Top-Five Biggest Disappointments in the NBA Playoffs

April 12, 2024

Eleazar Gonzales enumerates his top-five most disappointing team performances in the history of the NBA playoffs.

Here's the thing about playing in the NBA playoffs: it's always pressure-packed. It doesn't matter whether you're a title favorite or not. If you perform well, people will talk about you. If you don't, the more people will talk about you and how you falter.

Over the years, we've seen teams with hefty expectations vested in them fail to meet those expectations (AKA not winning the championship). Some of these teams found themselves taking a vacation as early as the first round of the NBA playoffs.

Below are the top-five biggest playoff disappointments in NBA history.

2022-2023 Milwaukee Bucks

There was no disappointment bigger than what the Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Milwaukee Bucks endured after their shortened 2023 playoffs run.

Having won the NBA championship two years prior, the Bucks entered the 2023 playoffs with the best record in the NBA at 58-24. In 63 regular-season games, Antetokounmpo averaged 31.1 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 5.7 assists per game.

And the fact that the Bucks' opponent in the first round barely made the playoffs after having to be in the play-in tournament made the disappointment even bigger for Milwaukee. Not only did the Bucks lose in five games in the first round, but their opponent, the Miami Heat, went all the way to the NBA Finals before losing to the eventual champion Denver Nuggets.

Sure, there's the "what if" concerning Khris Middleton as he would have helped the Bucks repeat as champs had he been healthy. Antetokounmpo himself missed a couple of games against Miami in that series due to injury, but observers still believed the Bucks would have had enough firepower to win that series. Then again, the Heat also lost a a key player in Tyler Herro in that Bucks series.

Antetokounmpo thought that the early playoff exit wasn't a failure. He's right. It's not a failure. It's the biggest playoff disappointment we've seen in recent years.

Giannis didn’t like this reporter's question on if he thinks this season was a failure. pic.twitter.com/M3hJ9Bo4GJ

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 27, 2023

2022-2023 Boston Celtics 

The Bucks weren't the only ones who faced disappointment in the 2023 playoffs. And like the Bucks, the Boston Celtics fell to the same opponent that brought down the best team in the NBA that season: the Miami Heat of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.

The Celtics entered the 2022-2023 coming off an NBA Finals loss against the Golden State Warriors. Many predicted the Celtics would be back in the finals in 2023 and they almost were. 

Boston finished with the second-best record in the NBA (57-25). The Celtics disposed of the Atlanta Hawks in six games in the first round. They needed a full seven-game series to finish off the Philadelphia 76ers in the conference semifinals. And they nearly completed another comeback from a 3-1 series hole against Miami in the conference finals.

Sadly, Jayson Tatum hurt his ankle on the first offensive possession of Game 7. Even though he stayed in the game, it wasn't enough. The Heat won 103-84 with Tatum finishing with 14 points on 5-of-13 field-goal shooting. 

Had Tatum been healthy in Game 7, would things have been different? Probably not since Jimmy Butler wasn't to be stopped in that playoff run.

COMEBACK DENIED 🚫. MIAMI HEAT WIN GAME 7 TO ADVANCE TO THE 2023 NBA FINALS 🕺🏽 pic.twitter.com/t2aFKit2Jt

— WorldSports14 (@WorldSports14_) May 30, 2023

2013-2014 Brooklyn Nets

Imagine this: you have Jason Kidd as your head coach. Your roster included Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry, Joe Johnson, Deron Williams, and Brook Lopez. You also have seasoned veterans such as Shaun Livingston and Andray Blatche. On paper, that roster would have rolled over the league in a snap with a 50-win season already in the bag. 

Instead, the Nets settled for a sixth-place finish with a 44-38 record in the Eastern Conference standings in the 2013-2014 season. They survived a seven-game dance against the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the 2014 playoffs. And that was the lone playoff series that roster won in its existence as the Miami Heat showed the Nets the door in the conference semifinals. 

The 2013-2014 Nets became one of the poster children of playoff disappointments after that single playoff run and should teach teams that having too many star players doesn't mean you'll be successful in winning it all.

2014 Brooklyn Nets 🔥 pic.twitter.com/m0DJ1Iyxkg

— ThrowbackHoops (@ThrowbackHoops) December 22, 2019

2018-2019 Boston Celtics

Yes, the Celtics land on this list twice. 

In the 2018-2019 season, the Celtics had a loaded roster that included Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Gordon Hayward, Al Horford, Terry Rozier, and yes, one Kyrie Irving. Expectations were sky-high on this Celtics squad as they pushed the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers to a Game 7 in the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals WITHOUT Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. 

Alas, that Celtics squad finished the 2018-2019 campaign with a 49-33 record -- good enough for fourth place in the East. The Celtics swept the Indiana Pacers in the first round before losing to the Bucks in the conference semifinals.

NBA Playoffs 2019: Terry Rozier roasts the Celtics' selfishness in his postgame comments.https://t.co/ToUyV6DQfs pic.twitter.com/GDERgoaCiW

— CBS Sports NBA (@CBSSportsNBA) May 9, 2019

2015-2016 Oklahoma City Thunder

Once upon a time, the Oklahoma City Thunder had a roster that included Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, and Serge Ibaka. That core carried the franchise to the 2012 NBA Finals before losing to the Miami Heat of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh.

Months after that NBA Finals loss, the Thunder stunned everyone by trading away James Harden to the Houston Rockets. Since then, OKC had been hit with injuries to Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka that hampered the team in the playoffs. 

In the 2015-2016 season, the Thunder looked like they were a legitimate threat to the dynasty of the 73-win Golden State Warriors. To simplify how good OKC was in that season, they were the second-best scoring team in the league with 110.2 points per game. That was great considering only the duo of Durant and Westbrook were averaging 20+ points per game.

The team finished the 2015-2016 regular season with a 55-27 slate for third place in the West. In the 2016 playoffs, OKC beat the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the first round, needed a Game 6 to beat the San Antonio Spurs in the conference semifinals, and were only one win away from eliminating the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the conference finals. 

OKC blew a 3-1 series lead against Golden State -- completing one of the biggest playoff disappointments in NBA playoff history. Why? If the Thunder completed the job, there would be no Warriors dynasty. KD would have stayed in Oklahoma. 

3 years ago today, Kevin Durant and the OKC Thunder blew a 3-1 lead to the Warriors pic.twitter.com/Z6jLIVDGDt

— Eric Rosenthal (@ericsports) May 30, 2019

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