The best NBA team ever to be swept in a final ? 82-83 Lakers ?

4for4

Lakers had Kareem, Magic, Worthy and a lot of other guys who shot over 50% that year.
They were very good.

My question is has a team like that or equal to that Lakers team ever been swept in a final ?

Sixers went 12-1 that postseason so they were on a roll. Plus they had this guy below, who had the most rebounds in the 80’s.

4for4

Was also trying to think of the best MLB team to ever get swept in the WS and came up blank.

perkdog

Interesting topic, I'm not an NBA guy but someone should be along soon that is

thisistheshow

I just looked at the list of teams swept in finals. I'd say your example is possibly the one. Especially considering that the Lakers beat the Sixers three years prior.

4for4

@thisistheshow said:
I just looked at the list of teams swept in finals. I'd say your example is possibly the one. Especially considering that the Lakers beat the Sixers three years prior.

Without Moses IIRC.
I just remember that Laker team with KAJ and MJ always in the final, or a lot.

Mickey71

@4for4 said:
Was also trying to think of the best MLB team to ever get swept in the WS and came up blank.

1990 Oakland A's

Mickey71

Moses Malone was a fantastic player. He almost swept the whole playoffs that year. He was fantastic and underrated. He was a bull underneath for rebounds.

erikthredd

Considering that there's only been nine 4-0 sweeps in NBA FInals history I'd agree that that Lakers team mentioned above was the best of the losers group below. That main core went onto win 5 titles even though they got swept by Philly that year.

Here are the nine teams that have been swept in NBA Finals history:
1. '59 Lakers lost to the Russell/Cousy Celtics. That Lakers team was carried by rookie Elgin Baylor.
2. '71 Bullets lost to Kareem/Oscar's Bucks. The Bullets were led by Wes Unseld & Gus Johnson and made the Finals during a 42-40 season.
3. '75 Bullets lost to the Barry/Wilkes Warriors. Wes Unseld & Elvin Hayes were the WAS stars.
4. '83 Sixers lost to Lakers mentioned above. that Philly team finally beat LA after losing 2 of 3 previous Finals to them.
5. '89 Lakers lose to the Isiah/Dumars/Rodman Pistons. This was the swan song for that great Lakers team of the 80's ,coming off of b2b titles the previous 2 seasons. Kareem retired soon after losing.
6. '95 Magic lose to Hakeem's Rockets. This current Orlando roster didn't last long together but they were fun to watch with Shaq,Penny,Dennis Scott,Nick Anderson & Horace Grant.
7. '02 Nets lost to the Shaq/Kobe Lakers. This Nets team might had some of the most unlikable players ever in Jason Kidd,Kenyon Martin & Richard Jefferson.
8. '07 Cavs lost to the Spurs. Everyone talks about how Lebron had an awful Cavs team around him but it was more SA had a loaded roster with HOFers Duncan,Manu,Parker.
9. '18 Cavs lost the KD/Curry Warriors. Again everyone wants to point out that Lebron didn't have enough help (Kyrie had been traded to Boston) yet overlook that GS had an insane amount of HOF talent in KD,Curry,Klay,draymond and possibly Andre Igoudala.

coolstanley

I followed the 76'ers that 82-83 season. They were awfully good. One of the best NBA teams ever.

SanctionII

Moses Malone was an all time great player. I watched him play in December, 1974 (his first pro season as a member of the Utah Stars in the ABA as a 19 year old who graduated high school earlier in the year).

He did not start the game and was not put into the game by his coach until about 2 minutes left in the first half. He played most of the second half. So for the game he played about 24 of the 48 minutes. His stat line for those 24 minutes was:

35 points

23 rebounds.

Unlike his play with the 76rs (when he was a fully grown man who played center around the basket), when I saw him play as a skinny 19 year old kid, he was a gazelle on the court. He did it all (score, rebound, run the floor, block shots, play defense and on offense he also brought the ball up the floor to initiate the offense, including at times going coast to coast after getting a defensive rebound and scoring at the other end of the floor).

The 1982-1983 Philly team was loaded with talent, but it won the title because of Moses Malone.

Tabe

For baseball, the answer is clearly the 1954 Cleveland Indians, winners of 111 games.

