When Does the NBA Championship Start?
The 2020 NBA Finals will begin on Thursday, October 22, 2020. The championship is a best-of-seven series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat.
Introduction
The NBA Championship is the annual professional basketball championship of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The winning team of the NBA Finals is awarded the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, which was named after former NBA commissioner Larry O’Brien. The trophy features a regulation-size basketball suspended in transit from a ring. The Boston Celtics have the most championship titles, with 17.
The Regular Season
The National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament annually held after the NBA’s regular season to decide the league’s champion. The tournament was originally created in 1947 with a first- and second-round playoff, followed by four semifinalists playing best-of-three series to advance to two best-of-seven championship rounds. The first NBA conference finals elimination game was played in 1951, but home court advantage was not instituted until the 1985 NBA Finals.
The Playoffs
The National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament annually held after the NBA’s regular season to determine the league’s champion. The participants in the tournament include the top eight teams in each of the conference standings, that is, the winners of each of the three divisions in both the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference.
The playoff bracket is fixed; there is no reseeding. All rounds are best-of-seven series; the team with home-court advantage hosts games one, two, five, and seven, while their opponent hosts games three, four, and six (games five–seven are only played if necessary). The first round of playoffs is referred to as the first round or opening round; second round is called conference semifinals or semifinal round; third round is called conference finals or semifinals; and fourth round is called NBA Finals or Finals.
The Finals
The NBA Finals is 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 team with the most wins in the regular season earns home-court advantage in the playoffs, which is important because home teams win approximately two-thirds of NBA games. Since 1984, when the NBA introduced a best-of-seven playoff format for all rounds except the Finals, fourteen different franchises have appeared in it.
The Finals was originally known as the Championship Series before being renamed to its current name in 1986. It was then held during late June and early July, coinciding with the end of the college basketball season. Between 1947 and 1957, one team from each division qualified automatically for the Finals regardless of record; otherwise, it was strictly a best-of-seven playoff format with all rounds played at neutral sites—usually large arenas—in big cities throughout North America until 1970 when Anaheim Convention Center became first host venue outside Los Angeles area.
The following year, Madison Square Garden became host of Game 3 and 4 of that edition while still holding Game 7, making New York City become first city to host an entire NBA Finals series outside Los Angeles area. Three years later, The Forum in Inglewood became home to Games 3–5 while again Game 7 was held at Madison Square Garden; thus becoming first time that all games of an NBA Finals series were played on West Coast.
