Has an NBA game ever ended 86-78?
Yes. NBA has seen a final score of 86-78 19 times. It first happened on December 7, 1946, when Chicago Stags beat Cleveland Rebels, and most recently on February 14, 2012, when Los Angeles Lakers beat Atlanta Hawks.
That makes 86-78 the 1001st most common final score out of 3,189 that have ever occurred in NBA. One point away, 87-78 has happened 20 times and 86-79 has happened 28 times. Nearly all of its occurrences fall between 1980 and 2009. At one point the score disappeared for 37 years, between 1954 and 1991.