When Will the NBA Finals Be in 2021?
The 2021 NBA Finals will take place from July 8 to July 22. The Finals will be played at a single neutral site.
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.
What Happened in 2020?
The NBA Finals were originally scheduled to take place in June 2020, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they were postponed.
It is unclear when the Finals will be rescheduled for, but it is possible that they will take place in the fall of 2020, or possibly even in 2021.
This is an unprecedented situation, so it is hard to say for sure what will happen. The NBA will continue to closely monitor the situation and make a decision when it is safe to do so.
Why the Delay?
The coronavirus pandemic forced the NBA to suspend its 2019-20 season on March 11th. The league is now targeting a December start for the 2020-21 campaign, which would push back the Finals to a later date.
The conditional need for a December start stems from recent reports that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready by November or December. If that timetable holds, the NBA would like to have fans in arenas for the start of next season.
Assuming a December start, it’s possible that the Finals could be held in July 2021. That would represent a significant delay from the traditional June timeframe, but it would allow the NBA to complete its full regular season and playoffs before crowning a champion.
When Will the Finals Be in 2021?
The 2021 NBA Finals will be the championship series of the 2020–21 NBA season. The playoffs will begin in late May 2021, after the conclusion of the 2020–21 regular season. The series is scheduled to end in early July 2021.
The Finals will be played between the Western Conference champion and the Eastern Conference champion. The exact dates and times of each game will be announced closer to the start of the series.
This will be the first time since 1999 that the Finals will not take place in June. Because of this, it is possible that the series could be played into July, making it one of the latest-ending NBA seasons ever.
The last time that happened was in 1998, when the Finals ended on June 19. If Game 7 of the 2021 Finals were to be played on July 8, it would tied for the latest ending date ever for an NBA season.
The 2021 Finals will also mark a return to a 2-2-1-1-1 format (wherein games 1, 2, 5 and 7 are played at one team’s home arena, and games 3, 4 and 6 are played at the other team’s home arena), after having used a 2-3-2 format from 1985 to 2013.
Conclusion
The 2021 NBA Finals will be the championship series of the 2020–21 NBA season and the conclusion of the season’s playoffs. The Eastern Conference champion will play the Western Conference champion, with the first team to win four games in a best-of-seven series winning the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.
The 2021 NBA Finals are scheduled to begin on June 2 and will end no later than July 22. The specific dates and times for each game will be announced at a later date.
