NBA Finals History: 9 occasions when teams swept the NBA Finals
Also read: 10 Best NBA Finals series of All Time
No team would like getting swept in the NBA Finals. Coming to the finals after working so hard over the course of the long season, getting swept in the playoffs is considered a bad thing on a player's resume. While it is very rare that teams get swept in the Finals, there have been instances in the NBA when the teams got swept in the Finals.
Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers played his heart out to carry the team to the Finals in 2001. The 76ers team did not have any superstars besides AI but Allen Iverson still found a way to avoid the sweep as he scored 48 points in the game 1 of the Finals against Shaq, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers by playing the game of his life and securing the win.
They beat one of the greatest teams we have ever seen in the history of the NBA to avoid the sweep. That Lakers team won three titles in a row, they 3-peated and they were undefeated in the playoffs that year. Yet, he did not want to get swept and found a way to secure a win.
In the NBA Finals history, some really good teams have been swept in the past by the so-called underdogs. Here are the 9 teams that got swept in the NBA Finals.
#1 1958-59 Boston Celtics def. Minneapolis Lakers
The Eastern Division Champions Boston Celtics who finished first in the division (52-20) took on the Western Division Champions Minneapolis Lakers in the NBA Finals, 1959. It was the first title of what would be 8-straight titles.
It was also the first time that a team swept the opponent in the finals. With Bob Cousy as their point guard, the Celtics dominated the Lakers and crushed them to win the series 4-0. The Celtics team had three players from the team in the All-NBA First Team that year in the form of Bob Cousy, Bill Russell and Bill Sharman.
This win justified the words of the coach Red Auerbach, who called this team, the greatest team ever assembled, just a few months before the NBA Finals.