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Aidin Ebrahimi looks at the five greatest midseason turnarounds in NBA history and discusses how those teams ended up performing in the playoffs.
The LA Lakers have made many people look foolish this season. After a terrible start to the season, LeBron James and his teammates have been on a roll and are now guaranteed a spot in the play-in tournament.
NBA history tends to repeat itself, and we can probably learn a lot about the Lakers' postseason potential by looking at other impressive midseason turnarounds in NBA history.
With that in mind, this article will look at the five best midseason turnarounds in NBA history and what those teams ended up doing in the postseason. A team must have made the playoffs that season to be eligible for this ranking. A team like the 2016-17 Heat, who went from 11-30 to 41-41 but didn't make the playoffs, is not eligible. This list is sorted by how far the team got in the playoffs.
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#5. 2007-08 Houston Rockets (15-17) to (55-27)
Spoiler: This is the only team on this list who didn't make it out of the first round. But they will be remembered forever for winning 22 games in a row. After all these years, this is still the fourth-longest winning streak in NBA history. This was the penultimate season of the Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming era in Houston and the first season with former Blazers and Kings coach Rick Adelman as the team's HC.
Adelman is a Hall of Famer for a reason, as he was the last coach to bring the Blazers to the Finals and the last coach to bring Sacramento to the playoffs before Mike Brown this season. This was also the rookie season for Rockets fan favorites Luis Scola and Aaron Brooks, as well as the final season for "The Franchise" Steve Francis.
This season is also notable for having one of the most watched NBA games of all time, as Yao Ming faced off against Chinese rookie Yi Jianlian in a game that was watched by over 200 million people in China. Yi had one of the best games of his short NBA career, but Yao was even better and Houston won 104-88.
A while after this game and amid their winning streak, Yao suffered a stress fracture in his left foot that would take him out for the rest of the season. The streak stood at 12 games before Yao's injury, but McGrady and Rafer Alston carried the load and extended the streak to 22 games before finally losing to the "Big Three" Celtics. Come playoff time, McGrady's body finally shut down for good, and he had to take pain-killing injections to play. The Rockets lost to the Jazz in six games, and that was the last time we ever saw prime T-Mac.
#4. 2017-18 Philadelphia 76ers (14-18) to (52-30)
Expectations were high in Philly after the 2016-17 season. Joel Embiid finally stepped onto the court after missing two seasons with injuries and looked dominant as a rookie. Ben Simmons was finally ready to play and the hype for him was unreal. He was getting compared to Magic Johnson.
And the Sixers just drafted Washington guard Markelle Fultz with the first overall pick. Many thought Philly would be a powerhouse for many years to come; however, not even the most optimistic Philly fan could expect them to win 50 games in the first season of this new young core, especially after the confusing injury to Markelle Fultz. While a 14-18 start wasn't great, it was way better than what Philly fans had to go through in the days of "The Process."
The Sixers then had a good stretch of games to get into the playoff picture, but the Bucks and Heat were breathing down their necks. Philly then ripped off an impressive 16-game winning streak to end the season, despite not having Embiid for most of that stretch.
In those 16 games, Ben Simmons averaged a triple-double while setting up sharpshooters JJ Redick and Marco Belinelli with open shots. Markelle Fultz also became the youngest player (at that time) to put up a triple-double in a game, which is the only real memory we have of Fultz in a Philadelphia jersey. Despite a solid effort from a returning Dwyane Wade, the Sixers beat the Heat in the first round before falling to the Celtics in a frustrating series where they had multiple chances to win.
#3. 2017-18 Utah Jazz (19-28) to (48-34)
Donovan Mitchell is now looking to lead Cleveland to the Finals for the first time since the LeBron era, but until he can do that, he'll always be associated with the Jazz. Mitchell was drafted by a desperate Utah team that was missing their star after Gordon Hayward signed with the Celtics following his lone All-Star season in Utah.
