The NBA Finals are the climax of the basketball season in the United States and we have answered all the important questions ahead of this year's finals.
(This article was originally published on 12.05.2022)
The best two teams from the two league conferences will be battling it out over seven matches for the right to be crowned 2022 NBA champions and you can follow all the action on our Sports Live Streaming platform.
When are the NBA Finals?
The 2021/22 NBA Finals will be held in June, with Game One scheduled to take place on Thursday, 2nd June and slated to run to a potential Game Seven on 19th June.
Where are the NBA Finals?
That all depends on who makes it. The NBA Finals are contested, like the rest of the playoffs, over a best-of-seven match series.
Home advantage – which means one team plays four of the seven games on their court, the other three matches being staged by their opponents – is determined by whichever team boasted the best win-loss record over the regular 82-game season which ended in April.
So, for example, if the Finals feature Miami Heat from the Eastern Conference and Phoenix Suns, the Western Conference champions, it would be the Suns who claim home advantage. They would get to play Games One, Two, and, if required, Five and Seven at their Footprint Center stadium, because their regular-season record was 64-18, compared to Miami's 53-29.
Can I watch the NBA Finals?
Sky Sports will be broadcasting the Finals, which ABC have exclusive rights to in the United States.
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How many times has the NBA Finals taken place?
The Basketball Association of America, the forerunner of the NBA, staged its inaugural season in 1946/67 which culminated in the Philadelphia Warriors beating the Chicago Stags in five games.
The Finals have been contested 75 times, the Eastern champions going on to win 40 times and the Western champions 35.
The winning team holds aloft the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, the current design of which (though originally named the Walter A Brown Trophy) was first competed for in 1977.
Who has won the NBA Finals the most times?
Two teams have dominated the NBA Finals like no others with the LA Lakers from the West and the Boston Celtics from the East each winning the title 17 times. The next best franchises – Golden State and Chicago – have won it six time apiece.
The first five Lakers' wins were achieved while they were the Minneapolis Lakers – they didn't relocate to Los Angeles until 1960.
But it was the Celtics who created the single biggest dynasty, winning eight in a row from 1959, all of them coached by the legendary Red Auerbach and built around center Bill Russell, one of the game's greatest ever players.
The Milwaukee Bucks are the defending champions, having seen off Phoenix 4-2 in last year's finals.
Who are this year's NBA favourites?
The 2021/22 season has seen two huge favourites downed already with the LA Lakers failing to even make the playoffs.
In the East it had been Brooklyn Nets who had started the season back in the autumn as conference favourites and while they did at least make the playoffs, they were duly swept 4-0 by bitter rivals Boston when they got there.
The top seeds going into the playoffs were Phoenix in the West and Miami in the East, though it was Giannis Antetokounmpo's Milwaukee Bucks who were the favourites.
As we approach the Conference finals, Golden State are 11/5 to win the NBA championship, with Phoenix at 11/5, Milwaukee at 4/1 and Miami 11/2.
