Which sport is the most exciting in the final minutes of the game (regulation, not OT)?

[Drop]

Simple question....which sport is the most exciting in the final minutes of the game? Now i'm talking about the end of regulation, not overtime.

And for the sake of this discussion and poll i'm talking professional sports specifically. Basketball (NBA), football (NFL), baseball (MLB), hockey (NHL), Nascar, and soccer (MLS, English Premier League, whatever else is major) will have their own options. If you feel the college variety of a particular sport has the better final minutes of action, then vote "other" and explain why.

College and any other somewhat major sports you can think of will fall under "other". But again, do not compare the NFL's overtime to college's overtime. I'm talking about the end of regulation. We can discuss which sport has the best overtime in another thread.

To me, the answer is hockey. The NHL is always exciting at the end, and the game speeds up when it's close or tied (which is almost always).

Unless it's a blowout, the NHL is always fast paced at the end and keeps me on the edge of my seat. You rarely see a game where a team ABSOLUTELY believes they are out of it with 5 minutes to go. Unless the game is seperated by more than 3 goals....you don't see a "just finish it out" type of attitude in hockey. And i for one, love that about the sport.

On the other hand you have the NBA....absolutely dreadful at the end in my opinion. The game slows down, it's foul after foul after foul, the clock stops and starts, stops and starts, there's a crapload of boring free throws....i dunno, just not my slice of pie. I hate that the last 5 minutes on an NBA game clock take 15 or 20 minutes to playout if the game is anywhere close. In the NBA, i pray for blowouts so that i don't have to watch that boring, slow, drawn out ending to the game.

Baseball, football, Nascar, soccer, they all have their solid finishes and their snoozers alike. Not a Nascar fan, although i know that those entire races basically boil down to the last 10 laps...so maybe a case can be made there. Soccer, i don't pay enough attention to. I know a lot of the World Cup games were exciting at the end, so if you got a reason that's the best, spill it.

So....which sport has the most exciting, captivating, thrilling endings to their games overall??

[daveakl]

I said baseball.

Let's say 1 run game, bottom of the ninth.

Every pitch has the chance to tie the game. With a runner on every pitch has the chance to win the game.

Hockey was a close second but you do have the down time when the puck clears the zone.

The other issue is are we talking playoff or regular season.

[Xameil]

I think any sport where the score is close a case can be made for.

Football if the score is 8 or less gets pretty good at the end. The team thats down starts to take more chances.

Soccer starts to move faster...if you are the team thats down.

Hockey is pretty damn exciting at the end if the score is close for both sides, but usually the winning team just makes a wall in front of the goal.

Nascar, if the cars are close enough together, plus the excitement goeas all the way thru the field....everyone is trying to get at least 1 more spot.

Rugby, pretty much the same as football...

so it really is a tough call.

[ixcuincle]

So difficult

NFL, Hockey

NBA takes like 5 minutes just to play out one final game minute

[authentic]

1. Football

2. Basketball

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3. Baseball

[Drop]

yes it's true, any given sport can be more or less exciting depending on the score at the end and whatnot.

i just think for my money, more often than not hockey is the most exciting overall. I can turn on a hockey game and i'm almost guarenteed that the end, if nothing else, will be worth watching. I don't know that i can say that for any other sport really. Some of them are 50/50 like the NFL and baseball....but i don't know that i'd say "more often than not" pertaining to those two.

[budski]

Archery!!!!

[ATLredskin]

Has to be basketball. In football alot of times you have to rely on a hail mary or that tossing the ball around meaning scoring is very unlikely and less exciting. Same with baseball since scoring is very rare. And there is really nothing exciting about baseball. Same with hockey and soccer...the last minute desperate attempts that in the back of your head know is not going to happen. Basketball is the last second shot and you can keep creating scenarios for your team to eventually take the lead/tie simply by your opposing team missing free throws or by you getting a turnover.

[mattsb84]

Seen to many skins games where they fall on their face when it counts the most. Either turn it over or let the other team get in position to win. Constant failure in that regard isn't terribly exciting to me. In fact, its depressing.

I voted soccer, but playoff hockey has to be a close 2nd to me. Both sports you see an onslaught from the team trailing. It makes things mighty exciting.

[#98QBKiller]

I said football but basketball is a close #2.

[Drop]

wow, more love for hoops than i would have expected. I don't know how you guys can watch the end of an NBA game.

[ATLredskin]

If we are talking overtime then hockey hands down. You really can't anticipate when they are going to score so it come as a shock. In soccer when they get close enought or have a good shot then you see it coming, unless they hit a great 30ft rare shot then yeah...

