Worst loss in the playoffs in the past decade: 16 Thunder Warriors & 18 Rockets are on the list this season

Translator's note: The original text was published in Bleacher Report. The data in the text were as of the time of publication (May 17 local time), and the date involved has been converted. The views in the article have nothing to do with the translator and the platform.

Only one team can end up being the NBA playoff champion, but some playoff losses will leave a particularly bitter taste. Chris Paul knows this feeling better than most people.

In the NBA playoffs over the past decade, there have been some heartbreaking collapses, shocking abnormal performances, and some seemingly top teams in the league missed opportunities.

Here, we focus on those worst losses. Key factors considered include the regular season performance of each team and the background of their respective playoffs. For those teams that splurge the series lead, we will give extra "plus points" (in a negative way).

An important note: The 2020 season was not included in this inventory due to the special circumstances of the mid-season suspension and the Orlando "Bubble" Park Game. The Los Angeles Clippers in 2015 have had a great lineup for five years in the 1910s. The Clippers have won more than 50 games many times and often seem to be a strong contender for the championship.

However, the Clippers never broke through the second round of the playoffs. The most painful elimination occurred in 2015, when the Clippers defeated defending champion San Antonio Spurs in a dramatic tiebreak in the first round of the playoffs.

The Clippers took a 3-1 lead in the series against the Houston Rockets and beat their opponents more than 16 points in each win. However, as the James Harden-led Rockets easily won in Game 5, pulled the score in the end of the fourth quarter with Cory Brewer's fierce offensive in Game 6, and not trailing for a second in Game 7, the series slipped away from the Clippers.

The trio of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan never won the playoff series with the Clippers again. One season after the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2016, two teams experienced similar tragic losses.

First is the Oklahoma City Thunder, who lost to the Golden State Warriors with a 73-win regular season record in the Western Conference Finals. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook put the Thunder in a great position to have a chance to stop the Warriors who made history, who once had a 3-1 lead in the series.

However, three stalemate games ended up turning to the Golden State Warriors, including the frustrating sixth game, the Thunder squandered an eight-point lead at home in the fourth quarter.

It seems that this is not bad enough, and the loss of Game 7 ended up being the last game of the Durant/Westbrook era. That summer, Durant left the Thunder and joined the Warriors.

The Golden State Warriors in 2016 at least, before Durant left, the frustrated Thunder had a chance to get some comfort in some kind of gloom, right?

The Warriors entered the NBA Finals as a favorite to win the championship, against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. In the early stages of the series, the Warriors lived up to expectations and easily achieved a 3-1 lead.

Then the groin strike that shocked the world - or something that was seen by the whole world?

Draymond Green was furious in Game 4, hitting LeBron's private parts and was suspended for one game. That alone didn’t make the Warriors lose the series – he made a comeback in Game 6, but the Warriors still lost the next two games.

LeBron's chase block against Andre Iguodala and Kyrie Irving's winning three-pointer in Game 7 became the iconic memory of the 73-9 Warriors missing the championship.

The Toronto Raptors in 2018 The Toronto Raptors experienced a nightmare over LeBron James in the second round of the 2018 playoffs during a year of bad luck in the regular season division’s best team.

The Raptors achieved the best 59-win record in the Eastern Conference that season and were favored by a slight advantage to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, who narrowly defeated the Indiana Pacers through seven hard games in the first round series. The Cavaliers' lineup changes in the mid-season further deepened the outside world's doubts about this team.

But in the first game, the Cavaliers narrowly won 113-112 after overtime. The peak of "LeBrondo[1]" came in the second game. In that game, James scored 43 points, 14 assists and 8 rebounds, leading the Cavaliers to a landslide 128-110, leading to a 2-0 overall score, which greatly reduced the opponent's morale. Since then, James also shot the buzzer-beating win in Game 3.

[Translation Note] LeBronto, or LeBronto, is used to praise LeBron's performance in the face of the Toronto Raptors. The

Cavaliers then completed a sweep, which triggered a series of major changes in Toronto. The Raptors fired head coach Dwayne Casey and traded a series of chips, including Demar DeRozan, to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Kawhi Leonard.

Luckily, for the Raptors, this radical reform became a rare success story when they won the championship in 2019.

