Players from the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors will try to add their names to the list of great performances in NBA Finals history.
And as the NBA concludes its 75th anniversary season, it's an ideal time to look back on the best individual efforts we've ever seen in the league's championship round.
We'll be doing so on a game-by-game basis throughout the 2022 Finals, choosing a six-player team -- all five positions plus a sixth man -- from each game during the series (Game 1s, Game 2s and so on).
There's no specific formula for what constitutes Finals greatness, though I will be leaning on the game score metric developed by John Hollinger for games where it's available from Basketball-Reference.com since player turnovers were first tracked in the 1977-78 season.
The all-time great Game 3s featured a number of players facing 2-0 deficits, highlighted by Dwyane Wade powering a Miami Heat fourth-quarter comeback, Jimmy Butler recording a historic triple-double for the Heat and Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain outplaying Boston Celtics rival Bill Russell. Let's take a look back.
Point guard: Jerry West | 1965 Lakers vs. Celtics
Stats: 43 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists
The Lakers needed West to do everything on offense with Elgin Baylor -- more on him in a moment -- injured, to have a chance against a Boston team with a 2-0 lead.
West delivered in Game 3.
After 45 points in a narrow Game 2 loss with nearly as many on 13 fewer shot attempts. Much of West's damage came from the line, where he made 17 free throws in 20 attempts, both tied for his most ever in the Finals. West added a team-high seven assists as the Lakers crushed the Celtics 126-105 -- just Boston's third Finals loss by 20-plus points ever at the time.
Shooting guard: Dwyane Wade | 2006 Heat vs. Mavericks
Stats: 42 points, 13 rebounds
Down 2-0 to Dallas, Miami was on the ropes in the fourth quarter of Game 3. It trailed by as many as 13 and were close to a harrowing 3-0 deficit. But Wade led Miami to a series-changing win.
During the fourth quarter, Wade nearly matched the Mavericks (19) with 15 points, shooting 6-of-9 from the field. His jumper with 1:16 left got the Heat back within one before veteran Gary Payton delivered the game-winning jumper with 9.3 seconds remaining. Wade also tipped away a lob to Josh Howard just before the buzzer that could have sent the game to overtime.
"I've seen Dwyane do that before," Miami coach Pat Riley said. "There's been 10, 12, 14 games this year where we've been down double digits in the fourth quarter, and we have come back. ... Incredible, just the heart that he has."
For the game, Wade's 42 points were more than the team's other three double-figure scorers (Shaquille O'Neal, Antoine Walker and Jason Williams) combined and led the team with 13 boards.
Small forward: Jimmy Butler | 2020 Heat vs. Lakers
Stats: 40 points, 13 assists, 11 rebounds
Miami needed a Herculean effort from Butler to get its first win of the series, with starters Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic sidelined with injuries suffered in Game 1 of the Finals.
His 40-point triple-double was just the third in Finals history, joining West (Game 7 in 1969) and LeBron James (Game 5 in 2015).
Unlike those performances, both of which came in losses, Butler was remarkably efficient given his heavy offensive load. He shot 14-of-20 from the field and 12-of-14 from the free throw line, leading the Heat to a comfortable victory, despite the other four starters shooting a combined 18-of-45.
"How else do you say it other than Jimmy F'ing Butler?" Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said after the game. "This is what he wanted; this is what we wanted. It's really hard to analyze or describe Jimmy, until you actually feel him between the four lines. He is a supreme, elite competitor."
Power forward: Elgin Baylor | 1963 Lakers vs. Celtics
Stats: 38 points, 23 rebounds, 8 assists
Baylor's spectacular Game 3 gave the Lakers their first win of the 1963 Finals after a pair of narrow losses in Boston. He and West supplied the vast majority of the Lakers' offense, combining for 80 points. And while West (42) actually outscored Baylor, the latter had a more complete game.
Baylor's 23 rebounds were more than Bill Russell on the other side (19) and tied his career high in a playoff game. Meanwhile, Baylor's eight assists were the second-most he recorded in the playoffs.
Center: Wilt Chamberlain | 1964 Warriors vs. Celtics
Stats: 35 points, 25 rebounds, 5 assists
Because the Warriors had moved to the West Division, 1964 was Chamberlain's first Finals appearance after losing to Boston in the Eastern Division Finals in both 1960 and 1962. The Celtics were still heavy favorites and would go on to win the series in five games, but Chamberlain bested his rival Russell in Game 3.
By modern standards, Chamberlain's 15-of-22 shooting en route to 35 points might not seem exceptional, but it was the highest shooting percentage to date in a Finals game with at least 20 attempts according to Stathead.com. By contrast, Russell was limited to 16 points on 7-of-19 shooting despite pulling down a game-high 32 boards.
Sixth man: Giannis Antetokounmpo | 2021 Bucks vs. Suns
Stats: 41 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists
This time a year ago, Milwaukee was down 2-0 to Phoenix. Giannis helped begin a comeback that included four consecutive wins with his second consecutive 40-10 effort, this time in a winning cause. (Shaquille O'Neal in the 2000 Finals is the only other player to do so in consecutive Finals games, per ESPN Stats & Information.) After struggling at the foul line early in the playoffs, Antetokounmpo made 13-of-17 attempts and handed out six assists as the Bucks cruised to a 120-100 win at home.
"I've seen him do a lot of stuff like this," Milwaukee teammate Khris Middleton said. "It doesn't surprise me. To see him do this for a while now, and now it's on the biggest stage and now everybody is getting a chance to see what he goes through; how he's hurt and he still finds a way to go out there and compete and be productive and be dominant at the same time."
Three years earlier, Kevin Durant had almost an identical stat line (43 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists) in a Game 3 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, Giannis gets the nod for the last spot because the stakes were much higher than during the Golden State Warriors' 2018 sweep.