2010s NBA Finals, Ranked: 10-9
Looking back at the 10 NBA Finals played during the 2010s, I bring you the first of a seven-part series where I rank them
I’ll be honest: I looooove the 2010s decade of NBA basketball. I might be somewhat biased towards it, simply because it’s the period of time in which I got into watching, enjoying and talking about basketball, but it’s still great nevertheless. The amount of all-time greatness we witnessed in it is startling and would take a while to put into words, but those that have been around know how great basketball was during that span.
In terms of talent alone, the decade might go down as the second-best (behind the 2000s), and the historic moments that happened on the basketball court are ones that will live forever. More specifically, the moments we witnessed during some championship series were remarkably great, and deserve their spot in a museum to celebrate basketball’s greatest moments. However, since I’m not a museum director, I’ll do the best I can to commemorate my favorite decade of NBA basketball and its moments: rank those series.
In appreciation of the 2010s and all those memorable moments it gave us, let’s reminisce on the very best matchups (in most cases) each season had to offer: the NBA Finals of the decade. As the series that crowns a champion and acts as a ladder that a player can use to establish himself as one of the best in history, we saw some great series and individual performances during the 10 Finals of the 2010s. With that in mind, let’s rank ‘em! (because what else are we doing?).
Before I do start my rankings, let me be clear on the criteria I used:
Historical Precedent: record(s) broken in series, impact series had on a player’s legacy, and everything else like that.
Competitiveness: number of games in series and margin of said games.
Rewatchability: being able to rewatch the series and enjoy it impartially.
Injuries: key injuries that impacted the result of the series.
Needless to say, at the end of the day, this ranking is subjective, so I encourage respectful disagreements. All that I ask is that you read whatever I have to say before commenting on how stupid I may be for thinking something a certain way. In this ranking, I won’t be making any arguments in favor or against any of the teams involved in a given series; all that I’ll be doing is analyzing the series at hand as an impartial basketball fan. I hope y’all enjoy these and feel free to let me know (via comments or Twitter) what you think of it (and I also accept suggestions on other rankings/topics to write about).
Without any further adieu, I officially begin my ranking with the two worst NBA Finals of the 2010s:
10. 2018: Cleveland Cavaliers vs Golden State Warriors (Warriors won 4-0); MVP: Kevin Durant (28.8pts, 10.8reb, 7.5ast, 0.8stl, 2.3blk on 52.6/40.9/96.3 shooting)
Being the only Finals’ sweep of the decade, the fourth time LeBron James and the Warriors faced off in an NBA Finals stage goes last on my ranking. Entering the series, most people knew the Cavs didn’t stand a chance. Cleveland entered the 2017–18 season with what looked like a reloaded roster at the time; after losing in the Finals to these same Warriors the season before, the Cavs looked to just simply run it back. However, when Kyrie Irving demanded a trade after he was reportedly included in trade packages for other stars (among other reasons), all plans changed.
Swapping him for Isaiah Thomas and adding Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose, Jae Crowder and others seemed like great moves at the time, but it all backfired early: the pieces didn’t fit well together with what they already had, starting the season 5–7 and playing better when some of these players were hurt. The trade deadline brought a massive overhaul of the roster which, at the time, seemed like a fantastic one. The supporting cast ended up being very underwhelming, which led to a difficult road to the Finals that featured two seven-game series (first round against Indiana and in the Eastern Conference Finals against Boston) and the Toronto Raptors just being there.
The Warriors, on the other hand, were the defending champions and still had the same squad, which meant they were the team anyone who wanted a championship had to go through. The Houston Rockets nearly did, overtaking them for the best record in the league and pushing the Dubs to seven games in the Western Conference Finals, but alas, that’s a different story. On to what we got, which is the lopsided fourth chapter in the Warriors/Cavaliers story that almost went in a different direction from the jump.
Cleveland almost stole Game One in Oracle, in large part thanks to LeBron, who had one of the best performances in playoff history. If you’re on the fence about that, let’s put his performance in context: LeBron had carried, arguably, the worst team he’s had in his career (this one or 2007) to the Finals, defeating the Indiana Pacers in a hard-fought seven-game series, sweeping the Toronto Raptors without home-court advantage and winning a Game Seven in Boston against the Celtics.
Then, he had to face one of the best (if not the best) teams in NBA history, which had two of the five best players in the world and one of the toughest environments for a road team to win at (it was called ‘Roaracle’ for a reason). LeBron proceeded to have a game for the ages: 51pts/8reb/8ast/1stl/1blk on 19–32 from the field, 3–7 on threes and 10–11 from the charity stripe. And even with all of that, the Cavs were an infamous J.R. Smith blunder away from potentially taking a 1–0 lead that could’ve drastically changed the conclusion of the series. But, I’ll only be focusing on what actually happened in these series, not ‘what-ifs’.
