Chase format has delivered similar situations for NASCAR
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Game 7. Often one of the most anticipated times in sports. It's a do-or-die situation. Win or go home. If we are lucky, it lives up to the hype, stirring goosebumps and chills. Game 7s are nervous times for fans as a season hangs in the balance of one game, one moment, one shot, one call.
Saturday's night Game 7 in the NBA between the Los Angeles Clippers and the San Antonio Spurs was the epic culmination of a tremendous first round -- yes, first round -- series.
The game had everything: 31 lead changes, end-to-end action, stars raising their games, role players stepping up and two high profile coaches doing their best to help their teams advance.
Chris Paul, the star point guard for the Clippers, fought through a hamstring injury that kept him out for part of the first half. He went on to make a great shot with one second left that served as the game-winning basket to lift the Clippers to a 111-109 victory and a date with the Houston Rockets in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.
When it was all over, pundits were left to ponder if this was the end of an era for the Spurs, who were the defending NBA champions and have won five titles in 17 years. Could this be it for the championship trio of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and underrated sure-fire Hall of Famer Tim Duncan and their coach Gregg Popovich? Only time will tell.
Baseball saw a tremendous 2014 World Series come down to a seventh game between the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants with the Giants getting a pitching performance for the ages from Madison Bumgarner and their third title in five years.
It got me thinking. The revamped Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup has produced some great "Game 7"-esque moments in only one season. And there should be more to come this fall.
It's hard to forget how Brad Keselowski needed a win at Talladega Superspeedway last fall to keep his championship hopes alive. The 2012 champion came through in a big way at one of the sport's most unpredictable tracks with a victory in October's GEICO 500 that advanced him to the Eliminator 8.
However, no one delivered more in "Game 7" moments than Kevin Harvick. The defending series champion earned his title with wins in the final two races at Phoenix International Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. Harvick had to get a win at Phoenix, a track he has been superb at in recent years, to advance to the Championship 4. And he did just that, leading 264 of 312 laps for the win and a chance to race for the championship.
The following week at Homestead, Harvick scored the win after Rodney Childers made the call to come for fresh tires late in the race. Harvick used those four fresh Goodyears to get past Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin to take the lead and eventually hold off Newman for the championship.
Fans love Game 7s. The tension, the drama, the chance for an everlasting moment. The hype is hard to live up to, but in NASCAR's case last season with the new Chase format and more recently, with the Clippers-Series series, when it does live up to the billing, it is a phenomenal sight for sports fans to behold.