The standings and statistics for the current NBA season. Keep track of the performance of your favorite teams and who will make the playoffs. With the NBA regular season over, the Boston Celtics finished the year with the best overall record in the NBA. After them, the next five best records came out of the Western Conference, with defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers and Dallas Mavericks winning 50 or more games last season.
It begins with the first round, then the conference semifinals, the conference finals, and finally, the NBA finals to determine the winner of the NBA championship. But it wasn't all seashells and balloons for the Warriors, who narrowly outscored the Houston Rockets, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Oklahoma City Thunder of future Warrior Kevin Durant in the Western Conference final, but couldn't close a 3-1 series lead against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. In 1980, the 1966-67 Sixers were chosen as the best individual team to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the NBA. Every NBA playoff game is a best-of-seven series, and each team needs four wins to advance to the next round.
The Lakers' 69 wins were the highest in NBA regular season history until Jordan's Chicago Bulls went 72-10 in 1995-96. Chicago picked up where it left off a year after winning 72 games, opening the 1996-97 NBA season with a 17-1 record. Plus, check out Sportsnaut's latest NBA power rankings to learn which are the best teams in the league right now and get our predictions for the 2024 NBA playoffs for this year's postseason. Stephen Curry won his second NBA MVP and Steve Kerr, who played on the 1995-96 Bulls team that won 72 games, was named NBA Coach of the Year. And with a 48-4 record in the All-Star break, it was clear that the Warriors would have a chance to reach the regular season winning record.
When it came to the worst NBA records this year, the Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards finished at the bottom of the NBA standings, as both teams didn't win more than 15 games. It was the franchise's first NBA championship in Philadelphia after moving from Syracuse four years earlier. And if you're a fan of one of the best NBA teams of all time, you won't soon forget the eight months of joy that season brought, from October to June. In addition to having the most championships in NBA history, the Boston Celtics also have the most wins of any franchise in NBA history.
In the postseason, the Bulls swept the Miami Heat in the first round, eliminated the rival New York Knicks in five games in the second round, swept the defending Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference final, and beat the Seattle SuperSonics in six games for their fourth NBA title in six seasons. In the playoffs, the 76ers beat Oscar Robertson's Cincinnati Royals, Bill Russell's Celtics and Rick Barry's San Francisco Warriors in the NBA finals.
