Amar'e Stoudemire's Hand and 10 Most Defining Moments of NBA Playoffs

The NBA playoffs are always memorable, but each postseason produces a few moments that stand out in our minds a little bit more than the rest of the action.

This year, these 10 moments emerge as the most defining ones of the NBA playoffs.

As you can probably tell, one of them has to do with why Amar'e Stoudemire's hand is in a cast. What are the rest though?

Read on to find out.

Amar'e Stoudemire Can't Take the Heat, Needs Fire Extinguisher

Did any one action better capture the feelings of an entire franchise?

After suffering another beatdown at the hands of the Miami Heat, Amar'e Stoudemire felt like a 2-0 deficit in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs was too much for him and that his left hand would have to pay.

So Stoudemire decided that it was a smart idea to punch the glass case enclosing a fire extinguisher and suffered lacerations to his hand that would keep him out of Game 3 and make everyone question whether the $100 million man was actually worth having on the roster.

Of course, this led to all sorts of jokes. Amar'e was just searching for a new way to put out the Heat. It was the first time he hit the glass all night. So on and so forth.

As stupid as his actions may have been, they did manage to perfectly represent the frustrations of the New York faithful.

Carmelo Anthony Explodes

Sticking with the New York Knicks, one of the most popular franchises in all of the NBA, I'd like to focus on a positive moment for the team to counteract the negativity of the fire extinguisher.

Led by Carmelo Anthony, who scored a ridiculous 41 points and made big shot after big shot in the fourth quarter, putting aside whispers that he might never be able to lead the Knicks to success, New York actually managed to win a playoff game.

The Game 4 victory against the Miami Heat was the first time that the Knicks had found success in a single playoff game since 2001.

Ending a decade of frustration, even if it was only a short respite from the other four games in the series, is certainly worthy of a spot here.

Rajon Rondo Learns to Shoot

I don't know when exactly this moment occurred, but we've been watching the destructive aftermath ever since.

The biggest knock on Rajon Rondo has always been his lack of ability shooting the ball, possibly stemming from his oversized hands. Defenders would play well off him and give him space, just daring him to take (and miss) jump shots.

Somehow, some way, Rondo suddenly learned how to shoot. During these playoffs, Rondo has hit more jumpers than I've seen him make throughout the rest of his career. Plus, quite a few are coming at the end of the game when it matters most.

I've always been a critic of Rondo, but a point guard with his skills who has possession of an above-average jumper has the potential to be the third-best player in the entire league.

Derrick Rose Injury

To any and all Chicago Bulls fans out there, you have my permission to skip this slide without reading any further than this paragraph. In fact, you may want to just click through the next one as well.

Perhaps no moment has been more defining than the one that occurred with 1:22 remaining in the fourth quarter of a blowout Game 1 victory for the Chicago Bulls against the Philadelphia 76ers.

With the snap of one knee, a No. 1 seed that had played its way to the best record in the NBA during the regular season went from prohibitive favorites to decided underdog in the series against the Sixers.

You can't help but think (and I mean no disrespect to the Sixers or the Boston Celtics) that we'd be watching the Bulls square off with the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals if this moment had never happened.

Omer Asik Misses Free Throws

After C.J. Watson, an 80 percent free-throw shooter, made the inexplicable decision to play hot potato and pass the ball to Omer Asik, a 45.6 percent free-throw shooter, Chicago Bulls fans had to hold their breath. 

Asik was fouled and sent to the line with a chance to extend a slim one-point lead in Game 6 of the Bulls-76ers first-round series, a game the Bulls had to win to stay alive.

Of course, the rest is history. A nervous-looking Asik bricked the free throw, and Andre Iguodala grabbed the rebound and raced down to the other end of the court, where he would be fouled and hit the game-winning free throws to advance to the next round.

As close as this series was, I have to assume that Chicago would have advanced had Watson kept the ball. He could have made at least one of his free throws and sent the series back to Chicago for Game 7.

Oklahoma City Sweeps Dallas

It's always big news when the defending champions go down, even if the team is just a shell of its former championship-winning self.

