Our pick for the best single playoff game of each postseason, 1957 to 2026, in chronological order. Click any row to expand its shooting line. Click any column to sort, and click Year to return to the timeline.
Context marks the game: E for an elimination game, CO for a closeout game, and 7 for a Game 7. Series codes: WCF and ECF are conference finals, WCS and ECS conference semifinals, WC1 and EC1 first round, EDF and EDS the old division finals and semifinals. An asterisk on Game Score means the figure was adjusted by hand. Pts, Reb, Ast, Stl and Blk are raw box score numbers. Steals and blocks were not tracked before 1974 and some early games lack them.
Every postseason from 1957 to 2026 has one game chosen as its best. The picks are editorial: they weigh how well a player played, how high the stakes were and what the game meant for the series. The table gives the full shooting line, Game Score and context for each one so you can check the pick against the numbers and disagree with it.
Click a row to expand the shooting line, click a column to sort, or search by player, team or opponent. The context column marks elimination games, closeout games and Game 7s. For the best games of a single player, see best playoff games by player, and for how the efficiency numbers are built, see the method page.