1st Seeded Teams That Made the NBA Finals

Stats about how many teams reached the Finals and won or lost the NBA Championship after entering the playoffs as the 1 seed. It includes a statistical summary and and an all-time full list with all of them one by one with details of year, rivals, champion and series results.

Seed: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 / All

How many 1 seeds have reached the NBA Finals?
In NBA history, 89 teams that arrived to the Playoffs as the 1st seed reached the Finals, and that includes 27 times where both finalists that competed for the Championship were the number 1 seeds of that season. A total of 62 Finals have had at least one seed 1 on them.

And how many 1 seeds were the NBA Champions?
Of those 89 teams, 51 won the title (57.3%), while the other 38 lost the Finals.

Summary - 1st Seeded Teams

Champions Lost FinalsWinning % Finalists Finals Made
51
38
.573
89
62

Notes: in multiple years between 1954 and 1972 the Playoffs only had seeds 1, 2 and 3. Seeds are Conference seeds since 1973 and Division seeds previous to that.

Number 1 Seeds that reached the NBA Finals - One by one

Finals
Champion
Runner-up
4-1 vs. Miami Heat (8th)
4-2 vs. Miami Heat (5th)
4-1 vs. Miami Heat (2nd)
4-3 vs. San Antonio Spurs (2nd)
Finals
Champion
Runner-up
4-2 vs. Utah Jazz (1st)
4-2 vs. Utah Jazz (1st)
4-0 vs. Orlando Magic (1st)
Finals
Champion
Runner-up
4-2 vs. Phoenix Suns (1st)
4-2 vs. Houston Rockets (2nd)
Finals
Champion
Runner-up