6. 2019 – Toronto Raptors over Golden State Warriors (4-2)
This series is so fun on multiple levels. The first being that it’s just awesome basketball. Two really well-coached teams who deploy ball and player movement to get open shots. You won’t see an excess of isolation possessions in this series like you do with so many others.
The second is that every game has so many different storylines, the main one being the Warriors’ injury issues, which seem to reshape their rotation on a game-by-game basis.
With Kevin Durant dealing with a calf injury, the first two games of this series are classic Splash Brothers. Just Steph Curry and Klay Thompson running around like well-conditioned chickens with their heads cut off until they get a sliver of open space to release a 3-pointer. At least until Klay Thompson injures his hamstring in the fourth quarter of Game 2 which forces him out of Game 3.
You never want to see injuries affect an NBA Finals series, but Thompson and Durant being out for Game 3 led to a really memorable Steph Curry game where he put up 47-8-7 against a barrage of junk defenses from the Raptors aimed at slowing him down.
Even after going down 3-1, it still always felt like the Warriors could win this series in large part due to Kevin Durant’s pending Game 5 return. But, as most of you probably remember, injuries ultimately derailed the series. Durant tore his Achilles in the second quarter of his Game 5 return, and Klay Thompson tearing his ACL in the midst of a classic “Game 6 Klay” game all but eliminated any chance the Warriors had of winning this series. Kawhi Leonard’s career-defining series was just the final nail in the coffin.
Strangely, injuries were the reason this series was so interesting at the start but was also perhaps the reason it’s not higher up on this list because of the way it ended.