Not much was expected from this team, despite having the dominant French rim protector Rudy Gobert. They started the season off well enough at 13-11, but then Gobert suffered a sprained posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in his left knee. The Jazz fell off hard and were 18-26 when Gobert returned. In those games, Mitchell put up superstar numbers, averaging 22 points while shooting 48.8% from the field. It was clear that the team needed Gobert's presence down low, though.
When Gobert returned, the team went on an incredible 29-5 run and climbed from the 10th seed to the fourth before an important game at the end of the season against Portland. The winner would get the third seed and face the Pelicans, who were without DeMarcus Cousins. The loser would get the fifth seed and face the so-called OKC "Big Three" of Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony.
Utah lost that game, and many predicted that the Jazz would get demolished by the Thunder. But Utah's players played with a lot of heart and completed one of the best upsets in playoff history by eliminating OKC in six games following impressive performances from Mitchell, Gobert, Joe Ingles, and Ricky Rubio. They'd then lose decisively to the 65-17 Rockets and would only win one more playoff series in the Mitchell era.
#2. 2003-04 Miami Heat (25-36) to (42-40)
Pat Riley had made the playoffs every year from his first year as an NBA head coach in 1981-82 (winning the championship with the "Showtime" Lakers) to 2000-01 with the Heat (where he also was, and still is, the president of basketball operations). But Riley failed to make the postseason for two seasons in a row and officially stepped down from his head coaching duties. He named his assistant Stan Van Gundy as his successor.
In the 2003 offseason, Riley made some of the biggest moves in franchise history, signing Lamar Odom (traded for Shaq one year later), Udonis Haslem (still a member of the team after 20 seasons), and drafted Heat legend, Dwyane Wade. Heading into the season, it was assumed that Van Gundy would be in for a long rebuild. The team had the 11th-worst preseason odds in the league.
The Heat started the year off going winless in their first seven games and won just five games in their first 20. On March 2, they fell to 25-36 and were sitting at 10th in the East. However, all hope was not lost as Lamar Odom carried the team, averaging 17.5 points and 10.1 boards while shooting 46.3% from the floor in their last 21 games. They somehow finished 42-40 in a weak Eastern Conference, securing the fourth seed.
They'd then dispatch the Baron Davis-led Hornets in seven games before losing to the dominant 61-win Pacers in six games. They could have forced a seventh and final matchup in the sixth game, as they lost by just three points. The future was bright in Miami, as Riley returned as the head coach and won the 2006 NBA championship. The previously mentioned Rafer Alston was a part of this team as well, so NBA coaches should probably consider asking "Skip To My Lou" for some advice if their team is struggling early in the season.
#1. 2021-22 Boston Celtics (18-21) to (51-31)
We all know the story. The Celtics looked like they would be in "No Man's Land" with a roster not good enough to compete, but not bad enough to tank with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. New head coach Ime Udoka was constantly criticizing his star players in the media for being "one-dimensional." Many players missed time due to COVID, leading to players like Jabari Parker, C.J. Miles, and 40-year-old Joe Johnson playing for the team.
Jayson Tatum was shooting 41.8% from the floor and 33.3% from deep, and other players like Marcus Smart were also struggling. New additions Dennis Schroder and Josh Richardson were hurting the team, averaging a combined -15.7 Plus/Minus Net Per 100 Possessions while getting 25-32 minutes a night, which is putrid. But as soon as the team cut down on their minutes and traded for Daniel Theis and Derrick White, they started to win.
It's not all down to getting rid of Schroder and Richardson, though. Jayson Tatum finally began playing at an elite level, averaging 28 points and 7.6 rebounds while shooting 48.5% from the field and 37% from three in his last 41 games. Smart also found some consistency, and Brown and Tatum proved Udoka wrong by turning their playstyles around.
Before January 8, Brown and Tatum averaged 6.5 assists to 5.9 turnovers, but after January 8, they averaged 8.9 assists to 5.4 turnovers. From January 22 onward, Boston had an average margin of victory of 15.0, which dwarfed the highest average margin of victory in a full season by the 1971-72 Lakers (12.3). They demolished the "superteam" Nets in the first round before escaping the Bucks and Heat to reach the NBA Finals, where they lost in six to the Warriors.
