Has an NBA game ever ended 80-78?
Yes. NBA has seen a final score of 80-78 25 times. It first happened on November 15, 1947, when Philadelphia Warriors beat Providence Steamrollers, and most recently on September 1, 2020, when Denver Nuggets beat Utah Jazz.
That makes 80-78 the 861st most common final score out of 3,189 that have ever occurred in NBA. One point away, 81-78 has happened 16 times and 80-79 has happened 24 times. At one point the score disappeared for 39 years, between 1954 and 1993.