2007 NBA Finals
The 2007 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2006–07 season and conclusion of the season's playoffs. In this best-of-seven playoff series, the Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs defeated the Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers in a 4–0 sweep. This was Cleveland's first trip to the NBA Finals in their franchise history (as well as the first for LeBron James) and San Antonio's fourth. Tony Parker was named the series' MVP. The series was televised on ABC under the ESPN on ABC branding, and produced the lowest television ratings in NBA Finals history until 2020. This series was the last sweep in the NBA Finals until 2018, which also involved the Cavaliers on the losing end. Format The Finals were played using the 2-3-2 format, where the first two and last two games are held at the team with home court advantage. The NBA, after experimenting in the early years, restored this original format for the Fi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eastern Conference (NBA)
The Eastern Conference is one of two conferences that make up the National Basketball Association (NBA), the other being the Western Conference. Both conferences consist of 15 teams organized into three divisions. The Eastern Conference comprises the Atlantic, Central, and Southeast Divisions. The current divisional alignment was adopted at the start of the 2004–05 season, when the now Charlotte Hornets began play as the NBA's 30th franchise. This necessitated the move of the New Orleans Pelicans from the Eastern Conference's Central Division to the newly created Southwest Division of the Western Conference. The NBA first started awarding an Eastern Conference championship trophy during the 2000–01 season, renaming it after Hall of Famer Bob Cousy in the 2021–22 season. Also in 2021–22, the league began awarding the Larry Bird Trophy to the Eastern Conference Finals Most Valuable Player, named after Hall of Famer Larry Bird. 2024–25 standings Notes ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Washington Wizards
The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games at Capital One Arena, in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. an arena they share with the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Georgetown University men's basketball team. The team is owned by Ted Leonsis through Monumental Sports & Entertainment. The franchise was established in 1961 as the Chicago Packers in Chicago, Illinois; they were renamed the Chicago Zephyrs in the following season. In 1963, they moved to Baltimore, Maryland, and became the Baltimore Bullets, taking the name from a previous team of the same name. In 1973, the team moved to the Washington metropolitan area and changed its name first to the Capital Bullets, then the following season to Washington Bullets. In ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference. The team was originally founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association (ABA), but changed their name to the Rockets before the first season began due to a swift ownership change that came from the owners of the local Ringsby Rocket Truck Lines company. The Rockets then changed their name to the Nuggets on August 7, 1974 as a precautionary measure for their franchise to move from the ABA to the NBA. After the name change, the Nuggets played for the final List of ABA champions, ABA Championship title in 1976, losing to the Brooklyn Nets, New York Nets. The team has had some periods of success, qualifying for the ABA playoffs in all but two seasons of the ABA's existence. T ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers, often referred to as the Cavs, are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference. The team began play as an expansion team in 1970–71 NBA season, 1970, along with the Portland Trail Blazers and Buffalo Braves. Home games were first held at Cleveland Arena from 1970 to 1974, followed by the Richfield Coliseum from 1974 to 1994. Since 1994, the Cavs have played home games at Rocket Arena in downtown Cleveland, which is shared with the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League. Dan Gilbert has owned the team since March 2005. The Cavaliers opened their inaugural season by losing their first 15 games and struggled in their early years, placing no better than sixth in the Eastern Conference during their first five seasons. The team won their first Central Divi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference. The team plays its home games at Frost Bank Center. The Spurs are one of four former American Basketball Association (ABA) teams to remain intact in the NBA after the 1976 American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger, ABA–NBA merger, one of two former ABA teams to have won an NBA Finals, NBA championship (the other being the Denver Nuggets), and the only former ABA team to have won multiple championships. The franchise has won NBA championships in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2014. As of the 2022–23 season, the Spurs had the highest winning percentage among active NBA franchises. As of May 2017, the Spurs had the best winning percentage of any franchise in the major professional sports ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Playoff Format
