Cinderella Men: The 2010 Boston Celtics and The 8 Greatest NBA Underdogs

Sure, it can theoretically be exciting watching a tough, heavily hyped top-seeded team like the L.A. Lakers steamroll their competition, turn back all comers and repeat as champions.

Kobe Bryant once again dribbles the time off the clock as Queen's "We Are the Champions" blares on the sound system and streams of confetti rain down.

But, it can get awfully redundant after a while.

Face it, the most memorable wins in sports are the ones no one predicts and no one expects.

Think about the Arizona Diamondbacks upsetting the favored New York Yankees in the  2001 World Series or the "Miracle on Ice" as the underdog Americans stunned the world by beating the Soviet Union hockey team in the 1980 winter Olympics.

It can be mighty inspiring watching a team counted out by the majority of sports analysts, and in some cases their own fans, somehow find a way to win against daunting odds.

Here are the top eight guttiest NBA teams of all time. These teams may have caused many gamblers to lose their life savings in Vegas betting, but they endeared themselves to a fan base and reminded us all that the true fun of sports is the unexpected outcome.

8. 2001 Philadelphia 76ers

Time has been very unfavorable to this team since they didn't actually win the title that season, but this was without a doubt one of the guttiest teams I've ever seen.

Their gut check began almost immediately when they fell behind 0-1 to the 8th seeded Indiana Pacers in a game which they led by 18.

It was an ugly, bizarre finish to the game with the 76ers trailing by a single point and Allen Iverson unable to even get a shot off after being bumped by Reggie Miller's tight defensive stand.

Several NBA analysts doubted the 76ers could win in Indiana after coming back after the poor play down the stretch in that game, but Iverson and company bounced back with three straight wins to take the series.

In the second round, they faced the Toronto Raptors, a team they struggled against during the regular season (going 1-3 against them), they looked to play with a bit more focus this time out.

But the team fell behind 2-1 in the series and once again faced doubts about their abilities.

"They're just a one-man team," Charles Barkley, said about the 76ers at the time. "They win when A.I. plays well. When he doesn't, they look like a bad CBA team."

Some ESPN commentators predicted that the 76ers would fold in the series and lose game four, but the team rebounded with a solid game 4 victory followed by a strong 121-88 blowout win at home in game five.

Iverson had 52 points in that game—refusing to let his team trail again in the series.

After The Raptors took game six at home, game seven was anybody's to win in the final seconds, but a key defensive stop prevented Vince Carter from pulling the game out and the 76ers survived 88-87.

By the Conference Finals vs. the Bucks Iverson was suffering several key injuries which would plague him the rest of the playoffs, including a lower back pull, tweaked knee, and sore shoulder.

But he and the team just refused to quit.

Many analysts were openly forecasting the Bucks would win in the series especially after game five with Iverson who seemed to be wearing down.

But the 76ers once again responded with a huge home win and after trailing by 33 points in game six, Iverson single-handedly cut the lead to five points before the rally fell short and the team lost.

Say what you will about whatever Kobe or LeBron has done in the playoffs, Iverson's game six performance against the Bucks in a losing cause, while he battled numerous nagging injuries, is one of THE lost great playoff performances that I've seen.

He and the team just did not die, even when they could have just folded and gotten ready for game seven.

They eventually won game seven with Iverson pouring in 44 and Raja Bell stepping up by contributing a big 10 points to spark a rally from an early 12-point deficit.

After they made it to the finals—the 76ers, looked nearly dead.

They were injured, tired, ragged, had just survived back-to-back seven game series and were now facing a team that had gone undefeated throughout the playoffs.

The LA Lakers were on a 15-0 run throughout the playoffs and looked completely unbeatable. They had just annihilated the San Antonio Spurs so thoroughly, their grandchildren will feel the beating and now they looked to repeat as champions.

Nearly everyone in the country called the finals a sweep, except the 76ers who had one more inspiring performance in them.

Led by Iverson's 48, they stunned the Lakers in Overtime to take a 1-0 series lead.

The Lakers would recover and take the next four, but it was one of the guttiest, against all odds moments in playoff history.

7. 1994 Denver Nuggets

The enduring image of the Denver Nuggets shocking 1994 upset of the top-seeded Seattle Supersonics is Dikembe Mutombo sprawled out on the parque floor, clutching the game ball and crying tears of joy.

It was an expression so memorably passionate, it perfectly symbolized the difference between the Nuggets and the Sonics that year: The Sonics were extremely talented, had won 63 games in the regular season, and played like they were supposed to win.

The Nuggets, winners of only 42 games in the regular season, were young and free-wheeling, who played loose and with nothing to lose.

They were never as tight as their highly favored opponents.

