Best NBA team to NOT win a title in the last 25 years

[tuq]

I am interested in is people's opinions on teams that should have won against their competition that year but somehow fell short. Going back to the 25 years, this is what I've come up with:

Interestingly, in the period between the 1983 and 1990 seasons, only the Celtics failed to win the title despite having the best regular season record. That was in 1985 and the Lakers only won one fewer game. Plus it's hard to argue that any of those champions were clearly inferior to another team.

That leads us to the 1990 Los Angeles Lakers. In the year after Kareem's retirement, a seemingly rejuvenated Lakers squad led by MVP Magic Johnson and COY Pat Riley won 63 games but got pozzed in the second round by the Suns, 4-1.

The 1991 Portland Trailblazers dominated the regular season before falling fairly meekly to an inferior Lakers squad in the WCF, only to watch them lose to the Bulls in the finals.

The 1993 Phoenix Suns had Chuck Rock as their MVP and lots of veteran talent that had challenged for a ring for years leading up to that season. They paced the NBA with 62 wins that season and came close to beating the Bulls in the finals.

The 1994 Seattle Supersonics had an incredible regular season, winning 63 games and a +9.0 point differential and six players in double figures. But all anyone remembers is Dikembe Mutumbo clutching the ball on the floor after Denver won the last three games of the series in the first instance of a number 8 seed beating the top seed.

The 1995 Utah Jazz didn't even have the best record that year. They won 60 games which was second to the Spurs' 62, however their PD was +8.0 to the Spurs' +6.0 and their bench was ridiculously deep, featuring nine regulars averaging more than six points per game. However, they fell in a short series to the 47-win Rockets, who then went on to luckbox their way to the title.

The 2002 Sacramento Kings. Best record (62 wins) and PD (+7.6) in the league. Woulda shoulda coulda but fell to the two-time defending champion Lakers in painful fashion.

The 2003 Dallas Mavericks. Tied with the Spurs for the best record, had a huge edge in PD but probably lost that to experience. This is a borderline submission but they were a very good team, and their 62 expected wins was five clear of anyone else.

The 2004 Indiana Pacers. This was Reggie Miller's last best shot at a title. They fell to the Pistons in the ECF in a series in which every final score ended up something like 58-56.

The 2007 Dallas Mavericks. This one is kinda tricky, as the Spurs won nine fewer games but had both a better PD and actually also had three more expected wins. Still, the Mavericks were the darlings of the regular season, had made the finals the year before, and had a veteran team with something to prove. History has shown that champions have to take their lumps - as the Pistons did with the Celtics and Lakers, or the Bulls did with the Pistons - but that they oftentimes eventually get there.

I've considered also doing this poll with the NFL, MLB, and college football and basketball, and one thing I realized is that the NBA clearly has the highest percentage of 'deserving' winners, with the NFL probably closely behind. The long series and disparity in talent leads to a surprisingly low number of WTF? winners.