Talk:Rivalries of the NBA
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[edit] Major Rivalries to add:
Boston Celtics vs. Philadelphia 76ers: The Sixers were one of the only two teams to prevent the Celtics to win ten consecutive championships and challenged them for the Eastern Conference championship numerous times. When Dr. J arrived in Philadelphia (after the ABA-NBA merger), the Sixers dueled the Celtics again, reaching the finals in 1982 and winning it all in 1983 (with Moses Malone's "fo', fo', fo'" becoming a "fo', fi', fo'").
Philadelpha 76ers vs. Los Angeles Lakers: The Sixers and the Lakers clashed in the Finals three times in the 1980s (1980, 1982, and 1983), with the Lakers winning the first two meetings and the Sixers sweeping in 1983.
New York Knickerbockers vs. Minneapolis Lakers & Los Angeles Lakers: There existed a rivalry between the New York Knickerbockers and the Lakers (during both the Minneapolis and the Los Angeles eras). The Minneapolis Lakers and the New York Knicks met in the 1952 and 1953 Finals with the Lakers winning both confrontations.
By the time the Lakers moved to the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California, the Knicks-Lakers rivalry took on different meanings: East vs. West, Broadway vs. Hollywood. In 1970, 1972, and 1973, the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers met in the Finals. The Knicks won in 1970 (which featured Willis Reed's inspirational joining with his Knick teammates despite injury) and 1973, while the Lakers won in 1972 (the same year they posted a then-record in regular season wins-losses: 69-13).
DaDoc540 21:26, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Rockets vs Jazz
This is another good rivalry...why won't someomne add it?
Here's some research I done (these come from the Utah Jazz website http://www.nba.com/jazz/history/00400490.html):
1985 NBA Playoffs, First Round: In only its second year in the postseason in franchise history (tied for 4th in the Midwest with San Antonio), Utah would defeat Houston in five games.
1994 NBA Playoffs, Western Conference Finals: The Jazz advance to the Western Conference Finals for the second time in three years but get ousted in five games by Hakeem Olajuwon and eventual NBA champion Houston Rockets.
1995 NBA Playoffs, First Round: Utah finishes second place in the Midwest Division to the San Antonio Spurs, meaning the Jazz are placed in the 3rd seed against 6th seed Houston. The defending champions (and eventual back-to-back champions) Houston Rockets, with Hakeem and Clyde Drexler defeat Utah in five games.
1997 NBA Playoffs, Western Conference Finals: For the first time in franchise history, Utah finishes as the top Western Conference team and storm past both the Clippers and Lakers before meeting Houston. The Jazz clinch the series in Game 6 thanks to the following play (directly quoted):
The Jazz came up with their most heroic effort at the Summit in Houston. In Game 6 of the Conference Finals against the Rockets, the Jazz clawed back from a 12-point fourth quarter deficit to tie the game in the final minute. With time for one final offensive play, Bryon Russell made the inbounds pass, Karl Malone set the pick and John Stockton buried the winning shot as time expired, sending Stockton, his teammates and the entire state of Utah into a frenzy-and sending the Jazz into the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.
The pick set by Malone isolated the Rockets' Matt Maloney from Stockton, forcing Malone's man, Charles Barkley, to try to guard Stockton. Sir Charles manages to get a hand in Stockton's face, but Stockton buries the shot and the Rockets.
The Jazz would eventually bow out to the Chicago Bulls.
1998 NBA Playoffs, First Round: The Jazz finish tied with the best record with Chicago, having swept the regular season series against the Bulls, guaranteing home court advantage throughout the entire playoffs. However, the eighth seeded Houston Rockets nearly give the Jazz a scare when the Rockets, again led by Sir Charles, Hakeem, and Clyde, win the first game in the Delta Center (in Salt Lake City). After the Jazz win Game 2, the Rockets win a grinding Game 3. The Rockets look poised to win the fourth game, but Charles Barkley injures his shooting arm in the game and does not return for the rest of that game and for Game 5. The Jazz win the last two games of the series over the shorthanded Rockets, ending the retiring Clyde Drexler's career. DaDoc540 05:25, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
It's done! I hope you guys like it.
