Bay Area sports fans shouldn’t allow the end of the Warriors and Giants dynasties to serve as a whitewashing that cleanses their minds of how much greatness they’ve witnessed over the past 10 years.
No one who has ever lived in this region has seen a decade in which the local teams made more playoff appearances (29), advanced to more championships (10) or won more world titles (6).
Bay Area fans have been bathing in so much reflective glory since 2010 we had an impossible time picking out the decade’s 10 best games.
Think we’re exaggerating? We couldn’t even find room on our Top 10 list for a pair of perfect games (don’t @ me, Dallas Braden or Matt Cain) or the Warriors’ record-breaking 73rd win in 2016. The Warriors’ three title-clinching wins? Not on the list.
And the Raiders’ signature moment of the past 10 years — 2016’s season-opening victory in New Orleans made possible by Jack Del Rio’s decision to go for two points? Not quite good enough for this list.
Frankly, we could have included nothing but Warriors and Giants games, but we strived for an adequate representation from as many of our six pro teams as possible.
With apologies to many, many worthy and memorable games around here from the 2010s, here’s what we came up with as the best games:
10. A’s miraculous last-day comeback to win AL West title (2012)
CLICK HERE if you are having a problem viewing the videos on a mobile device
Did you know the A’s finished the decade with more wins than the Giants (839 to 821), more trips to the postseason than San Francisco (5-4) and the same number of division titles (2)? Probably not. But everyone knows the Giants won three titles since 2010, including one in 2012 that overshadowed Oakland’s magical season.
The last game of the regular season epitomized how the underdog A’s battled. Oakland, with the league’s lowest payroll of $59.5 million, was the consensus pick for the AL West cellar. Armed with an all-rookie starting rotation by season’s end, the A’s overcame a five-game deficit to Texas with just nine games left to set up a winner-take-all season finale.
After falling behind 5-1, a raucous Coliseum crowd watched in delirium as Oakland scored six runs in the fourth — fueled by a dropped pop fly by Texas’ Josh Hamilton — on its way to victory.
9. 49ers beat Saints, 48-46, in New Orleans thriller (2019)
Recency bias has nothing to do with this choice. No one who watched the epic showdown two weeks ago thought of the game as anything but epic.
The battle for NFC supremacy featured nearly 100 points and 1,000 yards of offense while becoming an instant classic.
Robbie Gould’s 30-yard field goal at the gun provided the winning points, but All-Pro tight end George Kittle did the dirty work. Marshawn Lynch may be retired, but Kittle showed “Beast Mode” is still alive … it’s just moved a few miles south.
Kittle’s memorable stampede began with a fourth-and-2 play with less than 30 seconds to go and the 49ers on the verge of a crushing loss. Kittle, though, snuck out in the flat where Jimmy Garoppolo hit him for the first down. But he wasn’t done. He broke tackles and pulled away from Saints defenders grabbing at his facemask while gaining 20 more yards to help make Gould a hero.
8. Klay Thompson sets NBA record with 37-point quarter (2015)
You don’t win three titles in four years without dabbling a lot in the spectacular. Witness Klay Thompson of the Warriors, who turned in three displays of offensive firepower the likes of which the NBA had never seen. But even his NBA-record night of hitting 14 3-pointers in Chicago last season and a 60-point night in Oakland in 2017 while touching the ball for 90 seconds and dribbling it 11 times took a backseat to what he did in 2015.
On a cold January night, Thompson provided the ultimate heat check while smashing the NBA’s record by scoring 37 points in the third quarter of a 126-101 victory. He broke the old mark of 33 points in a single quarter by George Gervin and Carmelo Anthony. Thompson was literally perfect, hitting all 13 of his shots in the period. He also set an NBA record with nine 3-pointers.
7. 49ers march past Saints, 36-32, in playoff classic (2012)
As aesthetically pleasing as this month’s 49ers-Saints game was, their showdown seven years ago in the NFC Divisional playoff game at Candlestick provided even more thrills. In all, there were four touchdowns scored in the game’s last five minutes and the lead changed hands four times.
And, just like this year’s showdown, back then the 49ers relied heavily on their star tight end — Vernon Davis had a breakout game, catching seven passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner on a 14-yard post play with nine seconds left.
In 49ers lore their quarterbacks have authored iconic plays such as “The Catch” with Joe Montana, “The Catch II” with Steve Young to Terrell Owens and, in the 2012 playoff game played right after the 30-year anniversary of “The Catch,” Alex Smith delivered what Davis would call simply “The Grab.”
6. Unlikely hero Ishikawa’s homer sends Giants to World Series (2014)
Little-known Travis Ishikawa felt the need to watch a replay “a hundred times” of his walk-off homer that sent the Giants to the World Series in 2014 to prove to himself he did it. That should be all you need to know about this storybook ending.
From starting the year as a 30-year-old unemployed baseball player contemplating retirement to a National League Championship Series hero is about as sappy an ending as there can be. From Cody Ross in 2010 to Marco Scutaro in 2012, Ishikawa, the man who platooned in left field with Juan Perez, completed the trifecta of reclamation projects-turned-Giants postseason stars.
Ishikawa’s 3-run home run at then-AT&T Park capped a superb series for him — he batted .385 with seven RBIs in the NLCS. Ordinarily, he would have earned MVP honors. But, Madison Bumgarner was otherworldly back then. More on him a little later.
