The NBA Playoffs have now reached the Conference Finals stage. The Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, New York Knicks, and Cleveland Cavaliers will all be fighting to be named the NBA Champion.
However, two of these teams won’t even make the NBA Finals and may never reach this stage again as currently assembled. We go through the top three teams that never got over the conference final hump.
2012-2016 Oklahoma City Thunder
After losing the 2012 finals to the Miami Heat, James Harden was traded to the Houston Rockets. Leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder with a talented young trio of Kevin Durant, Russel Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka. This team was good enough to reach an NBA Finals, but injury, matchup luck, and the lack of a third creator would cost the Thunder another chance on basketball’s biggest stage.
The 2013, 2014, and 2015 seasons were all ruined by injuries to Westbrook, Ibaka, and Durant, respectively. Then in 2016, with new coach Billy Donovan and all key players at full power, they collapsed up 3-1 to the 73-win Warriors and lost the Conference Finals in 7 games.
The 2016 version of the team was the most complete of the KD/Russ era without Harden. Steven Adams had emerged as a top center, Andre Robertson was one of the best defenders in the league, and Enes Kanter provided some steady offence off the bench. They beat the 67-15 Spurs in six games in the second round and surged to a 3-1 lead against the Warriors.
The lead and this variation of the team collapsed for many reasons. The main one is the lack of offensive creativity behind Westbrook and Durant. Robertson was an excellent defender, but could not space the floor. Ibaka’s offence had flattened out after his injuries, and Kanter was difficult to keep on the floor due to his defensive issues. This team wasn’t a failure because it wasn’t good enough; it failed because every time the door opened, an injury or something insane slammed it right back in their faces.
2017-2019 Houston Rockets
The drama of Chris Paul’s time with the Houston Rockets made two years seem like five. However, it was two losses in the conference finals to the Golden State Warriors that led James Harden to ask for a change at point guard for the 2019/20 season.
In 2018, the Rockets were 3-2 up over the Warriors after winning 65 games. They were built to deal with the Golden State super team. They could switch, slow the game down, hunt Stephen Curry, and stop the Warriors from playing their brand of basketball. Then, after a brilliant game 5, Paul injured his hamstring and missed games 6 and 7. The Rockets led game 7 at halftime but missed 27 straight threes and lost the series.
The Rockets then lost two of their best perimeter defenders in the summer of 2018. Trevor Ariza joined the Suns, and Luc Mbah a Moute went to the LA Clippers. Replacing them with Carmelo Anthony (traded before the NBA Playoffs) didn’t work, and Houston had a defensive hole they never filled. In 2019, Harden continued his historic scoring form, but the team wasn’t the same, and they ended up losing to a Durant-less Warriors in six games.
The Harden-Paul Rockets didn’t fail because the idea was wrong; they failed because the idea has almost no margin for error. First, Chris Paul’s hamstring cost them, and then they lost the wing defenders that made their plan to beat the Warriors very nearly work.
2001-2004 Sacramento Kings
The 2001/02 Sacramento Kings played beautiful team basketball before it became mainstream. Led by Chris Webber and Peja Stojakovic, the Kings won 61 games and were 3-2 up on the Shaq/Kobe Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. The Kings franchise has still never truly recovered from the last two games of this series.
Game 6 is one of the most controversial games in NBA history. The Lakers shot 27 free throws in the fourth quarter alone, and many other calls wrongly went LA’s way. Disgraced former referee Tim Donaghy alleged that the series was fixed to force a game 7. Whether viewed as corruption, incompetence, or superstar style officiating, the result was the same. Sacramento’s best title chance was dragged into a Game 7.
Game 7 went to overtime, but the Kings didn’t shoot well enough and missed their chance to win. In 2003, they won just two fewer games; however, a knee injury to Webber in the second round cost them a chance to contend. Their star returned late in the 2004 season and wasn’t the same beast.
In 2004, the Kings made one final effort to reach the Finals. Stojakovic had become the key player and led the team through the regular season. In the NBA Playoffs, Sacramento beat the Mavericks in five games before running into the Kevin Garnett-led Timberwolves. The series went 7 games, but KG’s breakthrough outlasted Sacramento’s last breath. Key players would leave in the offseason, and the Kings would start a 16-year NBA Playoff drought 3 seasons later.