DaDoc540 08:53, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Detroit Pistons vs. Los Angeles Lakers: 2004 Finals
Observe the language in the final paragraph, especially in the final two sentences.
...the Pistons easily swept the next three in Detroit; bringing another official and long needed end to another Lakers dynasty.
I am no Laker or Kobe Bryant fan (he just scored 81 four days from the day I type this)—in fact, I am fond of the Pistons these days. However, I think this sounds like a biased write-up from either a Laker hater, a very pro-Piston fan, or a combination of the two. DaDoc540 04:15, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Line removed.
"It didn't help the Lakers' cause that Kobe Bryant, who shot 38 percent for the series, and Shaquille O'Neal were feuding during the series of who was the most valuable player to the Laker team. After splitting the first two games in LA, when the Pistons blew an eight point lead late in the fourth quarter of game 2, which led to Lakers' only win in this series, the Pistons easily won the next three games in Detroit."
[edit] More Rivalries
Being the only two teams to remain in their original cities, the Boston Celtics and New York Knickerbockers often consider each other rivals. Whichever team was in Philadelphia (Warriors or 76ers) also engaged in such rivalries.
In the 1990s, there were various Western Conference rivalries among title contenders: the Houston Rockets, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs, Seattle Supersonics, and Utah Jazz.
More recently, anytime two Texas teams faced each other (particularly the Mavs-Spurs playoff matchups of 2001 and 2003 and the Mavs-Rockets matchup in 2005), the matchup was known as the Texas Shootout.
I am surprised no one has mentioned Lakers-Blazers yet. If Lakers-Kings is on here, then Lakers-Blazers counts as well. DaDoc540 23:20, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Update: Even more promenent is the Lakers-Spurs rivalry. Both teams clashed five times in the playoffs from 1999 to 2004. During the first four matchups; the winner eventually became the NBA champion (1999 Spurs, 2001 Lakers, 2002 Lakers, 2003 Spurs).DaDoc540 05:42, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
Update: The Atlanta Hawks with Dominique Wilkins and Boston Celtics with Larry Bird met three times in the NBA postseason: 1982 in a best-of-three-games first round (Boston won 2-1), 1986 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals (Boston won 4-1), and 1988 in a memorable shootout between Wilkins and Bird during the Eastern Conference Semifinals (Boston won 4-3). DaDoc540 06:55, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
I wonder if the Miami Heat-Detroit Pistons rivalry has had enough history yet to be included. Just a thought.
[edit] Pacers/Pistons
Someone's gotta monitor this section as certain pro-Pacers and pro-Pistons fans are trying to spin the facts in a way that overly villifies either Ron Artest or the Pistons' fans.
DaDoc540 23:53, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Mavs/Spurs
The Mavs and Spurs have a pretty spicy rivalry now, especialy after their most recent playoff series against each other.
[edit] Split Artcile
Does anyone else think this aricle should be broken up into seperate articles for every rivalry or team? As it is now, I think it's hard to read and strangely organized. I think each team should have an article listing their rivalries with other teams all in one article. It could also be put on the team's main article or atlaest linked to. Bryan the Magnificent 07:51, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
Just to clerify exactly what I mean, each team would have a section entitled Rivalries on their main page. It would mainly be from that team's perspective. Another article written from another team's perspective about the same rivalry would be on that team's page. So the Lakers would have an article on the Laker/Celtic rivalry explaining things that happened to the Lakers (for the most part). The Celtics would have a section about the same rivalry but it would tell about the Celtic players and Celtic related things more than the Lakers article would.
OR
Have a new page created called something like "Rivalries of (Team)" or "(Team) rivalries)" and put a link to the new article on the team's main entry.
Another thing we could do is have a Rivalry section in the Division and Conference articles. It would list only the rivalries among teams in that division or conference.
Bryan the Magnificent 21:45, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
