What teams had the easiest road to the championship?

[sportjames23]

I see some here are saying that last year's Warriors team had an easy route to the championship due to injuries (Grizzlies and Cavs) and choke jobs (Clippers). If you think that's the reason for the Warriors winning it all, do you think any other teams in NBA history had easy roads to the rings?


In before dubeta/his alts say the 90s Bulls

[dubeta]

Whoever the best team in the west is

[FreezingTsmoove]

Warriors and its not even close

I'm not discrediting the Warriors though. They had to win 67 games in a tough West to get to their laughably easy cakewalk.

I'm a huge LebRon fan but it was hilarious watching him try to ISO his way to a championship :lol

[Spurs m8]

Easily Warriors

[Spurs m8]

Also LeBron obvs, bitch is way too ***** to ever play in the West

[Hamtaro CP3KDKG]

87 Lakers, 15 Warriors, 13 Heat, 03 and 07 Spurs etc lots of choices to pick from

[poido123]

The 2012-2013 Heat team who played a sub 50% reg season win team led by Monta ellis first round then rolled over a Rose less Bulls team to make the Eastern Conference Finals where they met their first competition.

[Legends66NBA7]

I've read these other teams got it "easy" too...

87 Lakers, 89 Pistons, 03 and/or 07 Spurs. 91 Bulls and 99 Spurs might get brought up too.

During the ABA-NBA pre merger, since not all the talent was in the same league.

[bobopenguin]

easily any top team in east..

[LakersForlife]

2015 warriors. everyteam they faced are shit. dumpster teams vs tier1 warrior team. easy chip. everybody should git gud

[Young X]

'89 Pistons faced...

42 win Celtics without Bird
49 win Bucks without one of their top players (Cummings)
47 win Bulls (Basically Jordan + scrubs)
57 win Lakers without Scott and with Magic missing 2 out of the 4 games.

Their toughest opponent was the Bulls in the ECF who were the definition of a one man team (think '09 Heat, '06 Lakers). Bulls actually managed to win 2 games aganist them but Pippen got elbowed in the head at the start of game 6 and left the game.

^ That's even worse than the Warriors.

[97 bulls]

1986 Celtics faced the

30 win Bulls with Jordan comming back from an ankle injury
50 win Hawks
59 win Bucks team that had their best player hurt
51 win Rockets who had no business being in the Finals.

[97 bulls]

I've read these other teams got it "easy" too...

87 Lakers, 89 Pistons, 03 and/or 07 Spurs. 91 Bulls and 99 Spurs might get brought up too.

During the ABA-NBA pre merger, since not all the talent was in the same league.
The 1991 Bulls beat two teams that had won the previous 4 championships.

[WayOfWade]

I've read these other teams got it "easy" too...

87 Lakers, 89 Pistons, 03 and/or 07 Spurs. 91 Bulls and 99 Spurs might get brought up too.

During the ABA-NBA pre merger, since not all the talent was in the same league.
The 07' Spurs definetly lucked out in both the finals and the conference finals. Their only somewhat tough series was against the Suns. They went up against Melo in the first round, and going up against him in the playoffs is almost a guaranteed victory. They then had their only challenge against the Suns, followed that up by breezing through the inexperienced Jazz. After that they cakewalked on by LeBron and Cavs who were probably the worst team to come out of the eastern conference ever (which goes to show how great a job LeBron did getting them there).
It's either the 15' Warriors or the 07' Spurs, although both were fantastic teams.

[1987_Lakers]

People saying the 2015 Warriors obviously don't know much about NBA History.

1987 Lakers & the 1989 Pistons are the 2 teams that pop into my head.

[Mr. Jabbar]

Every team Lebron has colluded to after 2010.

/thread.

:(

[WayOfWade]

Every team Lebron has colluded to after 2010.

/thread.

:(
How can you go wrong with THAT logic? :confusedshrug:

[1987_Lakers]

1986 Celtics faced the

30 win Bulls with Jordan comming back from an ankle injury
50 win Hawks
59 win Bucks team that had their best player hurt
51 win Rockets who had no business being in the Finals.

I'm not saying that's a hard championship run, but the easiest? Come on, you can do better bud, another classic example of you showing your bias against those Celtics teams.

Playing Chicago with a healthy MJ in the first round actually isn't all that easy. Chicago was much better than their record stated due to MJ being out pretty much the whole regular season.

Hawks won 50 games and had Dominique Wilkins who finished 2nd in the Mvp voting, against not a bad opponent.

Bucks were a solid team, Moncrief was injured, but he at least played. Celtics were winning by 20-30 points in some games in that series, a healthy Moncrief wasn't going to change that.

Houston had one of the greatest frontlines in NBA History with Hakeem & Sampson and they beat the Showtime Lakers in 5 games, again...not a bad opponent.

You can do better 97 bulls

[Young X]

I disagree with people saying the '13 Heat. The Spurs series alone eliminates them from this discussion. Plus the Pacers although not that great weren't a weak team by any means.

And the thing with the Warriors for me at least is they didn't dominate the depleted teams they faced like they were supposed to. You can't be in danger of going down 1-3 against that injured Grizzlies team or the Cavs minus 2 all stars.

Teams like the '87 Lakers and '07 Spurs also faced similarly weak competition but the difference is they did what they were supposed to do against those teams so I can't criticize them for it.

[Gileraracer]

All LeBrons team, I'm his fan, but he decided to collude in the weak east to be able to reach the finals.

[97 bulls]

I'm not saying that's a hard championship run, but the easiest? Come on, you can do better bud, another classic example of you showing your bias against those Celtics teams.
It has nothing to do with bias. Their road to their championship was easy. The question wws which TEAMS had the easiest road.


Playing Chicago with a healthy MJ in the first round actually isn't all that easy. Chicago was much better than their record stated due to MJ being out pretty much the whole regular season.
What about chemistry????? They only played 18 games together that season prior to the playoffs.


Hawks won 50 games and had Dominique Wilkins who finished 2nd in the Mvp voting, against not a bad opponent.
The Hawks were solid


Bucks were a solid team, Moncrief was injured, but he at least played. Celtics were winning by 20-30 points in some games in that series, a healthy Moncrief wasn't going to change that.
And you call me biased???? What the difference between Moncriefs situation and Mchales in 87? He played too. And yet you always try to bring up his injury as an excuse.


Houston had one of the greatest frontlines in NBA History with Hakeem & Sampson and they beat the Showtime Lakers in 5 games, again...not a bad opponent.
They were solid. But Ralph Sampson was soft. Olajuwan was green and inexperienced.
You can do better 97 bulls[/QUOTE]

[bdreason]

Every Eastern Champion for the past 15 years.

[masonanddixon]

Miami Heat 20112-12 and 2012-2013 by far. Beat a young OKC squad and an old and shitty Spurs squad, in addition to garbage East squads.

[Bankaii]

Miami Heat 20112-12 and 2012-2013 by far. Beat a young OKC squad and an old and shitty Spurs squad, in addition to garbage East squads.
The same young OKC squad that ran through the the "toughest West ever" like a black guy at a white sorority party?

The same old Spurs squad that didn't change a thing on their roster and absolutely dominated and won the chip the very next year?

My goodness you don't know basketball.
And aren't you a Kobetard? You really want talk about weak competition?:roll:

[Gileraracer]

The same young OKC squad that ran through the the "toughest West ever" like a black guy at a white sorority party?

The same old Spurs squad that didn't change a thing on their roster and absolutely dominated and won the chip the very next year?

My goodness you don't know basketball.
And aren't you a Kobetard? You really want talk about weak competition?:roll:

East is weak, accept the facts

[ShawkFactory]

I disagree with people saying the '13 Heat. The Spurs series alone eliminates them from this discussion. Plus the Pacers although not that great weren't a weak team by any means.

And the thing with the Warriors for me at least is they didn't dominate the depleted teams they faced like they were supposed to. You can't be in danger of going down 1-3 against that injured Grizzlies team or the Cavs minus 2 all stars.

Teams like the '87 Lakers and '07 Spurs also faced similarly weak competition but the difference is they did what they were supposed to do against those teams so I can't criticize them for it.
Came here to say basically this. The 13 Heat had a very easy road overall to get to the finals, but then beat a great team once they got there.

Some of these other teams being discussed had an easy road to the finals AND beat a team that didn't belong there in the first place.

89 Pistons and 15 Warriors would be my choices.

[ArbitraryWater]

Every Eastern Champion for the past 15 years.

That makes zero sense the Western teams are supposedly more stacked, which well, you know, helps in the finals...

[Bankaii]

East is weak, accept the facts
I'm glad you're aware you're not intelligent enough to argue any of my points.
Now run along little troll go spread your stupidity somewhere else.

[Legends66NBA7]

The 1991 Bulls beat two teams that had won the previous 4 championships.

I actually don't think they had an "easy" road. All I'm saying is that because of injuries in the Finals, they might look like they were "easy".

I recall they weren't the favourites during those finals either.

[JohnnySic]

Easily '87 Lakers. Beat 3 west teams that were lottery quailty and then needed 6 games to beat a Celtics team decimated by injuries.

[Hey Yo]

'89 Pistons faced...

42 win Celtics without Bird
49 win Bucks without one of their top players (Cummings)
47 win Bulls (Basically Jordan + scrubs)
57 win Lakers without Scott and with Magic missing 2 out of the 4 games.

Their toughest opponent was the Bulls in the ECF who were the definition of a one man team (think '09 Heat, '06 Lakers). Bulls actually managed to win 2 games aganist them but Pippen got elbowed in the head at the start of game 6 and left the game.

^ That's even worse than the Warriors.
The series was knotted at 2 apiece. Game 5....Jordan only recorded 8FGA and ended with 18pts. 10 of those pts. were from the line, Detroit won by 9.

[ralph_i_el]

Warriors did have an easy road, but the teams that win usually do have a lucky path.

It's really hard to win a championship, and it's never pre-ordained. Even the biggest favorite at the start of the season only has like a 20% chance of winning.

[Fallen Angel]

The Warriors faced every member of the 2015 All-NBA First Team.

[nba_55]

The Warriors faced every member of the 2015 All-NBA First Team.

This is not a 1 on 1 contest. Every team they faced had atleast 1 major injury on their roster, some of them had multiple major injuries. Cavs and Rockets had atleast 2 starters injured. Even Howard played with torn MCL. :facepalm

[Fudge]

2015 Warriors.

It's really not even close. :oldlol:

[JT123]

2009 Lakers
2010 Lakers
2015 Warriors