1994 Playoffs - Nuggs vs Sonics

[To4]

At work at the moment and it just crossed my mind how the No.1 seeded Sonics lose to the 8th seeded Nuggets?


Only notable players I can recall are:

Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp as of course all stars. with Kendall Gill.

then Nuggets have Dikembe mutombo, laphonso ellis and Robert Pack? IIRC..


I know its just 5 games. Hell. Nuggets even took Utah Jazz to 7 games in the 2nd round.


Nothing to do at the moment apologies..

[Young X]

Then the very next season they lose again in the 1st round to the 48 win Lakers after winning 57 games. That's 2 huge 1st round upsets back to back.

Sonics were statistically (Point differential/SRS) the #1 team in the league both years yet couldn't get past the 1st round. Good thing they kept it together and broke through in '96.

Rockets were lucky the Sonics underachieved so bad. Sonics always had their number and beat them in '93 and '96.

[warriorfan]

Robert Pack GOAT 6'2'' in traffic dunker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl8fkDbJJvQ

[Naero]

It's also noteworthy that Denver came down on the brink of a sweep to win the Sonics-Nuggets series (they were down 0-2 in the 5-game-series era, before 7-game series were instituted for first-round match-ups), and they became the first team in NBA history to force a Game 7 after trailing 0-3, against the Jazz.

Game 3 to Game 6 all went down to the wire in the Nuggets-Jazz series, but it's even more fascinating to envision how the Nuggets would've pulled off another upset if one more game tilted in their favor in their two-point overtime loss in Game 3; that would've clinched another upset.

That's the strongest illustration of series-wide resilience to me, and I'm sure teams in similar holes may feel less deflated knowing it's been historically surmounted before.

[Young X]

I wonder how many of these series' outcomes would've changed had they been extended to best of 7's.

[Lakers Legend#32]

Fokc

[Rake2204]

Then the very next season they lose again in the 1st round to the 48 win Lakers after winning 57 games. That's 2 huge 1st round upsets back to back.

Sonics were statistically (Point differential/SRS) the #1 team in the league both years yet couldn't get past the 1st round. Good thing they kept it together and broke through in '96.

Rockets were lucky the Sonics underachieved so bad. Sonics always had their number and beat them in '93 and '96.

That's a good point about the '95 squad. I feel as though it'd be much more likely these days that George Karl would have been fired after '95, if not after '94, and the team reshuffled, obviously to the detriment of the franchise.

Then again, that's just me pushing my agenda. I'm not a fan of getting rid of everyone when a playoff failure pops up, and that Sonics team illustrates why. Sometimes crazy things just happen and a good team needs a few chances at it. Not only did they break through in '96, but they almost gave one of the best teams of all-time a run for their money in the finals.

[Young X]

That's a good point about the '95 squad. I feel as though it'd be much more likely these days that George Karl would have been fired after '95, if not after '94, and the team reshuffled, obviously to the detriment of the franchise.

Then again, that's just me pushing my agenda. I'm not a fan of getting rid of everyone when a playoff failure pops up, and that Sonics team illustrates why. Sometimes crazy things just happen and a good team needs a few chances at it. Not only did they break through in '96, but they almost gave one of the best teams of all-time a run for their money in the finals.

Yeah, there's no way Karl would've remained their coach if that happened today. Hell, they fired him in 2013 after winning 57 games because they lost to the Warriors in the 1st round.

And I'm not a fan of teams blowing it up after playoff disappointments either. Just as you said, sometimes crazy shit just happens, injuries, matchup problems, etc. They clearly had a great core and just needed things to fall their way. They kept things together, made a few improvements and eventually challenged arguably the GOAT team in the finals.

That's why I didn't understand why people were saying the Clippers should blow it up after they lost. Their core is clearly one of the best in the league...make a few improvements and maybe you can so something special.

[hateraid]

It was my boy who got them over the hump

[TheBigVeto]

Payton was soft