Columbus-Tampa NHL playoff series joins list of 20 greatest sports upsets
Stunning loss by the Tampa Bay Lightning ends a sweep by No. 8-seeded Columbus and climbs way up the list of greatest upsets.
Tuesday night, the President’s Cup winning, record-setting Tampa Bay Lightning joined an ignominious list of teams that have been upset in the playoffs after having a great regular season. The Lightning were swept by Columbus in stunning fashion.
Based on a team’s exalted status over another, star power tilted to one side over the other or just simple betting odds and lines, upsets are often clearly defined. Rooting for the underdog, or perhaps even more often against the hated favorite (New York Yankees, Duke men’s basketball, Golden State Warriors, etc.) is a core part of fandom.
Read on to see just how high the Columbus-Tampa Bay series made it in our list of the greatest sports upsets.
20. Maryland-Baltimore County over Virginia-2018
Seemingly every year since the NCAA Tournament field expanded to 64 teams, a No. 16 seed or two tests a No. 1 seed for about a half in the first round. Then order is restored. and the heavily favored top seed imposes its will and moves on. But it was only a matter of time before an epic upset like that happened.
But in 2018 the Retrievers of UMBC not only beat No. 1 seed Virginia, they thoroughly dominated them in the second half. A 21-21 tie at halftime became a 74-54 win for UMBC, as Tony Bennett’s Cavaliers had no answers.
Virginia got redemption this year, as a No. 1 seed again, beating Texas Tech to win the first national title in program history. But they will forever be the first No. 1 seed to loss to a 16, which a lot of the same players that won the national title a year later.
19. Minneapolis Lakers over St. Louis Hawks-1959
The Minneapolis Lakers were the first NBA dynasty, led by star center George Mikan. But by the 1958-59 they had not won a championship since 1954 and that season would the fourth straight with a below .500 record (33-39).
From 1957-1969, the Boston Celtics won the NBA title in all but two seasons. If not for the St. Louis Hawks in 1958, the Celtics would had won 10 consecutive championships. So the Lakers faced an uphill climb in what was then called the division finals, even with a star rookie in Elgin Baylor. But they beat the Hawks 4-2, and went on to play the Celtics in the NBA Finals.
The 1959 NBA Finals launched the Lakers-Celtics rivalry as it would come to be known and ramped back up again in the 1980s. But the Lakers’ had to re-rise with a new star, and pull a big upset.
18. 2004 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball team only gets the bronze
The 1992 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team set an unattainable bar for the squads that followed it, but things reached an incredibly low during the 2004 games in Athens, Greece. A team with LeBron James, Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Stephon Marbury should have been on the fast track to a gold medal.
But losses to Argentina, Puerto Rico and Lithuania instead paved the path to a disappointing bronze medal for the Americans. If 1992 was a move rooted in using NBA players for Team USA to take back dominance in Olympic basketball, 2004 was the sign the rest of the world had used the subsequent 12 years to catch up.
17. Golden State Warriors over Dallas Mavericks-2007
The 2006-07 Golden State Warriors were not anywhere near the kind of team they’ve become in recent years. Led by Baron Davis, a young Monta Ellis and a few other recognizable veterans (Stephen Jackson, Jason Richardson, Al Harrington), the “We Believe” Warriors snuck into the playoffs with a 42-40 record.
The Dallas Mavericks, with league MVP Dirk Nowitzki, had the NBA’s best record in 2006-07 (67-15). But working in Golden State’s favor was coach Don Nelson, who was Dallas’ coach from 1997-2005 and was familiar with Nowitzi and others who were still on the team in 2007. The Warriors would win the series in six games.
The 2006-07 Warriors weren’t the first No. 8 seed to win a first-round NBA playoff series. But they have been the most unlikely.