NBA Playoffs: 10 Biggest Conference/Division Finals Upsets
By Phil Watson
5. Houston Rockets over Los Angeles Lakers, 1986
The Lakers had played in four straight NBA Finals and were the defending champions. Los Angeles had won 62 games during the regular season and another duel with the Boston Celtics in the Finals was all but a given.
The young Rockets were led by the Twin Towers, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson, who Houston had drafted with the first overall picks in the draft in 1983 (Sampson) and 1984 (Olajuwon). The Rockets had won the Midwest Division with 51 wins, but were not considered a threat to the Lakers.
Man, did they read that wrong.
The series opened as expected, with the Lakers taking a 119-107 win at The Forum. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 31 points and three blocked shots for L.A. and Magic Johnson checked in with 26 points, 18 assists and three steals. Olajuwon had a strong game for Houston with 28 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks and Mitchell Wiggins pumped in 24 points off the bench. Sampson finished with 19 points and three blocks and Robert Reid handed out eight assists.
What no one knew at the time it was the last time the Lakers would win a game.
The Rockets surprised the Lakers in Game 2 in Inglewood 112-102. Sampson had a huge night with 24 points, 16 rebounds, nine assists and five blocks and Olajuwon did his thing with 22 points, 13 boards, six blocked shots and four steals. Lewis Lloyd also scored 24 points and Rodney McCray checked in with 16 points and 11 dimes. Johnson had 24 points and 19 assists for Los Angeles and Abdul-Jabbar scored 21 points but was just 9-for-26 from the floor. Houston’s 51-38 rebounding edge and 50.5 percent shooting proved too much to overcome.
At The Summit for Game 3, Olajuwon simply took over, scoring 40 points to go with 12 rebounds in a 117-109 Houston win. Lloyd added 26 points, Reid had 17 points and 12 assists and McCray dropped 10 dimes. Abdul-Jabbar had 33 points and five blocks, James Worthy checked in with 29 points and Johnson finished with 17 points, 20 assists and three steals.
The Rockets grabbed a 3-1 lead by winning Game 4 in Houston 105-95. Olajuwon was once again a beast with 35 points and four blocked shots, while Reid had 23 points and McCray went for 12 points and 12 rebounds. Jim Petersen had 13 boards off the bench for the Rockets, as well. Worthy led the Lakers with 26 points and had 10 rebounds, Abdul-Jabbar added 24 points and Johnson had a triple-double with 20 points, 12 boards and 11 assists, but the club would return to Los Angeles in a deep hole.
In Game 5 back at The Forum, the Rockets never led … until Sampson’s crazy tip-in off an inbounds play with one second left went in to give Houston a 114-112 win and a trip to the NBA Finals for the second time in franchise history.
Olajuwon scored 30 points with four blocks and three steals in the clincher and Sampson finished with 29 points. McCray logged 11 points and 11 assists. Abdul-Jabbar had 26 points and 13 rebounds for the Lakers, Johnson notched 24 points, 13 assists and three steals and Worthy added 19 points and three blocks. Michael Cooper came off the bench for 15 points and five steals.
Olajuwon averaged 31 points, 11.2 rebounds and four blocks per game in the series, while Sampson checked in with 20.4 points a game.
The Rockets would lose in the Finals to the Celtics, however, going down in six games—just as they did when they faced Boston in the 1981 NBA Finals.