Check this out: five first-round series went to a Game 7 (Hawks-Pacers, Thunder-Grizzlies and Clippers-Warriors yesterday, then Spurs-Mavs and Raptors-Nets today). That’s already tied with the 1994 NBA playoffs for most series to go to 7 — and we’re not even done with the first round:
In fairness, the context around comparing 1994 and 2014 is a bit different — in 1994, the first round was five games. You had the famous Nuggets over Sonics (first ever 8-seed over a 1-seed) series in that year, and something like that might have gone seven games. Two series went five games in the first round — Nuggets-Sonics and Hawks-Heat. We’ve seen some incredible moments so far in the 2014 playoffs, but the 1994 playoffs had some all-timers, such as:
And:
And:
And of course, this:
Your version of “best NBA playoffs of all-time” probably varies a good deal depending on who you root for and what types of games you like to see, etc. But 1994 is a strong contender — although 2014 could be fairly epic when it’s done too (a Spurs-Blazers series could be great, as could a Wizards-Pacers series; Clippers-Thunder almost invariably should be great).
