How difficult is it to sweep the championship in the finals? Only 4 teams have done it in the past 30 years, and James is on the list awkwardly

Contest is the ultimate goal of the league's powerful players, but there is only one team that can stand on the podium every year. As the last journey of a season, the finals often attract the attention of fans from all walks of life. The strength is close to the exciting battle of the tiebreaker. Isn't one side's performance in a crushing level exciting in another sense? But this situation is rare. It has only happened 4 times in the past 30 years. Let’s review these four final sweeps.

1994-95 season

Finals: Rockets 4-0 Magic

1994-95 season, the Magic, who had two super newcomers, O'Neal and "Penny" Hardaway, played the offensive efficiency of the league, and averaged the league first. They took the top spot in the East with a record of 57 wins and 25 skins, and advanced to the playoffs as the number one in the East. During their finals, they eliminated the Bulls led by Jordan in the second round, becoming the last team to defeat Jordan and the Bulls in the playoffs.

Looking at the East, let's look at the West. The Rockets who reached the finals in the West were only sixth in the division of the season. With the help of Olajuwon and Drexler, they did not have a home advantage all the way, and they were not easy to advance in each round. The Jazz teams eliminated in the first round were Stockton and Carl Malone. The Rockets were backfired after falling behind 1-2 in the total score. In the second round, they faced the Suns led by Barkley. The Rockets were even beaten to the total score 0-2 behind, but they once again staged a reversal.

In the Western Conference Finals, the Rockets lost the advantage after two consecutive games. Fortunately, Olajuwon scored 42 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 blocks in the "Battle of Kings Mountain", and led the team to win 21 points, giving the team confidence to play back, and was able to use 6 games to end the series.

The Rockets, who overcame many difficulties and entered the finals, played 12 points in the face of the Magic, showing their resilience to the fullest. G1 reversed and won the victory when he was 11 points behind in the first quarter. After that, the Rockets defeated the Magic in one go and swept the championship with a total score of 4-0. Olajuwon averaged 32.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks per game, winning the FMVP.

2001-02 season

Finals: The Lakers 4-0 Nets

Kidd brought the team from his original weak team to the finals in the first season. Such a resume is commendable. With the help of Kidd, the Nets became the top defensive team in the league in 2001-02 season, with the first defensive efficiency in the league. Unfortunately, their overall talent can be said to be far from the Lakers. In this case, "winning the championship with defense" is no longer applicable.

In the 2002 Finals, O'Neal and Kobe scored 63.1 points together, and both of their shooting percentages exceeded 50%. The Nets' defense is often like "paper-made" in the game. The G2 Lakers also won a 23-point victory in the series. The Nets lost steadily and had to watch the Lakers complete the championship. The three consecutive championship dynasty was officially completed. O'Neal won the FMVP for the third consecutive year.

Nowadays, many fans recalled the 2002 playoffs and said that they could basically predict who would win the championship after the Western Conference Finals. From the scene, the finals of that season can be said to be far less exciting than the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers led by the "OK combination" fought with the "Gorgeous Kings" until the tiebreak, which was a series of games that many fans talked about for many years in the future.

2006-07 season

Finals: After the Spurs 4-0 Cavaliers

"03 Platinum Generation" entered the league, potential newcomers were ready to move, staring at the O'Brien Cup. In the 2005-06 season, Wade led the team to win the championship and won the FMVP, with unlimited glory. In the 2006-07 season, James followed Wade, attacked the championship, passed the hurdles, and reached the finals for the first time with the Cavaliers' history.

In the 2006 finals, Wade helped the Heat defeat the Mavericks led by Nowitzki to win the championship. In the 2007 finals, James, who was also a member of the "2003 Platinum Generation" with Wade, also welcomed an opponent with the top power forward as the core. He and the Cavaliers were going to meet the Spurs led by Duncan in the finals. In the regular season, the Cavaliers won the final victory in two matches with the Spurs, which inspired the Cavaliers' fighting spirit, but they were soon broken.

In the finals, the Cavaliers were almost controlled by the Spurs everywhere. Duncan, who had three championship experiences, was too familiar with the atmosphere of the finals. G1 in the series, the Spurs' excellent defensive rotation and targeted defensive arrangements against James frozen his feel, cutting off the connection between James and his teammates, making it difficult for them to echo each other. James was defended to only 4 of 16 shots in the game, and the most 6 turnovers of the two teams were made by the two teams.

The Spurs felt more and more clearly in the series that it was difficult for the Cavaliers to create threats to them on the offensive end, so they double-teamed James more unscrupulously. Mike Brown, the then Cavaliers coach, drew tactics one by one, anxiously trying to help the team break the deadlock, but they returned again and again. As the former Spurs assistant coach, Mike Brown's tactics were all too familiar with the Spurs players. Robert Horry, a member of the Spurs championship in 2007, pointed this out in a podcast program later.

Cavaliers failed to form too effective resistance after all, and lost four games in a row. The Spurs swept them to win the championship. After that, the two No. 1 picks Duncan and James hugged and greeted in the player channel. Duncan told James: "The future is yours.". ”

2017-18 season

Finals: Warriors 4-0 Cavaliers

In 2017, Irving left the team, and the strength of the Cavaliers' back line declined seriously. Thomas Jr. introduced did not perform well. During the regular season, the Cavaliers slowly decided on the rotation of the lineup. James averaged 27.5 points, 8.6 rebounds, 9.1 assists per game, bringing the Cavaliers to fourth place in the Eastern Conference, after the season The Cavaliers also experienced many ups and downs during the match. They were forced to tiebreak by the Pacers in the first round. James scored 40+ three times, and the "Battle of Kings Mountain" staged a three-point winning drama. With all his strength, the Cavaliers finally passed the first round.

Eliminated the Raptors in the second round and entered the Eastern Conference Final. The Cavaliers came up and lost two games to the young "Double Tanhua" Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Although they won two consecutive games to equalize the total score of the series, they lost "Tianwangs Mountain" "The Battle, James scored a total of 81 points and 26 rebounds in the last two games, and held the Cavaliers into the Finals with his rampage.

In the 2018 playoffs, the Warriors in the Western Conference relied on the core team of Kuzhu Tang and Durant to reach the Finals for the second consecutive season. They were determined to defend the title, and the series officially kicked off. James showed his high fighting spirit in G1, scoring 51 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, leading the team to fight the Warriors until the last moment.

In the last 4.7 seconds of the game, the Cavaliers fell one point behind. JR Smith fought the rebound and did not directly attack the basket, but led the ball out of the three-point line, and then passed the ball to Hill. Hill made a hasty move and shot three-nos. This "weird" mistake basically extinguished the Cavaliers' fighting spirit. The Warriors played a smooth offensive basketball and completed a sweep of the Cavaliers. They defeated the Cavaliers in the finals for the third time in four years to win the championship.