The current home-and-away format in the NBA Finals is 2–2–1–1–1 (the team with the better regular season record plays on its home court in games 1, 2, 5, and 7), which has been used in 1947, 1948,[5]1950–1952,[6][7][8]1957–1970, 1972–1974, 1976, 1977, 1979–1984, and since 2014. It was previously in a 2–3–2 format (the team with the better regular season record plays on its home court in games 1, 2, 6, and 7) during 1949, 1953–1955, and 1985–2013,[9][10] in a 1–1–1–1–1–1–1 format in 1956 and 1971,[11][12] and in a 1–2–2–1–1 format in 1975 and 1978.[13][14]
As of 2024[update], the Eastern champions have a 41–37 advantage in NBA titles over the Western champions, with their most recent being the Boston Celtics who have won 18 titles, the most of any team in the league.[15]
Trail Blazers
Bullets
Bullets*
Knicks
76ers
Warriors
Raptors
Celtics
Spurs
Heat
Nats
Bulls
Bucks
Mavericks
Rockets
Pistons
Lakers
Hawks
Royals
Cavaliers
SuperSonics
Warriors
Nuggets
Lakers
Location of NBA champions by number of titles: 1 – white, 2 – blue, 3 – green, 4 – yellow, 5 – orange, 6 – red, 7 or more – purple, * – denotes defunct
The first parentheses in the Western champions and Eastern champions columns indicate the teams' playoff seed. The second parentheses indicate the number of times that teams have appeared in an NBA Finals as well as each respective team's NBA Finals record to date.
Minneapolis was the Central Division (now defunct, no relation to the current Central Division) playoff champion, while the Anderson Packers were the Western Division playoff champion.[19] Due to the NBA's realignment into three divisions,[20][21] the team with the best regular season record after the Divisional Finals advanced automatically to the NBA Finals, while the other two teams faced off in the NBA Semifinals to determine the other finalist. Eastern Division playoff champion Syracuse had the best regular season record among the division playoff champions, causing Minneapolis to face Anderson in the NBA Semifinals.[19][22]