More Than Just 4-0

Every June, at the height of summer, the basketball world grew as scorching as the weather.

At this time every year, the two teams that had emerged from the Eastern and Western Conferences would meet on the Finals stage. In a best-of-seven series, the first team to claim four wins would hoist the ultimate championship trophy—the most prestigious trophy in basketball.

That was why the Finals were almost always brutal, no-holds-barred battles. After all, the two teams that met in the Finals had each eliminated three opponents on their way there, proving that both were among the league's elite. Every team gave everything they had, even pushing beyond their limits, to fight for every single victory.

As a result, the Finals were nearly always the fiercest and most exciting games of the entire playoffs.

In the 2010 Finals, the Celtics and their old rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, gave fans a thrilling Game 7.

In terms of defensive intensity and physicality, that Game 7 might have been one of the most brutal Game 7s in NBA Finals history. The teams scored only around 80 points apiece, with the Lakers shooting 32.5% as a team and the Celtics 40%. Players from both sides broke out into physical confrontations more than once, making the intensity plain to see.

The 1994 Finals had likewise been a battle between "real men," with the two teams averaging just 86.9 and 86.1 points per game. Hakeem Olajuwon, Ewing, and Charles Oakley gave fans a spectacular yet savage display of inside brawling.

Going back another ten years, the 1984 Game 7 between the Lakers and Celtics was an even greater synonym for fierce Finals warfare.

That series had featured the now utterly indefensible "clothesline" fouls, as well as an issue with the arena's air conditioning "breaking down."