TheNBA conference finals are theEastern andWestern Conference championship series of theNational Basketball Association (NBA), a professionalbasketball league inNorth America. The NBA was founded in 1946 as theBasketball Association of America (BAA).[1] The NBA adopted its current name at the start of the1949–50 season when the BAA merged with theNational 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.[A] After the regular season, eight teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for theplayoffs. 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 theNBA Finals. Trophies were given to each conference winner starting in 2001. In 2022, the league started naming anNBA Conference Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) for each conference.[3]
Initially, the BAA teams were aligned into the Eastern Division and the Western Division. The Divisional Finals were first played in1949, the league's third season. The first two seasons used aplayoffs format where Eastern and Western Division teams would face each other before the BAA Finals. Hence, there were no divisional finals. In the1949–50 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 returned to the two-division format in1951. The two divisions' format remained until1970 when the NBA realigned itself into two conferences with two divisions each, which led to the renaming to conference finals.
The finals were 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. The conference finals are currently 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. After the conference finals, winners are presented with a silver trophy, caps, and T-shirts and advance to the NBA Finals.
TheLos Angeles Lakers have won the most conference titles with 19. They have also made 24 appearances in the conference finals, more than any other team, which included eight consecutive appearances in the Western Conference finals from 1982 to 1989. TheBoston Celtics have won 11 conference championships, the second most of any team. 23 of the 30 active franchises have won at least one conference title. TheMinnesota Timberwolves,Atlanta Hawks,Sacramento Kings,Memphis Grizzlies andLos Angeles Clippers have each played in at least one conference finals, but have failed to win their respective conference title. Two other franchises, theCharlotte Hornets andNew Orleans Pelicans, have never appeared in the conference finals.
The NBA first awarded conference championship trophies in 2001.[4] In 2022, both were redesigned, and named theBob Cousy Trophy for the Eastern Conference and theOscar Robertson Trophy for the Western Conference, in honor of two men who were instrumental in developing and advancing the players' labor union, theNational Basketball Players Association. The two redesigned trophies each feature a silver basketball with its respective conference finals logo on the underside. The trophies also 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 on intercrossing circular rings. 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 awardingConference Finals MVPs to the best-performing player of each Conference Finals: theLarry Bird Eastern Conference Finals Most Valuable Player Award and theMagic 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 smaller, and the ball on each trophy is silver, instead of gold, and follows the Conference Championship trophies in how it sits on the base.[5]
| NBA champion, winner of theNBA Finals | |
| † | Team with the best regular season record, or tie for best |
Stats updated through May 30, 2024
| Team | East | West | Total | East | West | Total | Total appearances |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champions | Runner-up | ||||||
| Los Angeles Lakers | 0 | 19 | 19 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 24 |
| Boston Celtics | 11 | 0 | 11 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 23 |
| 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 |
| Indiana Pacers | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 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 |
| Portland Trail Blazers | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| Utah Jazz | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| Dallas Mavericks | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| 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 |
| Minnesota Timberwolves | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 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 |
| 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.
To complete the postseason collection, the NBA updated its conference championship trophies, first created in 2001