4for4

@coolstanley said:
I followed the 76'ers that 82-83 season. They were awfully good. One of the best NBA teams ever.

And they demonstrated it by sweeping an incredibly talented Laker team with two of the greatest players ever on it.
Couldn’t agree more.

coolstanley

@Tabe said:
For baseball, the answer is clearly the 1954 Cleveland Indians, winners of 111 games.

I would probably disagree with this. Cleveland had a great team that year, especially the pitching staff. But I think the answer is the 1990 Athletics. As the defending World Series champions, they were loaded. Rickey Henderson, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Harold Baines, and a pitching staff that had two cy young winners plus Dave Stewart.
Not to mention they swept the Red Sox in the ALCS 4-0.

4for4

@SanctionII said:
Moses Malone was an all time great player. I watched him play in December, 1974 (his first pro season as a member of the Utah Stars in the ABA as a 19 year old who graduated high school earlier in the year).

He did not start the game and was not put into the game by his coach until about 2 minutes left in the first half. He played most of the second half. So for the game he played about 24 of the 48 minutes. His stat line for those 24 minutes was:

35 points

23 rebounds.

Unlike his play with the 76rs (when he was a fully grown man who played center around the basket), when I saw him play as a skinny 19 year old kid, he was a gazelle on the court. He did it all (score, rebound, run the floor, block shots, play defense and on offense he also brought the ball up the floor to initiate the offense, including at times going coast to coast after getting a defensive rebound and scoring at the other end of the floor).

The 1982-1983 Philly team was loaded with talent, but it won the title because of Moses Malone.

erikthredd

Here's one of my fond memories about that 80's 76ers team going up against the Celtics lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZLdo5jsk-U

erikthredd

I'd give the Bird/McHale/Parish trio the nod as best starting frontcourt in history but Dr J/Barkley/Moses might have been just as good had they had more time together. Once Chuck got drafted to Philly they only had 2 seasons together before Moses got traded to Washington but they put up some great stats during that stretch.

84-85:
Moses 24/13/1/1
Dr J 20/5/3/1/1
Barkley 14/8/1/1/1

85-86:
Moses 23/11/1/1
Dr J 18/5/3/1/1
Barkley 20/12/4/2/1

thisistheshow

@erikthredd said:
Here's one of my fond memories about that 80's 76ers team going up against the Celtics lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZLdo5jsk-U

....
As always, great work by Johnny Most on the mic. You usually have to be a Boston guy to love his home team passion. He just called it like he saw it, and he always say it through green-tinted glasses.

erikthredd

@thisistheshow said:

@erikthredd said:
Here's one of my fond memories about that 80's 76ers team going up against the Celtics lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZLdo5jsk-U

....
As always, great work by Johnny Most on the mic. You usually have to be a Boston guy to love his home team passion. He just called it like he saw it, and he always say it through green-tinted glasses.

just watching that fight while reading Johnny's comments in the closed captions on that YT video was hilarious lol.

I remember listening to Danny Ainge saying that that fight started because Bird had been torching Dr J and told him maybe its time that he should retire,a play or 2 later Erving then pushed Bird down and that whole ruckus started.

I just checked the boxscore and Larry shot 17/23 for 42pts in 30mins.

Tabe

@coolstanley said:

@Tabe said:
For baseball, the answer is clearly the 1954 Cleveland Indians, winners of 111 games.

I would probably disagree with this. Cleveland had a great team that year, especially the pitching staff. But I think the answer is the 1990 Athletics. As the defending World Series champions, they were loaded. Rickey Henderson, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Harold Baines, and a pitching staff that had two cy young winners plus Dave Stewart.
Not to mention they swept the Red Sox in the ALCS 4-0.

Mark McGwire hit .235 in 1990. Harold Baines played 32 games. 3/5 of the starting rotation had an ERA of 3.88 or higher. Mike Gallego, who hit .206, played 140 games. They were 3rd in runs and scored and #1 in ERA - Cleveland was #2 and #1.

