 A logo used by The Walt Disney Company promoting its hosting of the playoffs at Walt Disney World, using the resort's original 1971 to 1994 logo below. | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| City | Bay Lake, Florida |
| Dates | August 17 – October 11, 2020 |
| Season | 2019–20 |
| Teams | 16 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Los Angeles Lakers (17th title) |
| Runner-up | Miami Heat |
| Semifinalists | |
The 2020 NBA playoffs were the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 2019–20 season. The playoffs were originally scheduled to begin on April 18. However, the league suspended the season on March 11, 2020, hours after the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus.[1]
On June 4, the NBA Board of Governors approved a plan to restart the season on July 31 in the NBA Bubble.[2] This proposal was then approved by members of the National Basketball Players Association on June 5. Under this plan, the 22 top teams in the league at the time of the suspension (all the teams who had a mathematical chance at making the playoffs under the 82-game season) played eight additional regular season games to determine playoff seeding, with 16 of those teams playing in a conventional postseason tournament. If the ninth seed within a conference would have finished the regular season within four games of the eighth seed, they would have then competed in a play–in series.[3] The last time a play-in game was played to determine a playoff spot was in 1956.[4]
As part of the bubble, all playoff games were held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex inside Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida.
All three games that were scheduled to take place on August 26 were postponed by a wildcat strike,[5][6] in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with the Milwaukee Bucks being the first team not to take the court prior to their game five matchup against the Orlando Magic. The games on August 27 and 28 were also postponed, with games resuming on August 29.[7]
The Toronto Raptors were defending champions but lost in the Eastern Conference semifinals round to the Boston Celtics. None of the teams that made it to the conference finals in the 2019 NBA playoffs made the conference finals in 2020. These were the first playoffs since 1997 without the San Antonio Spurs, as they were eliminated from playoff contention on August 14, 2020, ending what was then the longest active playoff streak in the NBA and in the four major sports leagues in North America.
- ^ "NBA to suspend season following tonight's games" (Press release). National Basketball Association. March 11, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
- ^ "NBA approves 22-team format to finish season". ESPN. June 4, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
- ^ "NBPA reps vote to approve 22-team format to finish season". Retrieved June 5, 2020.
- ^ "How the Blazers, Grizzlies, Spurs and Suns make the West play-in". ESPN. August 11, 2020. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
- ^ NBA season is suddenly on the brink NBC Sports
- ^ NBA Teams Are On Strike Over Police Brutality New York (magazine)
- ^ Bontemps, Tim (August 28, 2020). "NBA, NBPA announce playoffs to resume Saturday, new initiatives". ESPN.