After the Sonics jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the series, many analyst deemed the series over and Sonics fans were calling for a sweep.

"If we can go to Denver and sweep and get rest, it'd be good for us," said forward Shawn Kemp, completely unaware of the direction the series would turn over the next few days.

When Nugget guard Robert Pack drove right through the pack of Sonics defenders and dunked the ball to thunderous applause, it was clear that the only sweeping going on in this series was going to be done by the janitors in Denver as they would have to clean up all the "Not in Our House" placards once the series shifted back to Seattle.

Back home, the momentum was clearly on the Nuggets side and they defeated the Sonics in an overtime thriller to complete the 3-2 series upset.

When I think about the grit of this team I only consider their post-season record that year of 6-6. Not spectacular, until you consider the fact that all six wins were elimination games.

That means in the 1994 playoffs the Nuggets were 6-1 in elimination games and 0-5 in others.

Plus, they were 3-1 in OT games, which is pretty spectacular for a young team.

And the teams that they pushed to the brink were not creampuffs we're talking hall-of-famer Gary Payton's Sonics and Hall-of-Famers John Stockton and Karl Malone's Utah Jazz.

6. 2010 Boston Celtics

"Too Old."

That was the common refrain from the NBA analysts when assessing the Celtics chances in the playoffs.

It was a stinging slight to a team that had won a title just two years prior, but after a season sweep by the Atlanta Hawks and embarrassing home losses to the New Jersey Nets and the San Antonio Spurs, the Celtics looked like they would pass the Geritol and were in full rocking chair mode, as they went 27-27 after beginning the season 23-5.

However, they felt that they could turn around their season, ascribing to the theory that "the playoffs begin 0-0."

In the first round, they faced the Miami Heat and defeated them in five games despite 32 ppg from Heat guard Dwyane Wade.

The Celtics then took on the team with the best regular season record in the heavily favored Cleveland Cavaliers.

Despite a split in the first two games the Celtics were stunned on their home court when they lost 124-95. It was the worst home loss in franchise history as league MVP LeBron James torched the Celtics for 38.

From this game on, a theme began to emerge as Celtic point guard Rajon Rondo dominated the rest of the series leading the team to wins in the next three games averaging 21 points and 11 assists through the remainder of the series.

Facing the Orlando Magic, the Celtics once again played the role of playoff spoiler as they took the first three games en route to a six game series triumph.

The hero of the series was Paul Pierce, who thoroughly outplayed Vince Carter pouring in 24 points a game.

Improbably making it to the finals after beating the two teams favored to beat them, the Celtics faced the Lakers in the finals, where their luck would carry them to a 3-2 series lead, but eventually, they would lose in seven.

Although, the Celtics appear to be once again "the underdogs" next season, it would not be wise to discount this team's ability to make one more title run.

5. 1999 New York Knicks

"The Knicks look like they just want to go home as quickly as they can go home," said sports report Dick Versace weeks prior to the 1999 NBA season concluding. "And the way they are playing right now, they'll be home by April."

Before the start of the 1999 lockout-shortened season, The New York Knicks seemed poised to challenge for the Eastern Conference title.

They had just upgraded with the offseason acquisitions of Marcus Camby and then league outcast Latrell Sprewell, and looked to have one of the deepest rosters in the East.

But chemistry issues plagued the team all season as it appeared that guard Allen Houston and Spewell, did not play well together and Camby's meager numbers seemed to fuel speculation that this team was simply an assembly of incompatible parts.

Coming into the playoffs as the number eight seed, they appeared to face certain elimination at the hands of rival Miami Heat and Alonzo Mourning, who was coming off his best season.

The Knicks shocked the sports world by blowing the Heat out in game one by 20 points (at the time, the third most lopsided ever by an eight against a one) and taking the series in game 5 on Allan Houston's pull up jumper in the final seconds of the series final game.

The Knicks proceeded to sweep the Atlanta Hawks in the second round to set up a conference finals showdown with the consensus best team in the East, Indiana Pacers.

"The New York Knicks got [to the conference finals] by beating two seriously flawed teams, in Miami and Atlanta, that's not the case now," said Bill Walton before the series began. "This Pacer team, is tough, well-coached and very intelligent. The Knicks shouldn't have bothered wasting the air fare to come here today. Indiana's bringing it [in game 1]."

The Knicks stole game one with both Sprewell and Houston scored over 25 and the Knicks getting a key defensive stop by forcing Mark Jackson to take a tough, highly contested corner three that didn't draw iron. They eventually left Indiana with a split in the series.

Game 3, was noteworthy for two reasons. It marked Patrick Ewing's official playoff exit as he was forced to sit out the remainder of the post-season with a knee injury and it was the game where Larry Johnson delivered the most important four-point play in league history—winning the game for his team after it trailed by three in the final seconds.