Cleveland had a team ERA of 2.78 and were nearly a full run better than league average playing in a basically neutral park (Oakland was .73 better than league average while playing in a park with a severe pitching advantage). Their #5 starter was Bob Feller. Yep, they had some holes in the lineup with 3 guys under 100 for OPS+ but Oakland had 4 AND Mike Gallego (and Felix Jose, who played 103 games).

None of which is to say that that Oakland wasn't outstanding. They definitely were. But Cleveland was better.

coolstanley

@Tabe said:

@coolstanley said:

@Tabe said:
For baseball, the answer is clearly the 1954 Cleveland Indians, winners of 111 games.

I would probably disagree with this. Cleveland had a great team that year, especially the pitching staff. But I think the answer is the 1990 Athletics. As the defending World Series champions, they were loaded. Rickey Henderson, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Harold Baines, and a pitching staff that had two cy young winners plus Dave Stewart.
Not to mention they swept the Red Sox in the ALCS 4-0.

Mark McGwire hit .235 in 1990. Harold Baines played 32 games. 3/5 of the starting rotation had an ERA of 3.88 or higher. Mike Gallego, who hit .206, played 140 games. They were 3rd in runs and scored and #1 in ERA - Cleveland was #2 and #1.

Cleveland had a team ERA of 2.78 and were nearly a full run better than league average playing in a basically neutral park (Oakland was .73 better than league average while playing in a park with a severe pitching advantage). Their #5 starter was Bob Feller. Yep, they had some holes in the lineup with 3 guys under 100 for OPS+ but Oakland had 4 AND Mike Gallego (and Felix Jose, who played 103 games).

None of which is to say that that Oakland wasn't outstanding. They definitely were. But Cleveland was better.

Harold Baines played 135 games, and he hit 357 against the Red Sox in the ALCS. He got traded to the A's.
McGwire was 3rd in home runs with 39 and 108 RBI, and led the league in BB. He also won the Gold glove that year.
You also didn't mention that Rickey Henderson won the MVP that year, and Dennis Eckersley finished 6th in the MVP voting with a era of 0.61.
You also didn't mention that Bob Welch won the CY YOUNG that year with a 27-6 record. And Dave Stewart finished 3rd in the Cy Young voting.
Looking back, I don't think the 1954 World Series was that much of an upset. The Indians and Giants were pretty evenly matched. I mean the Giants did have a player who happened to win the MVP that year...Willie Mays

Oakland was better.

Tabe

@coolstanley said:
Harold Baines played 135 games, and he hit 357 against the Red Sox in the ALCS. He got traded to the A's.

Harold played 32 games for Oakland - and hit .266. The 1990 Oakland A's don't get credit for 135 games of Harold Baines when he only played 32 games for them. That would be like saying the 1987 Atlanta Braves had a dominant ace starter because Doyle Alexander went 9-0 for Detroit.

McGwire was 3rd in home runs with 39 and 108 RBI, and led the league in BB. He also won the Gold glove that year.

And still hit .235.

You also didn't mention that Rickey Henderson won the MVP that year, and Dennis Eckersley finished 6th in the MVP voting with a era of 0.61.

Because they weren't among the players you listed. Eck being 6th in MVP voting that year was a joke, FWIW.

You also didn't mention that Bob Welch won the CY YOUNG that year with a 27-6 record. And Dave Stewart finished 3rd in the Cy Young voting.

Also weren't listed by you.

Welch and Stewart were both excellent in 1990.

Looking back, I don't think the 1954 World Series was that much of an upset. The Indians and Giants were pretty evenly matched. I mean the Giants did have a player who happened to win the MVP that year...Willie Mays

Ah, but see, the question wasn't "biggest upset", it was "best team to get swept".

As I said, Oakland was an excellent team - but Cleveland was better.

coolstanley

They had Baines for the post-season and that's all that really matters.

''And still hit .235.''

And still had a great year(ALL STAR) with 39 homers and a 144 OPS+. And a Gold Glove. He had a lifetime 263 average, so not like he was ever a big batting average guy in the first place. He was still one of the biggest forces in the game at the time....per the nickname with Canseco as the 'BASH BROTHERS.'

Disagree Cleveland was better. Oakland had more star power and it's not really close. Rickey Henderson is one of the all-time greats and won the MVP that year. The A's were loaded in 1990.