[Kilmer17]

Anyone who watched Landon Donovans goal in the final minute vs Algeria knows the answer.

[ATLredskin]

yes it's true, any given sport can be more or less exciting depending on the score at the end and whatnot.

i just think for my money, more often than not hockey is the most exciting overall. I can turn on a hockey game and i'm almost guarenteed that the end, if nothing else, will be worth watching. I don't know that i can say that for any other sport really. Some of them are 50/50 like the NFL and baseball....but i don't know that i'd say "more often than not" pertaining to those two.

Hockey has a guaranteed great ending??? We are talking about close games right??? I will take a wild guess and say the average score in a hockey game is 3-2 so that is about 1 goal per every 12 minutes so what are the chances someone scoring a goal in the final say 5 minutes???

[Corcaigh]

I hate basketball with all the stoppages for timeouts and fouls at the end.

And I really don't like football where the last two minutes of the game is someone taking a knee, or the other team making very low percentage plays in desperation

So i guess hockey or soccer.

[Destino]

If the score is close the NFL is great in the final minutes.

Soccer can be amazing in the final minutes or it can lose it's form and turn into a game of keep away.

Baseball is just as boring in the final minutes as it is in the first few.

NASCAR's only exciting moments are in the final minutes IMO.

Basketball has the worst final minutes of all sports... just turns into a fouling marathon that a frankly a shame on the sport.

NHL gets pretty crazy in the final minutes if the game is close.

I'm going to have to go with the NFL. I remember a lot of crazy finishes that had me at the edge of my seat.

[MattFancy]

I think any sport where the score is close a case can be made for.

Football if the score is 8 or less gets pretty good at the end. The team thats down starts to take more chances.

Soccer starts to move faster...if you are the team thats down.

Hockey is pretty damn exciting at the end if the score is close for both sides, but usually the winning team just makes a wall in front of the goal.

Nascar, if the cars are close enough together, plus the excitement goeas all the way thru the field....everyone is trying to get at least 1 more spot.

Rugby, pretty much the same as football...

so it really is a tough call.

I picked hockey, but I agree with this. Any sport can be exciting if the score is close at the end. But I picked hockey because it just seems more intense that any of the other sports at the end. At any time the puck can slip past the goalie and into the net.

[Hubbs]

wow, more love for hoops than i would have expected. I don't know how you guys can watch the end of an NBA game.

Seriously, basketball is so much worse in this area than all other major sports. You know what I enjoy at the end of a close game? Eighty-seven timeouts in a row. :doh:

(Baseball can be just as bad if the managers start playing pitcher match-ups, though. Nothing like that third set of warmups in an inning to really get the juices flowing.)

I'll take football over hockey by a smidge, if only because I feel like there's more strategy to a two-minute drill. The last minute of a close hockey game too often comes down to "shoot a lot and hope for a deflection."

[TD_washingtonredskins]

I'm biased with football being my favorite sport to watch, but I do love watching the closing minutes of a close gridiron game.

Assuming the team losing either has the ball or has the timeouts necessary to stop the clock and possibly get the ball back, I love watching the final minutes unfold.

Granted, if the winning team has the ball with 40 seconds left or something, you just watch some meaningless plays, but that goes for any sport really.

[sundown]

I say hockey, a team down by one pulling their goalie and putting six attackers on the ice just firing the puck from everywhere, its pretty intense.

[Botched]

Football.

Basketball is good too, but it would be alot better if there weren't 18 fouls and 7 timeouts in the last 40 seconds of play.

Hockey has the best overtime by a mile.

[brianm23]

Basketball hands down because so much can change in a short time. Not much is going to happen in football with 10 seconds on the clock and a team is down by 2 sitting on their own 20. Not so in basketball. (same with hockey, soccer, or any other sport)

[terrifNick21]

The end of Game 7 of this year's Finals.

[ixcuincle]

Hockey has a guaranteed great ending??? We are talking about close games right??? I will take a wild guess and say the average score in a hockey game is 3-2 so that is about 1 goal per every 12 minutes so what are the chances someone scoring a goal in the final say 5 minutes???

R8v8C3scwvg

[endzone_dave]

Basketball is the worst but that's only because of all of the fouling and timeouts.

A lot of football games end with the winning team kneeling down to end the last minute and a half.

Baseball is good because there is no time limit. Teams can blow a 4 run lead in the 9th. There is a reason to watch the end of most games.

NASCAR can be good or it can be boring, depending on how far ahead the leader is (which is why late race cautions add to the excitement). If a driver has a two second lead with 5 laps to go, it's pretty boring.

Hockey is great but if there is a three goal lead, you might as well turn your tv off for the last five minutes.