The Houston Rockets

Kevin Durant went to the Warriors in the 2016-17 season, and the Warriors immediately won a championship. However, on the Warriors' defense, the Rockets, which achieved the league's best 65 win record of the season, could have prevented this growing dynasty.

But on the contrary, what we remember is that we missed 27 three-pointers in a row.

That shocking shooting drought became the decisive memory of Game 7 of the 2018 Western Conference Finals. The Rockets, who were the team with the most three-point shots in the regular season, felt cold as Antarctica at the worst moments—and even so, they lost only nine points.

The Rockets had led the series with a 3-2 total score, but Chris Paul left the game with a hamstring injury in Game 5. He failed to play in the Rockets' next two games of defeat.

In the end, the Rockets were eliminated by the Warriors in the playoffs for the third time in four seasons. The Rockets encountered the same situation again in the 2018-19 season. There are some games in the Phoenix Suns in 2022 that were defeated. Some games are shame. There are still some games, like the Phoenix Suns encountered in 2022, that are simply indescribable. The Suns won the most 64 games in the league in the regular season before eliminating the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round of the playoffs and leading the Dallas Mavericks 2-0 in the second round. Even with a loss in the next two games, the Suns still hit the Mavericks 110-80 in Game 5.

Since then, everything has been messed up. The Mavericks easily won by 27 points in Game 6 and completely destroyed the Suns in the winner-takes-all decisive battle. By the end of the seventh half, the Mavericks had already established an amazing lead 57-27. The lead expanded to 42 points in the third quarter and reached a peak of 46 points in the fourth quarter. In the end, the Suns suffered humiliation by defeating their opponents 90-123 at home.

2023 Milwaukee Bucks

During the regular season of the 2023-24 season, the Milwaukee Bucks had strong offensive firepower and high-quality defense. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the team to a record of 58 wins and 24 losses in the East.

However, the playoffs turned into a disaster.

Antetokounmpo left the game with a back injury and did not play in the next two games. The Bucks trailed the eighth-seeded Miami Heat 1-2 with Antetokounmpo away, and the team failed to get back from the stumbling block even as he returned to the field in Game 4. The

Bucks lose the game is the problem. During the regular time of each game, the Heat scored more than 118 points. Throughout the series, the Heat beat the Bucks with an astonishing three-point shooting percentage of 45.0%, making the team ranked fourth in the league in regular season defensive efficiency lose all face. The Bucks won the NBA championship in 2021, but this crash — an early exit in the playoffs for the second consecutive year — left head coach Mike Budenholzer losing his job.

2024 Denver Nuggets

As the 2023 NBA championship, the Denver Nuggets embarked on the playoffs with their dream of defending their title. In the first round of the playoffs, the Nuggets also eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers with a gentleman sweep.

What's next? What awaits the Nuggets is just a exhausting defeat after seven games against upstart Minnesota Timberwolves. The Nuggets lost both home games in the first two games of the series, which made three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and his teammates feel a little worried. Although tensions eased after the Nuggets won three straight games, Game 6 rekindled worries. At that time, the Timberwolves completely crushed the Nuggets with a huge gap of 115-70, and the game was no surprise.

And somehow, the situation got worse.

In the early part of the third quarter of Game 7, the Nuggets held a 20-point lead. This should have been an insurmountable advantage, but the Timberwolves caught up and finally won 98-90, shocking home fans and eliminating the Nuggets.

2025 Boston Celtics

Speaking of defending the NBA championship, the Boston Celtics entered the 2025 playoffs with great confidence. The star-studded team has won 60+ wins for the second consecutive year in the regular season.

Celtics showed dominance from the beginning. They easily beat the Orlando Magic in the first round of the playoffs and took a 20-point lead in their first game against the New York Knicks.

And that's the best the Celtics can achieve.

The Celtics not only squandered their chances of the first game, but they also ruined a 20-point lead in the second game. A psychological fatal blow appeared in Game 4. When the outcome of the game was no longer suspense, Jason Tatum suffered a tear of his right Achilles tendon in the last few minutes, and the Knicks had already taken a 3-1 lead in the series.

After struggling to prolong the series in Game 5, the Celtics then lost in Game 6.