Whether it is to go back to the last century, or to review the teams of recent years, it is not difficult to find that the league championship is often attributed to the team with the better record.
After all, the regular season is a long march that tests the team's run-in and the player's staying power for more than half a year, and the star must not only have excellent competitive strength, but also have strict requirements for the temperament attributes and team configuration. Looking back at the past decade, the championship teams of the season are all in the top three of the division in the regular season.
From 1986 to last season, the NBA has produced a total of 36 championships, of which 17 championships are the first team in the league in the regular season, 8 teams that rank second in the league, 6 teams that rank third in the league, 2 teams that rank fourth in the league, 2 teams that rank seventh in the league, and 1 team that ranks 10th in the league.
So, which team is the worst regular season champion in history that ultimately goes against the current?
1994-95 Rockets – Never underestimate a championship heart
TomJanovic's words are still lingering and endless, and there are countless references to both players and fan groups. This quote comes from Rockets coach TomJanovic in the 1994-95 season. In this season in which Olajuwon missed 10 games, Horry and Maxwell missed more than 20 games each, without any playoff home advantage. They took the Oblaim Cup.
Needless to say, TomJanovic has a life history that most coaches don't have — as a 1970 probing show, he was named to the NBA All-Star Team five times and averaged 20 points per game in four seasons. Its No. 45 jersey is still hanging above the Toyota Center Arena. If it weren't for the deviation of 1/3 of the facial muscles from the bones and the outflow of brain plasma caused by the accidental injury, he would have achieved better.
As a coach, he won two consecutive championships in the 1990s, which made him famous. In the twenty-first century, in the continuous struggle with bladder cancer, Yao Ming, who coached the rookie season, gave him full trust, so that Yao Ming improved step by step. Finally, due to physical reasons, he said goodbye to the field. Although he has only coached 41 regular season games, he is undoubtedly Yao Ming's enlightenment mentor on this stage.
Turn the hand of time further ahead, back to the end of the 1993-94 season, Olajuwon's dream season - MVP + DPOY + FMVP harvest. In such a situation, it is difficult for the fan community not to be full of expectations for such a superstar and his team. However, in their defending season, personnel changes and injuries did not play the desired performance, and people's hopes for the team to defend the title are gradually fading.
The Rockets only finished 29-17 in the middle of the schedule — not the record that a team aiming to win should be. After the team lost to the league's bottom-to-last Los Angeles Clippers, the team vowed to make a change, and Alexander began to reform himself — they exchanged Odysthorp from the Trail Blazers for Drexler (Olajuwon had been an NCAA teammate and second-placed in the league).
In 35 regular season games in his first season after trading to the Rockets, Drexler averaged 21.4 points and 7.0 rebounds per game and shot 50.6 percent from the field — modest.
It is worth mentioning that at that time, the deal was criticized as a rising second hero to win the championship in exchange for a 31-year-old old star with a peak tail, plus the schedule was more than half over, and the player compatibility and tacit understanding were unknown. In the remaining 36 games, the Rockets' 18-18 record is far less than Drexler's record before he joined, with a 47-35 57.3% win rate that hastily ended the regular season. Such a lineup was paired with a playoff schedule without any home advantage, and against the extremely mature Jazz, the regular season was once 60 wins...
Is it twilight or dawn ahead? Give it a try and you'll find out!
The Jazz second boss guaranteed the basic game of this team - the lower limit and even the upper limit were all guaranteed.
Outside Bayern Russell is waiting for an opportunity, and all-Star-level pitchers - Jeff Hornasek has had a season of average 20 points per game, in addition to the peak of several seasons basically between 16-19 points, any era of fragrant goalscorers).
I have to say that there is a qualitative difference between superstars and all-stars. In Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against the Utah Jazz, Drexler scored 41 points, and he and Olajuwon became the third pair in NBA history to score 40 points simultaneously in a single game in the playoffs, and the two combined to score 81 points, and the Rockets beat the Jazz 123-106 to make the score 2-2.
In the last five minutes of G5, the Rockets were still behind, drexler 5 three-pointers, cut 31 points and 10 board data to eliminate the opponent.
The next opponent – Buckley the Flying Pig's Sun
In fact, as early as last season, the two fought back and forth in seven major battles, and after the second overtime loss, the Rockets even fell into a passive situation of 0-2. Unexpectedly, the Rockets reversed a wave of three consecutive wins, and although the Suns won the sixth game, the Rockets still defeated the Suns in the seventh game and successfully advanced to the Western Conference Finals.
A dramatic scene - the Rockets meet the Sun again in the second round, a revenge drama or a continuation of luck? After losing two consecutive games in the first two away games, although returning home to win a set, he lost again in the fourth game to make it 1-3. Under the leadership of the double stars, he won three consecutive battles and won the same opponent for two consecutive years. With less than 7 seconds left in the game, Mario Ellie received a wonderful pass from Horry and completed a cloud-piercing arrow beyond the three-point line that tiptoed around the heel to complete the kill. Then he ran the stadium with excitement, and a "kiss of death" is still enjoyed by fans.
Seemingly surviving the toughest of times, the Western Conference Finals were the Spurs led by the MVP Admiral that season – one of the birthplaces of the world's famous paintings and the clips of Dream Footsteps. He averaged 26.3 points in six games and averaged 22.1 points against Robinson, and Robinson had no resistance in the face of big dreams. The morale-filled Rockets finally reached the Finals — a super duo that will face Penny and Sharks.
In the 1994-95 season, O'Neal averaged 29.3 points per game, accumulated 2315 points, won his first scoring champion and eliminated the Bulls who had just returned from Jordan in the Eastern Conference Finals, while his partner Hardaway Hardaway averaged 28.3 points, 6 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals in the playoffs. The most classic is G1, the magic finally led by three points in regular time, and as a result, Nick Anderson missed four consecutive free throws, and was brought into overtime by the Rockets Kenny Smith's three-point shot, and the last second of overtime was a big dream to make a basket.
The contest between Olajuwon and O'Neill is comparable to the typical representative of the giant era in the last century, although the styles are very different and the technical characteristics are very different, but the influence and participation of the giants on the game is better than now, from attack to defense to the axis, almost every round will participate in the team's attack, the same as the best of the center, Olajuwon averaged 32.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks per game, while O'Neal was actually not bad, averaging 28 points, 12.5 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game. The superstar contest needle tip against Mai Mang, no one let go.
In the case of the double star pair, the differences between the role players gradually appeared - the Rockets' Ailey "Kiss of Death" big heart blessing, Robert Holly G3's kill, Casal G2's 31 points. Rockets role players have a more mature mentality; in contrast, the Magic's Nick Anderson's four-point miss, Dennis Scott's three-point shooting just over 20%, and Brian Shaw's play are all out of standard. In the end, success is also young, and defeat is also young.
So, then Rockets coach TomJanovic said a classic sentence after the game - we were not favored all the way, and for those who did not believe us, I had only one thing to say: Don't underestimate the heart of a championship