The 1981 Rockets made it to the NBA Finals at 40-42. That's the short answer to your question.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Izzo
The irony is they beat a 40-42 Kings team in the conference finals to get there. To be fair, they did knock off defending champ LA in the first round and Gervin's Spurs prior to that, so they earned it. The Kings on their end beat Portland and Phoenix before they ran into Houston.
Another example would be the 39-43 1987 Sonics that caught fire and small-balled their way past Dallas and Houston to the conference finals where the Lakers pummeled them.
The Pistons actually pulled this off themselves. They went 36-46 in 1976 but Bob Lanier carried them past a sad post-Kareem Bucks squad that managed to win the division despite winning just 38 games.
Prior to the 70's this happened all the time, but given the NBA was just 8-10 teams deep (with the exception of the screwy 17-team 1950 merger season) back then and 6-8 of them made the playoffs every year, you often had sub- .500 teams going against each other in the first round. For example:
The Pistons were the #2 seed in the west at 30-45 in 1960, and got swept by a 25-50 Lakers team in the first round. That Lakers team actually came within one game of making the finals before the Hawks put them away.
In 1957, every single team in the west finished below .500. The 38-44 Hawks were the #1 seed and came within 1 game of winning the whole thing against Russell's Celtics.