5. ‘Bang! Bang!’ Steph Curry shoots down OKC (2016)
Who can forget TV announcer Mike Breen’s call on Steph Curry’s buzzer-beating, game-winning shot in Oklahoma City in 2016?
Curry’s 38-foot shot from near halfcourt to send Kevin Durant and the Thunder to an overtime loss didn’t bring the Warriors a championship. But it sure added to his legend. For our money, it remains the most memorable shot a Warrior made during the team’s incredible five-year run of NBA Finals appearances.
Curry wound up with 46 points on 14-for-24 shooting while also tying the then-NBA record with 12 3-pointers (he missed just four). This game had everything — including two Andre Iguodala free throws with 0.7 seconds left to send the game into OT, a scary Curry ankle injury that sent him to the locker room and a legendary postgame argument between Draymond Green and Steve Kerr.
In the end, we were just witnesses to another illustrious chapter of Curry’s career.
Anybody else miss watching this guy play?
4. A power play for the ages gives Sharks epic Game 7 win (2019)
Something always seemed to doom the Sharks during their two-decade run as one of the NHL’s best teams. Then something magical happened last year while they were on their way to a 3-0 loss in Game 7 of the Western Conference’s first-round series against Vegas.
They got a break.
A controversial five-minute major penalty was called on Vegas for a cross-check that sent Joe Pavelski’s head bouncing off the ice. The Sharks’ power play netted a whopping four goals during the power play while the crowd at SAP Center went absolutely crazy with excitement. The insanity reached a crescendo when Kevin Labanc wristed a shot past the Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to give the Sharks a 4-3 lead just four minutes after the penalty.
While the Golden Knights did tie the game to send it to overtime — see, we told you things always seem to go awry in San Jose — this time the Sharks prevailed on Barclay Goodrow’s stirring series-winning goal.
3. 49ers lose an unforgettable Super Bowl to Ravens (2013)
The game was billed as “The Harbaugh Bowl” as the 49ers’ Jim Harbaugh and brother John of the Ravens became the first brothers to coach against one another in a Super Bowl. Around these parts it’s remembered as a missed opportunity for the 49ers to win their sixth Super Bowl.
The 49ers’ 34-31 loss in Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans is also noteworthy for a bizarre 34-minute delay when the power went out in the Superdome. The game also stands out because Colin Kaepernick — remember him? — came this close to leading San Francisco back from a 28-6 deficit to a Super Bowl title against the Joe Flacco-led Ravens.
The 49ers ran four plays inside the 10-yard line in the final minutes with a chance for victory. But Kaepernick couldn’t connect on his final three passes intended for Michael Crabtree, including a fourth-down play that looked suspiciously like a holding penalty could have been called on Baltimore.
Seven years later, maybe the 49ers’ luck could change against Lamar Jackson’s Ravens in Miami in a couple of months.
2. #Game6Klay wills Warriors to unforgettable win at OKC (2016)
We failed to mention one other criteria for our honor roll. If a lasting, viral hashtag is borne out of the performance, it’s on the list. We see you, #Game6Klay.
Klay Thompson will forever be loved in the Bay Area not only for his unique personality, but for the unbelievable things he has done on the basketball floor. In Game 6 of the 2016 Western Conference finals, he flat-out refused to allow the Warriors to lose to Kevin Durant and the Thunder. Down 3-1 in the series before winning at home, the Warriors seemed doomed in Game 6 while trailing most of the game.
Then Klay happened. He set an NBA record with 11 3-pointers in a postseason game while scoring 41 points and breaking the Thunder’s spirit all the while gaining a little immortality.
All Durant could say about Thompson’s Game 6 showing after the series was it was “like the hand of God touched Klay.”
1. Game 7 of ‘The Madison Bumgarner World Series’ (2014)
Drama. A super-human feat. An awkward postgame MVP presentation. The Giants’ Game 7 of the 2014 World Series had it all.
Madison Bumgarner helped the Giants win two World Series before likely paving a path to Cooperstown on a cool October night in Kansas City while singlehandedly leading them to a third trophy.
After already starting and winning two games in the series, Bumgarner summoned the strength to come out of the bullpen and throw five shutout innings in Game 7. After a misplay in the outfield put the Royals’ Alex Gordon on third base as the tying run in the bottom of the ninth inning, Bumgarner induced Salvador Perez to pop out to Pablo Sandoval in foul territory and “Panda” flopped on his backside as the celebration began.
Bumgarner wound up throwing 14 shutout innings within four days against Kansas City. He allowed just one run in the entire series over his 21 innings — for a 0.43 ERA that actually raised his career World Series ERA a bit to 0.25 in 36 overall innings, which remains a clear-cut record.
Thanks to MadBum, the Giants became the first World Series road team to win a Game 7 since 1979. Also thanks to the big lefty, San Francisco enjoyed its third World Series parade later that week on Halloween night.
Have your own top 10 to share, or want to make an argument for a single game you think should’ve made it? Hit us at sports@bayareanewsgroup.com
SEASON PASS DIGITAL OFFER
If you have not already, we strongly encourage you to sign up for a digital subscription, which gives you access to all content on the Mercury News and East Bay Times websites. With your support, we can continue bringing these stories — and much more — to your screens. Here’s where to sign up for the season pass: Mercury News, East Bay Times.
