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The List: Clutch teams Page 2 staff |
| The 2001 New York Yankees didn't win another World Series, but they did get us thinking about coming up big in the clutch. With that in mind, Page 2 offers up its list of the 10 most clutch teams in sports history. To be on our list, a team needs to have won a championship and earned some clutch victories along the way.
Rollie Massimino's Wildcats were close to perfection from the floor (22-for-28) and the free-throw line (22-for-27) to upset heavily-favored Georgetown in the NCAA title game. 2. 1986 New York Mets The Mets staged great comebacks in Game 6 of the NLCS against Houston and Game 6 in the World Series against the Red Sox (the Buckner Game). 3. 1953-54 Milan High School The "Hoosiers" team, the only small school ever to win the Indiana state prep title, upsetting Muncie Central in the finals on a last-second shot by Bobby Plump (Jimmy Chitwood in the movie). 4. 1993 Montreal Canadiens Set an NHL record with 10 overtime wins en route to the Stanley Cup title, including an NHL-record six on the road and an NHL-record tying four at home. (They played 20 games in the playoff that year, 10 went into OT and they won all of them). Current Flyer John LeClair scored two of the OT winners in the finals for Montreal.
Came out of nowhere behind unknown QB Kurt Warner to make the playoffs, nipped Tampa Bay in an NFC championship defensive struggle, and stopped the Titans on the 1-yard-line as time expired to win the Super Bowl after taking the lead on a 73-yard TD toss to Isaac Bruce with 1:54 remaining. 5. 1991 Minnesota Twins Kirby Puckett's great catch and homer in Game 6 and Jack Morris' classic 10-inning, 1-0 masterpiece over John Smoltz and the Braves in Game 7 (plus Chuck Knoblauch's game-saving deke of Lonnie Smith in the eighth inning) led the small-market Twinkies to their second World Series title in five years. 6. 1997-98 Chicago Bulls Running on fumes with Scottie Pippen injured in Finals, Michael Jordan stole the ball from Karl Malone and made the Finals-ending shot in Utah for the Bulls' third straight NBA title and sixth in eight years. (You knew we'd have an MJ team on the list.)
Outscored overall by the Yankees by an overwhelming margin, the Bucs won four one-run games, including a classic Game 7 on Mazeroski's homer in the bottom of the ninth. 8. 1968-69 Boston Celtics Boston beat the L.A. Lakers (with Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor) on the road in Game 7. The Celts also won an earlier game on a buzzer-beater by Sam Jones. 9. 1994-95 Houston Rockets "Clutch City" was born in Houston in '95. The Rockets might have struggled in the regular season (finishing sixth in the West with a 47-35 record), but the defending champs were unbeatable in the playoffs. Houston became the first team to eliminate four 50-win teams (including rallying from a 3-1 deficit to defeat Phoenix in the West semis) as they swept Shaq's Magic out of the Finals. 10. 1958 Baltimore Colts Led by Johnny Unitas, the Colts came back to tie the NFL title game late, then beat the New York Giants 23-17 in overtime in "The Greatest Game Ever Played." Also receiving votes: |
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