished with a 60-22 record and the next best total was the Buffalo Braves with 49 wins. With a 48-34 record, the Warriors were the top seed in a Western Conference expected just to offer up a sacrificial lamb for the NBA Finals. In an Eastern Conference Finals billed as a “virtual” NBA Finals, the Bullets outlasted the Celtics in six games. Washington had size, power, a balanced scoring attack, a deep bench, and Finals experience. The Warriors had… Rick Barry. That turned out to be enough. Thanks to Barry’s dominance, rookie Jamaal Wilkes’ emergence, and a smothering defense that caught the Bullets off guard, the Warriors didn’t just win the series, they swept it. Every game was close but the young Warriors proved themselves repeatedly in the clutch. Barry finished the series with 29.5 points, 5.0 assists, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.5 steals per game, and was named Finals MVP.

1) 2004: Pistons over Lakers

They came into this series with similar regular season records and similar postseason runs but the Lakers were heavy favorites over the Pistons. The Lakers had -550 series odds, meaning that a $100 bet on Los Angeles would win you only around $18 if they pulled it off. This conventional wisdom was understandable, as the Lakers were the three-time defending champions and the Eastern Conference had thus far been vastly underwhelming ever since Michael Jordan’s retirement. The series soon proved though that specific match-ups matter, as does team chemistry. While the Lakers struggled with the distractions of Karl Malone’s antics, Kobe Bryant’s rape trial, and the Shaquille O’Neal-Bryant feud, the Pistons were a well-oiled machine. All five Detroit starters averaged double-digit scoring for the series, and their defense was smothering, holding the Lakers to 75 points in game one and 68 in game three. O’Neal and Bryant averaged nearly 50 points per game combined, but the other 10 Lakers collectively averaged barely 30. The Pistons finished off the series in just five games, ending the O’Neal/Bryant era of dominance and signaling a new age of parity in the NBA.