The Knicks lost game four at home though and were given little chance to defeat the Pacers once the series shifted back to Indiana. Even with 30 from Reggie Miller, Sprewell and Houston led the Knicks to an improbable win.

"This has got to be one of the most miraculous victories I've seen," said Walton. "The odds coming into this one couldn't have been worse."

The Knicks would eventually win the series in six games setting up a finals series against the Spurs where their improbable post-season run would come to an end in five.

But they remain the only eighth-seeded team to ever advance to the NBA finals.

4. 2004 Detroit Pistons

When asked to make a prediction about the Detroit Pistons and L.A. Lakers finals series, NBA commentator Fred Carter said, "Lakers in four because the Pistons can't score."

Asked to clarify his comments and take into account the fact that the Pistons were a solid defensive team, Carter remained unchanged in his assessment.

"Who on this team can carry it offensively? Chauncy Billups? Rip Hamilton? Rasheed Wallace? They're not consistent.

"The Lakers have four guys (Gary Payton, Karl Malone, Shaq and Kobe) that you can go to when the defense clamps down. That gives them an unquestioned advantage."

Being counted out became a cliche for the Pistons in 2004.

They faced more adversity during this run than many teams experience in whole seasons, but their determination was constantly on display in the most dire of situations.

In the first round they lost homecourt advantage to the Milwaukee Bucks, but came back to win the next three games to take the series.

Then after taking a 2-0 series lead, the New Jersey Nets, who swept them in the playoffs the previous year, the Nets inexplicably won the next three, including a triple overtime thriller in Detroit.

Following that heartbreaker, many commentators thought the series was over and began to look at the Pacers-Nets match ups in the next round.

The Pistons didn't help their cause by beginning their first elimination game flat in New Jersey and trailing by double-figures early.

"You can tell that New Jersey is looking to end this series tonight," said NBA commentator Doug Collins. "If the Pistons aren't careful, they could fall behind so far, that they simply can't come back."

The Pistons launched an incredible defensive barrage that simply shut down the Nets offense allowing the Pistons to take the game and the series in seven.

In the Eastern Conference Finals, they faced the Pacers with Ron Artest and Jermaine O'Neal, both coming off their best professional seasons, in fact Artest was voted the defensive player of the year.

The Pistons were deemed inferior in talent to the Pacers and given little chance to win.

"The Pacers are the best team in the East," said one Sportscenter commentator. "The Pistons are a solid club, but the Pacers just have too many weapons."

Nevertheless, the Pistons beat the Pacers 4-2 in one of the ugliest, defensive struggles playoff series basketball has ever seen. No team scored more than 85, and many of the scores were in the upper 60s.

Tellingly the highlight of the series wasn't an offensive play but a defensive one: Tayshaun Prince's magnificent chase-down block of Reggie Miller's layup attempt.

In the finals they faced overwhelming odds against the Lakers of Shaq, Kobe, Malone and Payton. Many analyst saw L.A. winning in six or fewer games, and no one, outside of pistons management, team and team's family members, felt they had a chance to "beat LA."

"It's just us against the world now," said Rip Hamilton as the series began. "We have to prove that we didn't just come here to show up."

From opening tip, the Pistons smothered the Lakers with a soffocating defense that turned Kobe into a relative non-factor in the series outside of his game 2 dagger to give the Lakers their own victory in the series.

The Pistons would become the first team to win three straight finals home games in the 2-3-2 format and put Motor City sports back on the map.

"I told you we'd do it," said Ben Wallace. Maybe so, but no one believed him until it happened.

3. 1975 Golden State Warriors

From the start of the 1975 season,  The Washington Bullets looked like a tough team to beat.

They won 60 regular-season games, knocked off the Buffalo Braves and defending champion Boston Celtics, in the first two rounds.

Plus, they held home court advantage in the NBA Finals and only needed four more wins to ensure them the franchise's first title.

All they had to do was beat...the 48-34 Golden State Warriors!!???! They must have thought, hey let's make plans for the parade right now, especially since they beat the Warriors three out of four times that season.  

The Bullets team was pretty stacked; it boasted All-Stars Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes, Phil Chenier, and Kevin Porter, plus they had the second best defense in the league holding teams to only 97.8 ppg. 

Before the series even began, everything seemed to go the underdog Warriors way.

They inadvertently gained home court advantage due to an ice show and karate competition being held in Landover, MD, so instead of the 2-2-1-1-1 format with Washington hosting the first game, it was now Game 1 in Landover and Game 2 and Game 3 in Oakland before returning to Landover for Game 4.

