[King Glorious]

Off the top of my head, the 1981 series between Houston and LA. LA was the defending champ and Houston took them out 2-1, winning game three by three. Or maybe the 1989 series between Chicago and Cleveland. Chicago won game five by one to win the series 3-2.

Outside of the first round, I remember some really, really good series that are at least in the convo (lol) with this Boston/Chicago series:

1981 East Finals (greatest ever for me)
Boston and Philly both won 62 games to tie for the best record. Philly won game one 105-104 in Boston. Boston came back to win 118-99 to tie the series. They went to Philly and the Sixers won 110-100 and 107-105 to take a 3-1 lead. Boston went home and won game five 111-109, went to Philly and won game six 100-98, and won game seven at home 91-90. Five of the seven games decided by two points or less.

1987 East Finals where Boston beat Detroit in game seven by three.

1988 East Semis where Atlanta was up 3-2 and then Boston won game six in Atlanta 102-100 and then won game seven at home 118-116 in the game where Bird outscored Dominique 20-16 in the fourth quarter.

2002 West Finals
Lakers were down 2-1 and tied the series on Horry's miracle three pointer. Sacramento won the next game by one to go up 3-2 then the Lakers won game six by four and game seven by six in overtime. With that series and how the Lakers had to come from 15 down in the fourth in game seven against Portland in 2000, people forget just how close the Lakers were to never three-peating.

2006 West Semis where Dallas finally got past SA in seven when it really counted.

1995 East Semis between NY and Indiana. Indiana won the series 4-3 and three of their wins were by two points, including game seven. NY won one of their games by only one.

1988 Finals
Detroit took a 3-2 lead on the Lakers before LA came back to win game six 103-102 (damn Rodman shooting that layup on the fast break and missing) and then the Lakers won game seven 108-105.