After this, the Dubs took Game Two in convincing fashion, led by Curry’s 33pts (16 in the fourth quarter), and Cleveland had yet another chance to steal one in Game Three. They started the game ahead for the entirety of the first half, but in the second half, the Warriors responded to take control, outscoring Cleveland 58–44 in the final 24 minutes of action. And, in a game where he, by the strength of some sensational shot-making, was the lone Warrior to score more than 11 points, Kevin Durant scored his last points of the night on a ‘dagger’ three that put Golden State up six, bringing back memories of a similar shot he hit in the Finals a year earlier.
With that, KD finished the game with 43pts/13reb/7ast/1stl/1blk on 15–23 from the floor, 6–9 from behind the arc and 7–7 free-throw shooting. James (33pts/11ast/10reb) tried, Rodney Hood got the most minutes since Game Three of the first round and took advantage of it (15pts/6reb), but they missed a perfect chance to make it a series. The next game wasn’t close: Curry dominated with 37pts (12–27 shooting and 7–15 from three), Durant had the first playoff triple-double of his career (20pts/12reb/10ast), the Dubs outscored the Cavs 44–22 from the 5:49 mark of the second quarter through the end of the third, and Golden State completed the sweep to win their second consecutive championship.
If Cleveland won Game One, this series could’ve actually gone either way. Besides simply having a 1–0, the psyche of both teams would’ve been completely different if the Cavs stole the first game on the road and proved they could beat the Warriors’ juggernaut, even if it required a masterful LeBron game. Nevertheless, the series was more fun than it should’ve been, but still one-sided at the end.
In Game Two, Stephen Curry broke the record for most threes made in a Finals game (nine), and in Game Three LeBron overtook Michael Jordan on the list of players with the most 30+ point games in playoff history (110). But, even with these achievements, this series wasn’t close enough outside of the first and third game to earn a higher spot in my ranking. And when we add the fact that it was a sweep, there really is no higher this series can rank. The reality is that both teams weren’t in the same universe; the true series to determine a champion happened in the Western Conference Finals between the Warriors and Houston Rockets. However, we have to deal with the series we ended up getting: the worst Finals of the decade.
It’s funny: the worst Finals in my ranking was projected to be so much worse than it actually ended up being. The second worst Finals, on the contrary, was projected to be so much better than what it actually ended up being…
9. 2017: Cleveland Cavaliers vs Golden State Warriors (Warriors won 4-1); MVP: Kevin Durant (35.2pts, 8.2reb, 5.4ast, 1.0stl, 1.6blk on 55.6/47.4/92.7 shooting)
I remember being so hyped for this series. It was marketed to be one of the biggest Finals series ever, and also had the potential to hugely alter the legacy of all the stars involved in it. I remember watching this hype video for the series, and it truly got all the “excitement to watch basketball’ juices flowing.
I mean, how couldn’t you be excited for this series? Whether you were a Cavs, Warriors, or simply a basketball fan, there was something big to look forward to. The stakes couldn’t be higher! Something had to give between both these teams, and this was set to be the biggest make-or-break series in NBA history: Warriors. Cavaliers. Third year in a row they faced off in the biggest stage the NBA has to offer. Each team had won one of the previous two, Golden State taking the first one in 2015 and the Cavs evening things up in 2016 after a historic rally with their 3–1 comeback.
However, each series had its own *very* significant asterisks for all the skeptics to point at: on Cleveland’s side, Kevin Love missed the entirety of the 2015 Finals after dislocating his left shoulder in the first round against the Boston Celtics, and Kyrie Irving fractured his left kneecap in overtime of Game One of the Finals. On Golden State’s side, Draymond Green was suspended for Game Five after his incident with LeBron, and Andrew Bogut suffered a serious knee injury that caused various bone bruises in Game Five that cost him the final two games of the series. This series was expected to be the first where both teams were healthy, which meant there were no excuses in the grudge match; whoever won would’ve done it fair and square and would be remembered in history as the better of the two with no questions asked. But, the Warriors had an ace up their sleeve: Kevin Wayne Durant.
