NBA Conference Finals

Western and Eastern Conference Finals logos used in 2008.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) Conference Finals are the Eastern Conference and Western Conference 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 league adopted its current name at the start of 1949–1950 season when it merged with the National Basketball League (NBL).^[2] The league currently consists of thirty teams, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada. Each team plays 82 games in the regular season. After the regular season, eight teams from each of the league's two conferences qualified for the playoffs. The final two teams in the conference playoffs will play each other in the Conference Final, to determine the conference champion who will play in the NBA Finals.

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-three series from 1949 to 1950 to; a best-of-five series from 1951 to 1957, and a best-of-seven series since 1957. Currently, the Conference Finals are played in a best-of-seven series like the NBA Playoffs and the NBA 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 Lakers franchise won the most conference titles with 31, which consists of 30 Western Conference titles and 1 title in the now-defunct Central Division. They also made 40 appearances in the Conference Finals, more than any other teams. Boston Celtics won 21 Eastern Conference titles, the second most conference titles won after Lakers. The Celtics also holds the record for consecutive titles; they won 10 consecutive Eastern Division titles from 1957 to 1966. The Warriors franchise and the Pistons franchise hold the distinction of being the only teams to have won both East and West titles. 23 of the 30 active franchises have won at least 1 conference title. The Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves have played in 3 and 1 Conference Finals respectively, but they failed to win the titles. 5 other franchises, the Charlotte Bobcats, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Memphis Grizzlies, the New Orleans Hornets and the Toronto Raptors have never appeared in the Conference Finals. Of the 125 conference and divisional champions, 39 were won by the team who had or tied for the best regular season record for that season.

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