INTRODUCTION Confetti rained down on the Golden State Warriors in 2017 after they won their second National Basketball Association NBA championship in three years Golden State players and coaches celebrated another win over Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers The Warriors and Cavaliers had just met three straight times in the Finals In every series emotions ran high as each team tried to establish dominance The Cavs and Warriors are a great example of the rivalries that have helped increase the NBA's popularity NBA history has been defined by rivalries Top teams match up in the playoffs Star players go head-to-head to push their teams forward The biggest rivalries in the NBA develop over time Many play out every spring in the playoffs The animosity builds with each series as they compete to advance An occasional punch might even be thrown as tempers flare Here are the NBA's best rivalries
10 during thier rise to power in the 1980s the pistons often clashed with the celtics Celtics PISTONS The saying goes If you want to be the best you have to beat the best One way rivalries develop is when one team is trying to take down the champions The Boston Celtics are the ultimate NBA champions Boston has won 17 NBA titles the most of any team The Celtics won three of those championships in the 1980s Those teams featured Hall of Famers Larry Bird Kevin McHale Robert Parish and Dennis Johnson And from 1984 to 1986 the Celtics were at their best winning two NBA titles in three years Other Eastern Conference teams watched with envy The Detroit Pistons meanwhile were preparing to change the balance of power Detroit was building around Hall of Fame point guard Isiah Thomas and rugged center Bill Laimbeer The Pistons gritty and aggressive style of play clashed with the similar no-nonsense approach of Boston The two teams met in the playoffs in 1985 Boston won in six games in the Eastern Conference semifinals The rivalry escalated in Game 3 of the 1987 conference finals Bird and Laimbeer were ejected for fighting Laimbeer took Bird to the ground on a hard foul The Celtics won the series in seven games But the Pistons were getting closer The tables finally turned in 1988 The Pistons had given Hall of Fame rs Joe Dumars Adrian Dantley and Dennis Rodman bigger roles They teamed with Thomas and Laimbeer to help Detroit slip past Boston in
six games in the conference finals The Pistons then went on to win rematches in the 1989 and 1991 playoffs It was finally Detroit's turn to be the alpha dog in the rivalry
