The NBA conference finals are the Eastern and Western championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA), a major professional basketball league in North America. The NBA was founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). [1] The NBA adopted its current name at the start of the 1949–50 season when the BAA merged with the National Basketball League (NBL). [2] The league currently consists of 30 teams, of which 29 are located in the United States and 1 in Canada. Each team plays 82 games in the regular season. [upper-alpha 1] After the regular season, eight teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs. At the end of the playoffs, the top two teams play each other in the conference finals, to determine the Conference Champions from each side, who then proceed to play in the NBA Finals. Trophies were given to each conference winner starting in 2001. In 2022, they named them the Bob Cousy Trophy for the Eastern Conference and the Oscar Robertson Trophy for the Western Conference. Also that year, the league started naming an NBA conference finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) for each conference. [3]
Initially, the BAA teams were aligned into two divisions, the Eastern Division and the Western Division. The Divisional Finals were first played in 1949, the league's third season. The first two seasons used a playoffs format where Eastern and Western Division teams would face each other before the BAA Finals, hence there were no divisional finals. In the 1949–50 season, the league realigned itself to three divisions, with the addition of the Central Division. However, the arrangement was only used for one season and the league went back into two divisions format in 1951. The two divisions format remained until 1970, when the NBA realigned itself into two conferences with two divisions each, which led to the renaming to Conference finals.
The finals was a best-of-3 series from 1949 to 1950, a best-of-5 series from 1951 to 1956, and a best-of-7 series since 1957. Currently, the conference finals are played in a best-of-7 series like the NBA playoffs and Finals. The two series are played in late May each year after the first and second rounds of the Playoffs and before the Finals. At the conclusion of the conference finals, winners are presented with a silver trophy, caps, and T-shirts, and advance to the NBA Finals. The trophies have a slightly different base for each conference to help distinguish one from the other; the silver basketball on the Eastern Conference trophy sits on three pegs, while the Western Conference trophy has the basketball sitting on intercrossing circular rings.
The Los Angeles Lakers have won the most conference titles with 19. They have also made 23 appearances in the conference finals, more than any other team. The Boston Celtics have won 10 Conference titles, the second most of any team. Twenty-two of the 30 active franchises have won at least one conference title. The Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers have each played in at least one Conference finals (Atlanta and Sacramento have played in two), but they have each failed to win their respective conference title. Two other franchises, the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans, have never appeared in the conference finals.
The NBA first started awarding conference championship trophies in 2001. [4] In 2022, both were redesigned, with the Eastern and Western Conference trophies being renamed after Bob Cousy and Oscar Robertson, respectively, who were instrumental in developing and advancing the players' labor union, the National Basketball Players Association. The two redesigned trophies each feature a silver basketball with its respective conference finals logo on the underside. The silver basketball is quartered into four sections, representing the winning team first qualifying for the playoffs and then advancing through the three playoff rounds. In that same year, the NBA began awarding Conference Finals MVPs to the best performing player of each Conference Finals: the Larry Bird Eastern Conference finals Most Valuable Player Award and the Magic Johnson Western Conference finals Most Valuable Player Award, named for the two players credited for building the league up to greater popularity in the 1980s. The MVP trophies follow a design similar to that of the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP trophy, only the ball on each trophy will be silver and would be smaller versions of the Conference Championship trophies in how they sit on the base. [5]
| ^ | NBA champion, winner of the NBA Finals |
| † | Team with the best regular season record, or tie for best |
Stats updated through May 22, 2023
| Team | East | West | Total | East | West | Total | Total appearances |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champions | Runner-up | ||||||
| Los Angeles Lakers | 0 | 19 | 19 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 24 |
| Boston Celtics | 10 | 0 | 10 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 22 |
| San Antonio Spurs | 0 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 14 |
| Chicago Bulls | 6 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 11 |
| Detroit Pistons | 5 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 11 |
| Miami Heat | 7 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 10 |
| Seattle SuperSonics / Oklahoma City Thunder | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 10 |
| Phoenix Suns | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 10 |
| San Francisco / Golden State Warriors | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Milwaukee Bucks | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 9 |
| Cleveland Cavaliers | 5 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| Philadelphia 76ers | 5 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| Houston Rockets | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 |
| New York Knicks | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| Indiana Pacers | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 8 |
| Portland Trail Blazers | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| Utah Jazz | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| Dallas Mavericks | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Denver Nuggets | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Baltimore / Washington Bullets | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Orlando Magic | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Toronto Raptors | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Atlanta Hawks | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| New Jersey / Brooklyn Nets | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Kansas City / Sacramento Kings | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Memphis Grizzlies | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Minnesota Timberwolves | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Los Angeles Clippers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
In the sortable table below, teams are ordered first by number of appearances, then by number of wins, and finally by year of first appearance. In the "Season(s)" column, bold years indicate winning Conference finals appearances.
| Count | Matchup | Record | Years Played |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Boston Celtics vs. Miami Heat | Heat, 3–1 | 2012, 2020, 2022, 2023 |
| 4 | Los Angeles Lakers vs. San Antonio Spurs | Lakers, 4–0 | 1982, 1983, 2001, 2008 |
| 4 | Boston Celtics vs. Philadelphia 76ers | Tie, 2–2 | 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985 |
| 4 | Denver Nuggets vs. Los Angeles Lakers | Lakers, 3–1 | 1985, 2009, 2020, 2023 |
| 3 | Los Angeles Lakers vs. Phoenix Suns | Lakers, 3–0 | 1979, 1989, 2010 |
| 3 | Boston Celtics vs. Cleveland Cavaliers | Cavaliers, 2–1 | 1976, 2017, 2018 |
| 3 | Boston Celtics vs. Detroit Pistons | Celtics, 2–1 | 1987, 1988, 2008 |
| 3 | Boston Celtics vs. New York Knicks | Knicks, 2–1 | 1972, 1973, 1974 |
| 3 | Chicago Bulls vs. Detroit Pistons | Pistons, 2–1 | 1989, 1990, 1991 |
| 3 | Indiana Pacers vs. New York Knicks | Knicks, 2–1 | 1994, 1999, 2000 |
| 3 | Los Angeles Lakers vs. Portland Trail Blazers | Lakers, 2–1 | 1977, 1991, 2000 |
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