1970 NBA Playoffs
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The 1970 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1969-1970 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks defeating the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers, four games to three in the NBA Finals. New York's Willis Reed was named NBA Finals MVP.
It was the first NBA championship for the Knicks in franchise history, and marked their first appearance in the NBA Finals since losing their third consecutive NBA Finals in 1953, ironically, to the Lakers while they still played in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
For the Lakers, it was the third straight Western Conference championship, and the second consecutive year they lost in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The Lakers dropped their eighth straight NBA Finals series (the previous seven, to the Boston Celtics) and were denied their first NBA championship since 1954.
The 1970 playoffs featured the postseason debut of the second-year Milwaukee Bucks, and they managed a first-round defeat of the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Lakers became only the second NBA team to win a series after trailing 3 games to 1 when they beat Phoenix in 7 games in the first round.
| Division Semifinals | Division Finals | NBA Finals | |||||||||||
| 1 | Atlanta | 4 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Chicago | 1 | |||||||||||
| 1 | Atlanta | 0 | |||||||||||
| Western Division | |||||||||||||
| 2 | L.A. Lakers | 4 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Phoenix | 3 | |||||||||||
| 2 | L.A. Lakers | 4 | |||||||||||
| W2 | L.A. Lakers | 3 | |||||||||||
| E1 | New York | 4 | |||||||||||
| 1 | New York | 4 | |||||||||||
| 3 | Baltimore | 3 | |||||||||||
| 1 | New York | 4 | |||||||||||
| Eastern Division | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Milwaukee | 1 | |||||||||||
| 4 | Philadelphia | 1 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Milwaukee | 4 | |||||||||||
