National Basketball Association (NBA) was established in 1949 by merging the National Basketball League (NBL) and Basketball Association of America (BAA). First NBA championship league is played in 1950 but every match played in BAA from its creation in 1946 up to the merging in 1949 is recognized and its counted as part of its history.
Since 1950 all the teams that are part of the National Basketball Association (NBA) are separated into two conferences, West Conference and East Conference. Each one of them is made from 15 teams making it in total of 30 teams that compete for becoming NBA Champion League. In 2004-05 season both conferences had divisional alignment and each one of them have adopted th enew devisional system. This devisional alignment necessitated the move of the team New Orleans Pelicans from the Central Division of Eastern Conference to Southwest Division of Western Conference.
There Are Six Divisions in Total in NBA:
Part of Eastern Conference:
- Atlantic Division
- Southeast Devision
- Central Devision
Part of Wester Conference:
- Northwest Devision
- Pacific Devision
- Southwest Devision
Time Line and History of Playoffs
- In 1949-50 season, the Playoff was created with Best of 3. Three teams from playing by three games. 2nd and 3rd team from each conference playing three games in devision semi-finals, conference leaders were qualified directly in devision finals. The finals was played best of 7 games.
- It was a bit modified latter but in this format with three teams was kept until 1961, when it was converted to best four teams from each conference and every team from the 1st place down to 4th place were playing in conference semifinals. Conference finals and NBA finals are best of 7, format which is kept for almost 60 years. Conference semifinals were played best of 5 from 1967 to 1970, but they were converted to best of 7 in 1970-71 season.
- In 1975 the number of teams in playoff was increased from eight to ten. Same happened in 1977, the number of teams was expended from ten to twelve.
- Mayor breakthroug happened in 1984, when number of teams was incresed from twelve to sixteen. It was decidet that all teams should participade in the first round which was best of five and every next round was best of 7.
- In 2004-05 season each coference was alignent in three divisions. Each division winner is qualified and the next best five teams from each conference. Every round is played in format first to 4 winns, not best of 7 because the winner teams would have more time to recover and rest for next round.
2019 Playoffs
There are no surprises8 best teams from both coferences are running for the NBA Finals.
Wester Conferences Teams:
- Golden State Worrios
- LA Clippers
- Houston Rockets
- Portland Trail Blazers
- Utah Jazz
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- Denver Nuggets
- San Antonio Spurs
Eastern Conference Teams
- Boston Celtics
- Milwaukee Bucks
- Detroit Pistons
- Indiana Pacers
- Philadelphia 76ers
- Toronto Raptors
- Orlando Magic
- Broklyn Nets
NBA Finals 2019ย are starting on May 30th between the winners from conference finals.