The Oklahoma City Thunder didn't just take down the Dallas Mavericks, though. They trounced Dirk Nowitzki and the aging Mavs, winning the series with a decisive 4-0 margin.

Admittedly, the series was closer than that margin indicates, as numerous games were hard-fought and came down to the wire, forcing the Thunder to hold on to slim leads and go on the comeback trail a few times.

This series felt like more than just another first-round win for the Thunder. After the Mavericks' 4-1 shellacking of OKC in last year's Western Conference finals, it seemed like a changing of the guard in the West.

LeBron and Wade Take Over

Now that the Miami Heat have a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics, it's incredibly hard to believe that there was a time when they were on the ropes.

After the Indiana Pacers destroyed the Heat 95-74 in Game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead, people started calling the whole concept of a Big Three a bust. After all, Chris Bosh had gone down with an abdominal strain, and LeBron James and Dwyane Wade certainly couldn't beat the Pacers by themselves.

Actually, they could.

Game 4: 101-93 win

LeBron James: 40 points, 18 rebounds, nine assists, two steals, two blocks

Dwyane Wade: 30 points, nine rebounds, six assists, one steal, two blocks

Game 5: 115-83 win

James: 30 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists, one steal, one block

Wade: 28 points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals, one block

Game 6: 105-93 win

James: 28 points, six rebounds, seven assists, three steals, zero blocks

Wade: 41 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, two steals, zero blocks

San Antonio Goes for 20 Straight

With a decisive 102-82 victory in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder stayed alive in the series (technically they would have been alive with a loss, but you know what I mean) and put an end to the San Antonio Spurs' record-setting win streak.

When San Antonio beat the Thunder in Game 2, it extended its insane stretch of wins to 20 games. The Spurs went 50 (five zero) days without dropping a single contest.

No team in NBA history had ever had such a long win streak extend into the playoffs, making this Spurs squad a truly historic one as they broke the record held by the 2000-2001 Los Angeles Lakers.

Regardless of whether the Spurs win the title now, they'll still be remembered forever.

Blown Call Against Atlanta

In the interest of full disclosure, I absolutely despise complaining about the refs. It's a lazy and homer-ific way of griping about a team's shortcomings.

That said, I'm about to do it in favor of my Atlanta Hawks. Before you accuse me of hypocritically breaking my own rules, the league actually admitted that the referees messed up here and said as much in a press release (via Royce Young of CBS Sports):

"

During the last two minutes of the fourth period or overtime, if a personal foul is assessed against the defensive team prior to the ball being released on a throw-in, it is considered an Away-From-The-Play Foul and the offensive team is awarded one free throw and possession of the ball. With 3.1 seconds remaining in the the Boston-Atlanta game last night, a foul was called on the Celtics' Marquis Daniels after the Hawks' Marvin Williams had released the ball and therefore the foul was correctly treated as a common foul and not an Away-From-the-Play foul.

With that said, however, the replay shows that the foul on Daniels should have been called sooner than it was by the officials, in which case it would have met the requirements of an Away-From-The-Play Foul.

"

Young then explains the ramifications of the call:

"

What that means is that instead of the Hawks having the ball side out, they could've selected their best free throw shooter to shoot the one attempt, then had the ball down one with 3.1 seconds left. Obviously, a game-changing call. 

Obviously it doesn't matter now, and there's no telling what would've happened. Horford ended up getting his free throws and didn't execute when he had the chance. But the Hawks are home, and the Celtics are on to the second round.

"

Clippers Comeback

The Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies played a first-round series in the Western Conference that will live on in NBA history forever. In fact, it already made my list of the 100 greatest playoff series of all time.

Everything got kick-started by the Clippers' historic comeback at the end of Game 1, making a somewhat boring game into an all-time classic. L.A. was down 95-71 in the fourth quarter of that opening game and still managed to come back, thanks to the heroics of unlikely standouts like Reggie Evans and Nick Young. Whaaaaaat?

Each and every game of the seven played in the series was entertaining in its own right, but none could match the drama of Game 1.