In 1988, the Los Angeles Lakers went for back-to-back NBA championships after their head coach, Pat Riley, guaranteed they would do so after winning the previous year’s world title.
But the road was rocky. They were taken to the full seven games by the Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks in the second and third rounds of the playoffs.
Then, in the NBA Finals versus the Detroit Pistons, L.A. fell behind 3-2, and it had to earn a gutsy win in Game 6 to force a winner-take-all showdown.