1) 1949 Western Conference Finals: Lakers vs. Royals

From the moment they left the National Basketball League and joined the NBA in 1948, the Lakers and Royals were the pre-eminent rivals of their new league. Based at the time in Minneapolis and Rochester (New York) respectively, they were both placed in the Western Conference and both immediately dominated all other opponents. While the Lakers were anchored by a dominant force in the unstoppable George Mikan, the Royals deployed a more balanced attack, with Arnie Risen, Bob Davies, and Bobby Wanzer sharing scoring duties. Rochester clinched the regular season conference title but the Lakers were victorious in the Conference Finals, sweeping the best-of-three series and then easily defeating an undermanned Washington Capitols team in the NBA Finals. This pattern would continue for the next five years, with the Lakers and Royals facing off again in the Conference Finals in 1951, 1952, and 1954, with the victor easily winning the ensuing NBA Finals against a lesser opponent.

2) 1972 Western Conference Finals: Lakers vs. Bucks

As good as the Bucks were in their ’70-’71 championship season, they were even better in ’71-’72. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was essentially unstoppable, capturing the scoring title with a career high 34.8 points per game, while Oscar Robertson, Lucius Allen, and Bob Dandridge were all at the top of their game. Unfortunately for the Bucks, the only team that could really challenge them head-to-head in a playoff series happened to be in their same conference. The ’71-’72 Lakers were not just good but historically good, with a 33 game winning streak that still stands as the all-time record. Their Conference Finals match-up is still the only playoff series in NBA history between two teams with 65+ wins. Meanwhile, the Eastern Conference was a mess, with the Celtics still in post-Bill Russell rebuild mode, the Knicks missing an injured Willis Reed, and the Bullets struggling with injuries to several key players. While Abdul-Jabbar was dominant in the series, Robertson struggled on both ends of the floor against his longtime rival Jerry West, and the Lakers prevailed in six games. Though this was a tough finish for the Bucks, they do go down as the greatest team ever not to reach the NBA Finals, at least by our metrics.

3) 1981 Eastern Conference Finals: Celtics vs. 76ers

This series is widely considered one of the greatest of all time and it’s easy to see why when you consider the stakes. The top four seeds in the West were all upset in the first two rounds, including the defending champion Lakers, leaving a Conference Finals match-up between Rockets and Kings teams that had finished below .500 in the regular season. Contrast that with the Sixers and Celtics, who had both won 62 games in ’80-’81, featured five of the 11 East All-Stars that year (Larry Bird, Tiny Archibald, Robert Parish, Julius Erving, and Bobby Jones) and were playing in a rematch of the previous year’s Eastern Conference Finals. It lived up to the hype and then some, with clutch plays galore, bad blood all around, superstar performances from Bird and Erving, five of the seven games coming down to the final possession, and the Celtics ultimately erasing a 3-1 series deficit to prevail. As expected, Boston cruised to victory in the NBA Finals over the Rockets, winning their first of three championships in the Larry Bird era.

4) 2007 Western Conference Semifinals: Spurs vs. Suns

Our only entry on this list that’s not a Conference Finals, the Suns and Spurs were by far the best teams left in the second round of the 2007 NBA playoffs. Dallas, the West’s top seed, had been stunned by the Warriors in the first round, as had the defending champion Heat by the Bulls. Detroit was still talented on paper but aging fast and looking vulnerable, while the Cavaliers were a one man team with little talent surrounding a young LeBron James. Aiming to overcome the disappointment of their Conference Finals loss to the Spurs in 2005, the Suns looked strong early in this series but it swung late in game four, when San Antonio’s Robert Horry committed a flagrant foul on Steve Nash. Several players left the bench in the ensuing scuffle, leading to an unfortunate suspension for Suns star Amare Stoudemire. San Antonio was able to take fortuitous advantage, winning games five and six to advance. Over the next two rounds against the Jazz and Cavaliers, they won eight out of nine games, most of them by double digits. It was a bitter pill for Suns fans, who undoubtedly still consider this a sure championship that slipped out of their fingers.

5) 1967 Eastern Conference Finals: 76ers vs. Celtics

During their run of 11 titles in 13 years, starting in 1957, the Celtics rarely got an easy Conference Finals or NBA Finals series. A spot in the 1967 NBA Finals would have been a rare exception. The West was pretty weak that season, with only the Warriors, led by Rick Barry, finishing above .500. Los Angeles was the two-time defending conference champion but were easily dispatched early in the playoffs as Jerry West missed time with a broken hand. In fact, that Warriors team had won only 44 games, 16 less than the Celtics and 24 less than Boston’s Conference Finals opponent, the 76ers. With Wilt Chamberlain peaking and surrounded by arguably the best supporting cast of his career, highlighted by Hal Greer and Billy Cunningham, the ’66-’67 76ers actually have a case as the greatest pre-merger team. They wound up dominating the Celtics in this series, finishing it off with a blowout win in game five. San Francisco proved surprisingly more difficult in the NBA Finals but the 76ers still pulled it out in six games.

“This all added up to a half decade stretch where a Western Conference title felt like the coronation of the impending NBA champion. It’s no surprise then that these turned out to be some of the most hyped and thrilling non-Finals series in NBA history…”

6) 1975 Eastern Conference Finals: Bullets vs. Celtics

The Bullets and Celtics finished with identical records in ’74-’75, with 60 wins and 22 losses. Boston, the defending champions, were granted the #1 seed by a complex tiebreaker method but both teams were considered far-and-away better than anything the Western Conference had to offer. In fact, the third best record in the NBA that season was courtesy of the Buffalo Braves, who were led by reigning MVP Bob McAdoo. Buffalo almost upset Washington in the Conference Semifinals but fans were ultimately still granted the Conference Finals match-up they expected. It was a solid series, with newly acquired star Elvin Hayes leading the Bullets to victory in six games. The Warriors managed to prevail in the West, barely surviving series against the SuperSonics and Bulls, and entered the NBA Finals as heavy underdogs. But Rick Barry proved up to the task, not only leading the Warriors to one of the biggest upsets in Finals history but doing so in a four game sweep. It was a stunning turn of events and leaves this series as the only one on our list that proved to not be a “virtual” NBA Finals but instead a fabricated one.

7) 2000 Western Conference Finals: Lakers vs. Trail Blazers
8) 2001 Western Conference Finals: Lakers vs. Spurs
9) 2002 Western Conference Finals: Lakers vs. Kings
10) 2003 Western Conference Finals: Spurs vs. Mavericks

The disparity of talent between the two NBA conferences has never been higher than it was in the early ’00s. You can point to a number of inciting factors, whether it’s Michael Jordan retiring, Shaquille O’Neal and Chris Webber absconding to California, Patrick Ewing and Reggie Miller aging quickly, Grant Hill and Alonzo Mourning struggling with injuries, and seemingly an entire generation of young superstars (Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant) getting drafted out West. This all added up to a half decade stretch where a Western Conference title felt like the coronation of the impending NBA champion. It’s no surprise then that these turned out to be some of the most hyped and thrilling non-Finals series in NBA history, especially the 2002 Conference Finals, where the Lakers (with arguably some assistance from the referees) held off a stout challenge from their cross-state rivals Sacramento. Though the West remained the undoubtedly superior conference for the remainder of the decade, its stranglehold on assured NBA Finals dominance ended in 2004, when the Lakers were upset by the Pistons and O’Neal was subsequently traded to the Heat, shifting the power balance.

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