Here’s some background information about the NBA Finals. The NBA Finals follow the league’s regular season.
2017 Finals:
June 12, 2017 – Finals – The Golden State Warriors defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers with a series win, 4-1.
May 25, 2017 – Eastern Conference Finals – The Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the Boston Celtics with a series win, 4-1.
May 22, 2017 – Western Conference Finals – The Golden State Warriors defeat the San Antonio Spurs with a series win, 4-0.
2016 Finals:
June 19, 2016 – Finals – The Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the Golden State Warriors with a series win, 4-3.
May 30, 2016 – Western Conference Finals – The Golden State Warriors defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder with a series win, 4-3.
May 27, 2016 – Eastern Conference Finals – The Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the Toronto Raptors with a series win, 4-2.
Other Facts:
The finals champion is the first of two competing teams to win the best of seven games.
Of the 30 NBA teams that compete during the regular season, 16 teams, eight in the Eastern Conference and eight in the Western Conference, participate in the post-season playoffs leading up to the Finals. All playoff series are also the best of seven games.
The Finals championship is between one Eastern and one Western Conference team.
The winner receives the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, which was named after the former NBA commissioner in 1984.
The Boston Celtics have won the most league titles, at 17. The Lakers have won the second most, 16, with 11 wins in Los Angeles and 5 in Minneapolis.
Timeline:
1947 – In the Basketball Association of America (BAA), the Philadelphia Warriors beat the Chicago Stags in the first finals, four games to one.
August 1949 – National Basketball League (NBL) teams join the BAA, to become the National Basketball Association (NBA).
April 23, 1950 – In the first official NBA Finals, the Minneapolis Lakers beat the Syracuse Nationals, four games to two.
1956 – Bob Pettit with the St. Louis Hawks becomes the NBA’s first MVP, but Philadelphia Warriors beat the Ft. Wayne Pistons, four games to one.
1959-1966 – Boston wins the NBA Finals Championship for eight consecutive years.
1993 – The Chicago Bulls are the first team to win a “three-peat,” or three consecutive championships, since the Celtics in the 1960s.
June 5, 2014 – In Game 1 of the Finals in San Antonio between the Spurs and the Miami Heat, an electrical failure in the arena causes the air conditioning to fail, and the indoor temperature reaches above 90 degrees. The Spurs go on to beat the Heat in the series, 4-1.