After adding Durant in the summer of 2016 to a core that had already won 73 games in the previous season’s regular campaign, the Warriors looked like an unbeatable team on paper, and their road to the Finals proved as much: they went undefeated in the Western Conference portion of their playoff run, and they entered the series as the bonafide favorites to win it all. And that was against a Cavs team that was WAY better than what people remember, as they had only lost one game prior to this series (and even that lone loss required a lucky bounce) and had one of the best collections of talent in recent memory (LeBron, Kyrie, Love, Smith, Richard Jefferson, Tristan Thompson, Kyle Korver, Iman Shumpert, Derrick and Deron Williams, and Channing Frye notably). They were looking to win back-to-back titles, and even after appearing vulnerable with a 12–15 record after the All-Star Break, they still proved to be unbeatable when it mattered the most.
The Cavaliers were good, but the Warriors were just so much better; they only lost 15 games during the regular year, and though many would argue the Spurs were on their way to eliminating them in the Western Conference Finals prior to the Kawhi Leonard/Zaza Pachulia incident, reality is they made a remarkable Game One comeback and dominated after that. Neither the Cavs nor the Dubs belong in the same universe, and the first two games didn’t do much to change anyone’s mind.
Durant made an argument for being the best player in the series right off the bat, scoring 38pts, grabbing 9reb and dishing eight dimes, which led the Warriors to a 22 point win which also starred a typical Warriors’ third quarter avalanche (they outscored Cleveland 33–20 in the period). Game Two was much of the same, but kicked up a notch: Durant (33pts/13reb/6ast/3stl/5blk) and Curry (32pts/11ast/10reb) both scored 30+, Klay Thompson added 22, and the Warriors used another third-quarter blitz (35–24 on this occasion) to win by 19.
Even with that, Game Three back at Quicken Loans Arena was much closer, so much so that the Warriors shouldn’t have won it. Golden State got off to another hot first quarter, entered halftime with a six-point lead, and looked poised for another run. However, this time it was the Cavs who responded with a huge third quarter (33–22) to take a five-point lead heading into the fourth. LeBron kept them afloat in the first half (27pts, 16 in the first period), and Kyrie led the blitz in the third (16pts in the frame).
With three minutes left, the Cavaliers led 113–107 (isn’t that big of a lead in a regular setting, but it’s the playoffs we’re talking about). From that point until the end of the game, Golden State scored 11 unanswered points, taking the lead on this memorable Durant three with 45 seconds left, and closing it out with some fantastic Andre Iguodala defensive plays, including blocking James on his attempt to tie the game. When it was all set and done, the Warriors had outscored Cleveland 29–19 in the final quarter, and proved the inevitable: whether it was a dominant start, an avalanche of transition attack and threes in the middle of the game or a late comeback, they knew how to win.
Game Four, on the other hand, was a completely different story, with the Cavs not leaving any leftovers on the kitchen table en route to a wire-to-wire blowout win. In that game, Irving led all scorers with 40pts (15–27 from the field, 7–12 from three), LeBron James (31pts/11ast/10reb) notched his second triple-double of the series, which had him surpass Magic Johnson’s record for most triple-double in Finals history (nine), the Cavs got off to the hottest start of any team in Finals history (49pts in the first frame, a Finals record) and broke a slew of other records: most points in a half in Playoffs and Finals history (86pts), most three-pointers made in a half (13) and most in a game (24).
However, no matter how loud people were about Golden State blowing a 3-0 lead, that only delayed the inevitable as the Warriors closed out the series in Game Five at Oracle; James (41pts/13reb/8ast) tried, but the Warriors used a 38–23 second quarter to take an 11-point lead into halftime and never trail again led by Durant’s 39pts/6reb/5ast.
KD won his first championship after having one of the best individual performances in Finals history and had (in his mind) done what he envisioned doing when he signed with the Warriors: dethroned LeBron James by outperforming and beating him in the grandest stage. And that’s with LeBron playing amazing in his own right (33.6pts, 12.0reb, 10.0ast, 1.4stl, 1blk on 56.4/38.7/64.9 shooting, becoming the first player to average a triple-double in a single Finals series).
There were no injuries that impacted this series, but I again have to state the obvious: the Warriors were so much better than Cleveland, and I view them as the most talented team in NBA history. The first two games got out of hand in the second half, Game Three was good, and the last one was decent, which evens out to the series as a whole being okay, but certainly not better than any of the others from the decade besides 2018. If there was ever a year for LeBron to lead his team over this juggernaut, 2017 was the one (in the next year he entered the Finals with a worse team, as was already established earlier in this piece). Anyone who wanted to see the Warriors’ dynasty fall would have to wait two years for them to face their biggest threat.
More on that in part two of this ranking, which can be found here