How Long Are The NBA Finals?

Get the answer to the question ‘How long are the NBA Finals?’ and find out how many games are in the NBA Finals.

Introduction

The NBA Finals are the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The winning team of the series receives the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.

History of the NBA Finals

The NBA Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The event was established in 1947 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA) Finals but renamed in 1949 when the BAA merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to form the NBA. The tournament concludes the NBA’s playoffs, which began in late April or early May.

Best-of-seven playoff series were first introduced in 1951. The winning team of each series receives the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, which replaced the Walter A. Brown Trophy in 1984. Starting in 1986, home court advantage in the NBA Finals alternates between the two conferences, with an Eastern Conference team hosting games 1, 2, 5 and 7, and a Western Conference team hosting games 3, 4 and 6 (if necessary). A tiebreaker system was introduced with the 1949 merger of the BAA and NBL that dictated that if two teams were tied for first place at season’s end then a one-game playoff would be held to determine the league champion. The following year, this system was extended to a best-of-three series. Currently all best-of seven game series are held in a 2–2–1–1–1 format (the team with home court advantage plays games 1, 2, 5 and 7 at home), meaning that if one team has won four consecutive games then that team will win the series. This is also known as a “four-win” sweep as it effectively guarantees that they will win four games before their opponent can win even three (assuming they don’t “give up” game seven).

The Finals has been played at three different sites throughout its history. From 1947 until 1957, teams played in Arena Gardens on Broadway at West 49th Street in Manhattan; for three years thereafter (1958–1960), games were contested at Madison Square Garden; and from 1961 to 1967 teams played at herb Brooks Arena on West 155th Street between Eighth Avenue and St Nicholas Avenue in Harlem. In 1968, when Madison Square Garden was host to both Game 3 and Game 7 of that year’s Finals due to construction delays on its own facility located above Penn Station (which opened as Louisiana Superdome two years later), it became apparent that further expansion of Midtown Manhattan’s facilities would be necessary should New York City ever again seek to host basketball’s ultimate contest; this led directly to MSG gaining approval for construction of what became known as “The Mecca” adjacent to 8th Avenue in 1970. Upon its completion two years later followed by an additional renovation completed prior to 2005 NBA season tipoff, now CitiField has been host exclusively to every single one of New York Knicks’ home games as well as being used for many other large scale events such boxing matches or concerts ever since; only Wrigley Field among North American professional sports venues has been host for more seasons than CitiField is currently.[17] When Louisiana Superdome was completed earlier than originally planned due largely because sections of stadium seating were prefabricated offsite allowing them to be rapidly assembled into place upon delivery,[18] it hosted Final Four games from 1973 until 1978 as well as that year’s title contest between Washington Bullets and Portland Trail Blazers[19] since Tulane University had not yet finished construction on their own new oncampus facility – Fogelman Arena – which did not open until October 1976.[20][21] Buffalo Memorial Auditorium then served as home for Eastern Conference teams from 1980 until 1984 followed by McNichols Sports Arena—now Pepsi Center—in Denver hosting Western Conference teams beginning five years later; both facilities were considered much too small even during their heydays so neither ever hosted an NBA Finals game while serving full time as an NBA venue.[22][23][24][25] The Salt Palace then became Utah Jazz’ home arena upon its completion near beginning of 1979–80 season but never had chance to host an NBA Finals game before it was replaced by Vivint Smart Home Arena twenty seasons later.[26][27] When Kemper Arena opened shortly thereafter just outside downtown Kansas City Missouri it hosted Kansas City Kings’ home games for nearly eighteen seasons but similarly never got chance not just because franchise relocated twice –first time becoming Sacramento Kings followed by temporarily sharing Arco Arena with Sacramento Monarchs before finally settling into Sleep Train Arena now Golden 1 Center upon conclusion of 1999 WNBA season[28]—but also because Kemper didn’t even make it past thirty five percent capacity attendance mark once during entire existence.[29][30] Reunion Arena then served a very similar function for Dallas Mavericks from1980 until 2001 but once again fell victim largely due being mostly empty most nights despite rather competitive product Mavs put on court especially during Chris Mullin era where Dallas made playoffs six out often seven seasons immediately following 1997 retirement of superstar point guard Jason Kidd.[31][32][33] Seattle SuperSonics also called KeyArena home from 1967 through 2008 but much like Kings/Mavs situation described earlier fell victim largely because product put on court was forgettable more often than not while also dealing with attendance average rarely if ever eclipsing ten thousand fans per night especially latter half existence most notably post 2004 retirement of backcourt superstar Ray Allen who had previously teamed up fellow All Star point guard Gary Payton lead Sonicsto 1996 NBA Finals appearance where they took eventual champion Chicago Bulls six very hard fought close physical contests before finally succumbing concluding fifth game Seattle.[34][35][36][37]

Length of the NBA Finals

The NBA Finals are the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion.

The length of the NBA Finals varies depending on how many games it takes for one team to win four games. The minimum length of the NBA Finals is four games, and the maximum length is seven games.

The NBA Finals have been played for a total of 84 days over the course of its history. The longest NBA Finals series was in 2016, when the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors played for a total of 23 days (June 2-19).

Reasons for the Length of the NBA Finals

In order to understand how long the NBA Finals are, we must first understand the structure of the NBA season and playoffs. The NBA season is 82 games long, with each team playing 41 home games and 41 away games. The regular season starts in October and ends in April. After the regular season, there is a playoff tournament to determine who will compete in the NBA Finals.

The playoff tournament is a single-elimination tournament. This means that once a team loses a playoff game, they are out of the tournament and cannot compete for the championship. The tournament consists of four rounds: the first round, the second round, the conference finals, and the NBA Finals. Each round has a different number of games that must be played in order to advance.

The first round is best-of-seven series; this means that the first team to win four games advances to the next round, while the losing team is eliminated from the tournament. The second round is also a best-of-seven series. The conference finals are best-of-seven series as well. However, the NBA Finals are different; they are best-of-seven series only if one team hasn’t won four out of seven games by the end of six games. If one team has won four games by the end of six games, then they are declared the winner and no more games are played.

So, how long are the NBA Finals? They can range from four days to two weeks, depending on how many games need to be played in order to determine a winner. However, on average, they last about one week.

Conclusion

The NBA Finals are the championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The winning team of the series receives the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.