There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly known as ''on aggregate'', and the '' round-robin tournament''. Single elimination A single-elimination ("knockout") playoff pits the participants in one-game matches, with the loser being dropped from the competition. Single-elimination tournaments are often used in individual sports like tennis. In most tennis tournaments, the players are seeded against each other, and the winner of each match continues to the next round, all the way to the final. When a playoff of this type involves the top four teams, it is sometimes known as the Shaughnessy playoff system, after Frank Shaughnessy, who first developed it for the International League of minor league baseball. Variations of the Shaughnessy system also exist, such as in the promotion ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1985 NBA Finals
The 1985 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1984–85 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. It featured the defending NBA champion and Eastern Conference playoff champion Boston Celtics against the Western Conference playoff champion Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics were looking to repeat as NBA champions for the first time since the season. The Celtics had home court advantage for the second year in a row as they finished the regular season with a 63–19 record while the Lakers compiled a 62–20 record. The Lakers looked to bounce back from the previous year's painful loss to the Celtics in the championship series, and were still seeking to beat Boston for the first time ever in NBA Finals history. Also for the first time since 1955, the Finals implemented a 2–3–2 format with Games 1 and 2 in Boston while the next three games were in Los Angeles. The final two games of the series wou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Home Court Advantage
In team sports, the term home advantage – also called home ground, home field, home-field advantage, home court, home-court advantage, defender's advantage or home-ice advantage – describes the benefit that the home team is said to gain over the visiting team. This benefit has been attributed to psychological effects supporting fans have on the competitors or referees; to psychological or physiological advantages of playing near home in familiar situations; to the disadvantages away teams suffer from changing time zones or climates, or from the rigors of travel; and in some sports, to specific rules that favor the home team directly or indirectly. In baseball and cricket in particular, the difference may also be the result of the home team having been assembled to take advantage of the idiosyncrasies of the home ballpark/ ground, such as the distances to the outfield walls/ boundaries; most other sports are played in standardized venues. The term is also widely use ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2018 NBA Finals
The 2018 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2017–18 season and conclusion of the season's playoffs. In this best-of-seven playoff, the defending NBA champion and Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors swept the Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers four games to zero. The Warriors became the 7th NBA franchise to win back-to-back championships, joining the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, and Miami Heat. This year's Finals was the first time in any of North America's four major professional sports leagues that the same two teams met for the championship four years in a row. Golden State Warriors small forward Kevin Durant was named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the second straight year. Kevin Durant became the first and only player in the history of the Warriors franchise to win two consecutive NBA Finals MVP Awards and also the first an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2020 NBA Finals
The 2020 NBA Finals was the NBA Finals, championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2019–20 NBA season, 2019–20 season and conclusion of 2020 NBA playoffs, the season's playoffs. In this best-of-seven playoff series, the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference champion 2019–20 Los Angeles Lakers season, Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference champion 2019–20 Miami Heat season, Miami Heat, 4–2, winning their first NBA championship in ten years and their, at the time record-tying, 17th title overall in franchise history. The Los Angeles Lakers also became List of NBA regular season records, the first and only team in NBA history to be undefeated in a season when leading entering the fourth quarter, going a combined 57–0 record in the List of NBA seasons, regular season and NBA playoffs, playoffs. The Lakers' LeBron James was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award, NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (M ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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ESPN On ABC
ESPN on ABC (formerly known as ABC Sports from 1961 to 2006) is the branding used for sports event and documentary programming televised by American Broadcasting Company, ABC in the United States. Officially, the terrestrial television, broadcast network retains its own sports division; however, in 2006, ABC's sports division was merged into ESPN Inc., which is the parent subsidiary of the cable television, cable sports network ESPN that is majority owned by ABC's corporate parent, The Walt Disney Company, in partnership with Hearst Communications. ABC broadcasts use ESPN's production and announcing staff, and incorporate elements such as ESPN-branded on-screen graphics, ''SportsCenter'' in-game updates, and the ESPN BottomLine, BottomLine news ticker, ticker. The ABC logo is still used for identification purposes such as a digital on-screen graphic during sports broadcasts on the network, and in promotions to disambiguate events airing the broadcast network from those shown on ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |