3rd 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 3 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 3 seeds have reached the NBA Finals?
In NBA history, 16 teams that arrived to the Playoffs as the 3rd seed reached the Finals. So far, there has never been a Finals played between two number 3 seeds.

And how many 3 seeds were the NBA Champions?
Of those 16 teams, 8 won the title (50.0%), while the other 8 lost the Finals.

Summary - 3rd Seeded Teams

Champions Lost FinalsWinning % Finalists Finals Made
8
8
.500
16
16

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 3 Seeds that reached the NBA Finals - One by one

Finals
Champion
Runner-up
4-2 vs. Phoenix Suns (2nd)
4-2 vs. Miami Heat (2nd)
Finals
Champion
Runner-up
4-2 vs. Phoenix Suns (3rd)