{"id":703502,"date":"2026-05-30T09:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T09:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/703502\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T09:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T09:52:10","slug":"nba-teams-to-win-game-7-on-the-road-what-history-says-about-san-antonios-chances-vs-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/703502\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA teams to win Game 7 on the road: What history says about San Antonio’s chances vs. Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBA teams to win Game 7 on the road: What history says about San Antonio’s chances vs. Thunder<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The San Antonio Spurs<\/a> punched back against the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> with their backs against the wall on Thursday. But now, arguably the more difficult challenge remains: Game 7.<\/p>\n

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Not only are the Spurs primarily consisted of players making their first-ever playoff appearance, including Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, and not only is San Antonio<\/a> attempting to knock off the defending NBA champions in the Western Conference Finals \u2014 but they’ll face the dire circumstances and pressure of Game 7 on the road in Oklahoma City<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Winning a Game 7 on the road certainly isn’t easy, but that isn’t to say it hasn’t been done before.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at the NBA’s history of road Game 7 winners, a list the Spurs will seek to join.<\/p>\n

NBA PLAYOFFS HQ:Live NBA scores<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NBA playoff schedule<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NBA playoff bracket<\/a><\/p>\n

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Last NBA team to win Game 7 on the road<\/p>\n

You won’t have to look very far to find the most recent examples of an NBA team winning a Game 7 on the road in the playoffs. In fact, it has happened twice in the 2026 postseason.<\/p>\n

In the first round of the 2026 playoffs, the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> came into TD Garden and completed their 3-1 series comeback over the Boston Celtics<\/a>, holding on late in Game 7 behind 34 points from Joel Embiid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additionally, in the second round, the Cavaliers<\/a> and Pistons<\/a> went the distance \u2014 and Cleveland<\/a> upset the No. 1 seed in Game 7 in Detroit<\/a>. That matchup wasn’t particularly close either, with the Cavs<\/a> emerging with a 31-point win on the road.<\/p>\n

Prior to this year’s playoffs, the Warriors<\/a> also beat the Rockets<\/a> in a road Game 7 in 2025.<\/p>\n

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MORE: How 2026 tied NBA’s all-time record for most single-playoffs Game 7s<\/a><\/p>\n

How often does the road team win Game 7?<\/p>\n

There have been a total of 159 Game 7s in NBA playoff history. Of those Game 7s, the road team has won just 42 of them.<\/p>\n

That’s a winning percentage of .264, which certainly does not bode well for the traveling team’s chances.<\/p>\n

Has a road team ever won Game 7 of NBA Finals?<\/p>\n

On the NBA’s biggest stage, the Finals, there have been four teams to win a championship on the road in Game 7.<\/p>\n

The first instance was the 1969 Celtics, who took down the Lakers<\/a>, 108-106, in Game 7 on the road. A few years later, Boston did it again, taking down the Bucks<\/a> in Milwaukee<\/a> in a Game 7 to win the 1974 NBA title.<\/p>\n

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The 1978 Washington Bullets<\/a> also won a road Game 7 in the NBA Finals, beating the SuperSonics in Seattle. And most recently, in 2016, LeBron James<\/a> and the Cavaliers completed a 3-1 series comeback by stunning the Warriors in a Game 7 in the Bay Area, with Cleveland winning its first-ever title.<\/p>\n

Year<\/p>\n

Winning Road Team<\/p>\n

Losing Home Team<\/p>\n

Game 7 Final Score<\/p>\n

1969<\/p>\n

Celtics<\/p>\n

Lakers<\/p>\n

108-106<\/p>\n

1974<\/p>\n

Celtics<\/p>\n

Bucks<\/p>\n

102-87<\/p>\n

1978<\/p>\n

Bullets<\/p>\n

SuperSonics<\/p>\n

105-99<\/p>\n

2016<\/p>\n

Cavaliers<\/p>\n

Warriors<\/p>\n

93-89<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Explaining Victor Wembanyama’s “ethical basketball” comments<\/a><\/p>\n

Has a road team ever won Game 7 of NBA conference finals?<\/p>\n

In the conference finals\/semifinal round of the NBA playoffs, there have been 12 teams to win a Game 7 on the road. That includes road Game 7 wins in what used to be the Division Finals or the Semifinals, both of which were once considered the round before the Finals.<\/p>\n

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The two most recent instances of a team winning a road Game 7 in the conference finals both involved the Celtics and Heat. In 2022, the Celtics advanced to the Finals by taking down the Heat in Game 7 in Miami<\/a>. The following year, in 2023, the teams met again in the Eastern Conference Finals \u2014 and this time, it was the Heat who won a road Game 7 in Boston, though neither team went on to win the championship.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at the conference finalists to win a Game 7 on the road, advancing to the Finals:<\/p>\n

Year<\/p>\n

Winning Road Team<\/p>\n

Losing Home Team<\/p>\n

Game 7 Final Score<\/p>\n

1948<\/p>\n

Warriors<\/p>\n

Bombers<\/p>\n

85-46<\/p>\n

1968<\/p>\n

Celtics<\/p>\n

76ers<\/p>\n

100-96<\/p>\n

1971<\/p>\n

Bullets<\/p>\n

Knicks<\/a><\/p>\n

93-91<\/p>\n

1973<\/p>\n

Knicks<\/p>\n

Celtics<\/p>\n

94-78<\/p>\n

1976<\/p>\n

Suns<\/p>\n

Warriors<\/p>\n

94-86<\/p>\n

1982<\/p>\n

76ers<\/p>\n

Celtics<\/p>\n

120-106<\/p>\n

2002<\/p>\n

Lakers<\/p>\n

Kings<\/p>\n

112-106 (OT)<\/p>\n

2005<\/p>\n

Pistons<\/p>\n

Heat<\/p>\n

88-82<\/p>\n

2016<\/p>\n

Cavaliers<\/p>\n

Celtics<\/p>\n

87-79<\/p>\n

2016<\/p>\n

Warriors<\/p>\n

Rockets<\/p>\n

101-92<\/p>\n

2022<\/p>\n

Celtics<\/p>\n

Heat<\/p>\n

100-96<\/p>\n

2023<\/p>\n

Heat<\/p>\n

Celtics<\/p>\n

103-84<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Victor Wembanyama’s family tree, from basketball mother to tall siblings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA teams to win Game 7 on the road: What history says about San Antonio’s chances vs. Thunder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[1222,49,48,42549,4850,8823,1526,14735,5407,2327,6390,7670,459,2087,2699,9585,3555,1528,24619,6705,24616,2696,82,21217,47621,255893],"class_list":["post-703502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-boston-celtics","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cavs","tag-cleveland","tag-detroit","tag-joel-embiid","tag-knicks","tag-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-miami","tag-milwaukee","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-pistons","tag-rockets","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-victor-wembanyama","tag-warriors","tag-washington-bullets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}