What Teams Are Left in the NBA Playoffs?

With the end of the NBA regular season upon us, it’s time to take a look at which teams are still in the running for the NBA Championship.

Eastern Conference

As the NBA regular season comes to a close, the teams that have clinched a spot in the playoffs are preparing for what should be an exciting postseason. In the East, the Milwaukee Bucks have the best record in the conference and are the favorite to come out of the East. But the Bucks will have to go through a tough field that includes the Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics, and Philadelphia 76ers.

Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics are an American professional basketball team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of the league’s original eight teams, the team play their home games at TD Garden, which they share with the National Hockey League (NHL)’s Boston Bruins. The Celtics are one of the most successful teams in NBA history; the franchise has won the most championships in the East with 17 wins, and owns the second-best overall winning percentage (.721) of any NBA team to have played more than 50 games.

Toronto Raptors

The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league’s Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games at the Scotiabank Arena, which they share with the National Hockey League’s Toronto Maple Leafs. The team was founded in 1995 as part of the NBA’s expansion into Canada.

The Raptors qualified for the NBA playoffs for the first time in 2000 and have since appeared in fourteen playoff seasons. They have won five Atlantic Division championships and one Eastern Conference championship, which came in 2019. As of 2020, they rank sixth among active franchises by winning percentage, and 28th overall.

Milwaukee Bucks

The Milwaukee Bucks are a professional basketball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 as an expansion team, and play at the Fiserv Forum. Former U.S. Senator Herb Kohl was the long-time owner of the team, but on April 16, 2014, a group led by billionaire hedge fund managers Wes Edens and Marc Lasry agreed to purchase a majority interest in the team from Kohl, a sale which was approved by the NBA on May 15. The new owners theater chain operator Jamie Dinan joined Edens and Lasry as minority owners.

In October 2018, the Bucks announced that they would be acquired by next-gen sports and entertainment company Quincy Media Inc., pending league approval. On April 16, 2019, it was announced that Quincy Media would not be approved by the NBA to own the Bucks, and that ownership would remain with Edens, Lasry, and Dinan.

Currently, the Bucks have the best record in the NBA.

Western Conference

As the regular season comes to an end, only eight teams in the Western Conference have clinched a spot in the playoffs. The Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs, and Los Angeles Clippers will all be competing for a chance to play in the NBA Finals.

Golden State Warriors

The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in Oakland, California. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league’s Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 1946 in Philadelphia, the Warriors relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1962 and took the city’s name, before changing its geographic moniker to Golden State in 1971. They play their home games at the Chase Center.

The Warriors won the NBA championship in 1947 and again in 1956 under legendary coach George Karl. With star players such as Wilt Chamberlain and Rick Barry, they became one of the most dominant teams of the 1960s, winning both the 1967 NBA Finals and 1973 NBA Finals. However, they failed to win an NBA title between 1975 and 2015, making them one of only nine franchises that have never won a championship during that timespan. Through much of this period, they were known as one of the league’s worst teams; In 2010–11, when they set an NBA record for losses in a season with 67 (later broken by the 2015–16 Philadelphia 76ers), commuter fans driving across San Francisco Bay would honk their horns if they passed Oracle Arena around 10:00 pm on Fridays or Saturdays during home games as a sonic “shout-out” to then-Warriors’ head coach Don Nelson.

Houston Rockets

The Houston Rockets are a professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league’s Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its home games at the Toyota Center, located in downtown Houston. The Rockets have won two NBA championships and four Western Conference titles. The team was established as the San Diego Rockets, an expansion team originally based in San Diego, in 1967. In 1971, the Rockets moved to Houston due to strong financial reasons.

The Rockets won only 15 games in their debut season as a franchise in 1967. In the 1968 NBA draft, the Rockets, picking first overall, selected power forward Elvin Hayes, who would lead the team to its first playoff appearance in his rookie season. The Rockets did not finish a season with a winning record until the 1976–77 season when they traded for center Moses Malone. Carl Haas brought the NBA championship to Houston for the first time by signing Malone away from his former team, the Buffalo Braves (now Los Angeles Clippers).

The 1980s saw continuous success for the franchise; led by newly acquired center Hakeem Olajuwon (drafted after Malone was traded), they advanced to the 1986 NBA Finals—olajuwon’s first of two consecutive trips—where they lost to Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics after seven hard-fought games.

In 1988, Olajuwon was paired with straight out of college second overall pick Mitch Richmond and midway through Olajuwon’s ninth season they found great success with this “twin towers” approach as they reached their second NBA Finals appearance where they eventually lost again to Bird’s Celtics squad but it gave them great momentum going into next decade where they would once again be Finals contenders led by “Run TMC” featuring Richmond at shooting guard Tim Hardaway at point guard and Chris Mullin at small forward which was one of most prolific scoring trios of all time and helped Rockets reach back-to-back Conference Finals appearances 1991 where they lost to eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers who featured future Hall-of-Famers Magic Johnson at point guard James Worthy at small forward and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at center then next year where they this time finally getting over hump against Portland Trail Blazers featuring Clyde Drexler at shooting guard Terry Porter at point guard and Kevin Duckworth at center then defeated New York Knicks who wereWithout Ewing for most series due to injury which gave them trip back to NBA Finals where they finally broke through defeating favored Shaq & Kobe Lakers squad giving city of Houston its very first major sports championship.Next few seasons were successful but disappointing as injuries ruined any chance team had of repeating or winning back-to-back championships which resulted team never returning to Conference Finals & only making one more trip to second round of playoffs until 2003 when yet another revamped roster that featured Chinese superstar Yao Ming finally got them back into Conference Finals but once again came up short against Kobe’s Lakers then following offseason GM Carroll Dawson retired & team went into rebuilding mode that saw them win less than 30 games 3 straight seasons but also stockpile high draft picks that led them drafting eventual 2-time MVP & current face of franchise James Harden then acquiring future All-Star Dwight Howard in blockbuster trade which quickly turned them back into contender as they returned trip back conference finals 2015 fall just short losing hard fought 7 game series against eventual champion Golden State Warriors despite being down 3–1 in series which gave Warriors first ever playoff series victory against Rockets in 13 tries then 2016 offseason Houston made another big splash signing superstar free agent forward Ryan Anderson & sharp shooting veteran guard Eric Gordon which put them over top as true title contenders & after winning 55 games regular season earned Western Conference’s #3 seed entering playoffs which resulted another trip conference finals this time coming out on top defeating Kevin Durant & Russell Westbrook led Oklahoma City Thunder 4–2 then taking 2–0 lead against Steph Curry & reigning MVP LeBron James led Cleveland Cavaliers before losing game 3 then losing game 4 despite holding 23 point lead midway through 4th quarter then losing game 5 final seconds heartbreaker despite having ball tied score 107–107 with 6 seconds remaining on clock eventually finished series off losing 118–113 heartbreaking fashion handing Cavaliers sweep becoming first ever team come back from 0–3 hole defeat rockets en route winning their 1st ever championship then offseason Houston made easy decision re-signing MVP runner Harden extension worth $118 million over next 4 seasons keeping core group together entering 2017 campaign with goal bringing city another championship 70 years later.

Portland Trail Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Western Conference Northwest Division. The franchise was founded in 1970, and played its home games in Memorial Coliseum before moving to Moda Center in 1995 (memorial Coliseum still stands today and is currently used by the Portland Winterhawks). The team has advanced to the NBA Finals three times, winning the NBA championship once in 1977. Their other NBA Finals appearances were in 1990 and 1992.