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Both conference finals go to Game 7 for 1st time since 1979

The Sporting News / Sporting News / Getty

For the first time since 1979, both conference finals have gone the distance. The Boston Celtics will host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night and the Golden State Warriors will head south to take on the Houston Rockets on Monday in a pair of winner-takes-all Game 7s.

Needless to say, things looked a little different around the NBA in 1979 (and not just in the length of the shorts).

For one, the Eastern Conference finals featured the then-Washington Bullets hosting the San Antonio Spurs (eschewing geography, the Spurs wouldn't realign to the Western Conference until the 1980-81 season; the Bullets were renamed the Wizards in 1997). The Spurs actually led 3-1 in the series before the Bullets made their improbable comeback, punctuated by a series-winning shot by forward Bob Dandridge with just eight seconds on the clock to take Game 7 on their home floor.

Out west that year, the Phoenix Suns hosted the Seattle SuperSonics (now, of course, the Oklahoma City Thunder) in the Western Conference finals, but didn't enjoy the same home-court advantage as the Bullets. Jack Sikma dropped 33 points to lead all scorers and the 'Sonics left the desert with a 114-110 win.

Warriors fans are surely hoping history repeats itself. If 2018's Finals replicate those of 1979 - when the SuperSonics beat the Bullets in five games - Golden State's star-studded roster will defeat the Celtics for the fifth championship in franchise history.

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