The Warriors shocked the basketball world by stealing Game 1, 101-95 and the confidence they gained from that victory simply remained for the entire series. Golden State went on to take the next two in the Bay Area, and eventually won the series in a four-game sweep.

Never had a team with such a vastly superior record over their opponent been so thoroughly dominated in a playoff off series. It was a truly stunning display by the Warriors, whose star forward Rick Barry garnered MVP honors in the series and averaged 30.6 ppg in the series.

This remains, perhaps the greatest upset in NBA Finals history.

2. 1969 Boston Celtics

The Celtics of 1969 hardly looked like the team that had won 10 of the last 12 NBA Titles. Bill Russell struggled with leg injuries throughout the year and the team seemed like a shadow of their former selves.

It also didn't help that Philadelphia traded Wilt Chamberlain to the Lakers and helped the team vault to the top seed in the West win a 55-27 record.

"Most of the time we played they were better than we were," Jerry West said about the Celtics. "But in 1969, we were clearly better and felt that it was our year."

The Lakers must have felt like it was their year when, during a televised meeting between the teams in the regular season the Lakers pummeled the Celtics 108-73 just weeks prior to the start of the playoffs.

It led to a fiery harangue from Bill Russell toward his teammates, irate at how they played. Russell later joked, "nothing with that many four-letter words could be called a speech."

When the playoffs began, the Celtics, who finished with a 48-34 record looked burnt out and tired, but they somehow gathered their second wind and beat solid upstart teams the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks although they entered the NBA Finals against the Lakers without homecourt advantage.

Jerry West was determined not to allow the Celtics to win again at his expense and scored 53 and 41 points respectively in the first two games leading the Lakers to a 2-0 series lead.

Secretly, the Lakers had been talking about sweeping the series, and as Game 3 went down to the wire tied and John Havlicek ailing after getting gouged in the eye by Lakers forward Keith Erickson, it looked as though they could be primed to take an insurmountable 3-0 series lead.

But the Celtics, pumped up by the roar of the Garden crowd, took the game 111-105 to avoid certain defeat.

In Game 4, the Lakers still were in control of the series, and had possession up 88-87 with 15 seconds remaining. They were mere moments away from being a game away from a title.

But Em Bryant stole the ball and the Celtics raced to get a shot before the game ended.

In the final seconds, Sam Jones hoisted an off-balance jumper as time expired. It bounced around the rim and in as time expired. The Celtics survived once again as they willed themselves to victory.

"It was just the Lord's will, I guess," a shocked West said following the game.

The teams split the next two games setting up a Game 7 that would finally see the Lakers avenge the nearly decade-long domination of the series between the teams.

So sure was he in his team's ultimate triumph that Lakers owner Jack Kent Cook ordered hundreds of balloons be dropped from the rafters and the song "Happy Days Are Here Again" be played in the arena.

The balloons would never be dropped.

The move inspired the Celtics to one of the great playoff performances as they beat the Lakers to win the title despite overwhelming odds and a brilliant 42 point, 13 rebound, 12 assist game for Jerry West.

1. 1995 Houston Rockets

"The Heart of a Champion."

Indeed.

Never before or since had a team overcome as difficult a playoff road as the 1995 Rockets.

They endured issues with chemistry following a much criticized mid-season trade that sent their forward Otis Thorpe to Houston for Clyde Drexler.

The move angered many fans, who belived in the "if it ain't broke don't fix it," philosophy, it hurt the team chemistry as guard Vernon Maxwell grudgingly seethed over having to share minutes with Drexler,

To his credit, Drexler didn't insist on starting, but by mid-season the team was decimated by injuries (including to Hakeem Olajuwon) and there was little choice but to play Clyde more, which in the long term may have benefited the chemistry by playoff time.

However, despite all the turmoil throughout the season (and finishing the season the No. 6 seed), the Rockets came together in time for the playoffs to begin.

In the playoffs, the Rockets were considered heavy underdogs in the first round against the Utah Jazz and fell behind 2-1 in the series, but rallied to shock the Jazz in Game 5, 95-91.

Against the Suns in the second round, the team overcame both 2-0 and 3-1 deficits to do the unthinkable: render Charles Barkley speechless.

The series most memorable moment came at the end of Game 7 when Mario Elie, after hitting a clutch three-pointer to put the Suns away, blew a "kiss of death" toward Suns center Joe Kleine.

Motivated by the head-to-head matchup against league MVP David Robinson, Olajuwon lead the team past the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs. Olajuwon outscored Robinson 35 to 21 in the series.

The finals saw the Rockets beat the odds one last time as they overcame a 20-point deficit in Game 1 against the Orlando Magic en route to a sweep of the Magic in Houston.