The 2010 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 2009-10 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion and defending champion Los Angeles Lakers defeating the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals. Kobe Bryant was named NBA Finals MVP for the second straight year.
Overview Western Conference For the 2nd time in 3 seasons and the first time since 2008, all Western Conference playoff teams had at least 50 wins. The 7 games separating 1–8 was tied for the smallest margin, also from 2008.
The Phoenix Suns returned to the playoffs after a one-season absence.
The Oklahoma City Thunder made their first playoff appearance since relocating from Seattle in 2008; the team's last appearance was as the Seattle SuperSonics in 2005. They made the most of their debut playoff appearance, pushing the eventual champion Lakers to six games.
The Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, and Oklahoma City Thunder entered the playoffs tied with 50 regular season wins. The Trail Blazers won the overall tie breaker, and were seeded sixth. The Spurs and Thunder were seeded seventh and eighth, respectively.
Eastern Conference The Cleveland Cavaliers entered the NBA Playoffs with the league's best record for the second straight season. Their 61 wins in the NBA was the smallest win total for best record since the Pacers won 61 in 2004.NBA – Standings However, due to LeBron James joining the Miami Heat the following season, this would be the Cavaliers' last postseason appearance until 2015, which was also James' first season back with the Cavaliers.
The Boston Celtics, who won the Atlantic Division, entered the playoffs as a fourth seed. This would be the first time since 2008 that this occurred.
The Charlotte Bobcats made their first playoff appearance in franchise history, and the first in the Charlotte NBA team's history since 2002.
The Detroit Pistons missed the playoffs for the first time since 2001.
First Round Games 3, 4, and 6 of the Lakers-Thunder series were the first playoff games ever played at Ford Center (the arena's former tenants, the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, didn't play a single playoff game in the building).
With the Orlando Magic sweeping the Charlotte Bobcats in Game 4, this marks the 34th year in a row that a sweep occurred in the NBA playoffs. The last time a sweep did not occur was 1976.
With their first-round win over the Chicago Bulls, The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Bulls in a playoff series for the first time since The Shot.
With their first-round win over the Dallas Mavericks, the San Antonio Spurs became the first seventh seed since 1998 (and fifth overall) to beat a second seeded team in a playoff series. This would not happen again until 2023, when the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Memphis Grizzlies. In addition, the Spurs also avenged their own series losses to the Mavericks, who beat them twice in the previous four seasons. It was also the Spurs’ first series win against the Mavericks since 2003.
With their first-round loss to the San Antonio Spurs, the Dallas Mavericks earned the dubious distinction of losing 3 first round series while holding the top 2 playoff seeds. They lost to the seventh-seeded San Antonio Spurs in 6. They have also lost a playoff series against the Seattle SuperSonics (1987, as the second seed) and the Golden State Warriors (2007, as the top seed).
The Hawks–Bucks series was the first of the 2010 playoffs to have a game 7, marking the 11th consecutive year in the NBA playoffs to feature a game 7. The last time a game 7 did not occur in the playoffs was 1999.
Conference Semifinals With a conference semifinals sweep over the seventh–seeded San Antonio Spurs, the Phoenix Suns defeated the Spurs in the postseason for the first time since 2000. Prior to this, the Spurs won the previous four meetings. The Suns also made the conference finals for the first time since 2006.
With a conference semifinals sweep of the Atlanta Hawks, the Orlando Magic became the third team in NBA history to go 8–0 through the first two rounds of the playoffs. As of 2024, this remains the Magic's most recent series victory.
The Cavaliers–Celtics series was extremely notable because marked the first time that each team lost a home playoff game by record margins: Boston lost Game 3 124–95; Cleveland lost Game 5 120–88. The Cavaliers' second round playoff exit (4–2 vs. Boston) was the earliest for the top seed since the Dallas Mavericks' first round loss to the Golden State Warriors in 2007. Game 6 of the same series was LeBron James’ last game with the Cleveland Cavaliers until 2014.
Conference Finals Game 5 of the Magic-Celtics series was the last game played at Amway Arena (formerly known as Orlando Arena and TD Waterhouse Centre).
With a Game 6 win over the Orlando Magic, the Boston Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals for the second time in three seasons. With the win, the Celtics avenged the Magic for last year's Game 7 loss. With the loss, the Magic, who last year upset the top-seeded Cavaliers in 6 (after they went 8–0 through the first two rounds), suffered the same fate as last season's Cavaliers by becoming the third straight team to go 8–0 through the first two rounds, only to lose in the conference finals.
With a Game 6 win over the Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers advanced to the NBA Finals for the third straight season. In addition, the Lakers avenged the Suns for their first round losses in 2006 (in which the Lakers led 3–1 before losing the series) and 2007. The Suns would not return to the playoffs until 2021.
NBA Finals The 2010 NBA Finals featured a 2008 Finals rematch between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, marking the first time since 2005 that the last two NBA Champions met in the NBA Finals.
The 2010 NBA Finals would be the last NBA Finals featuring Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Rasheed Wallace. It would also be the last NBA Finals to feature Phil Jackson as a head coach.
With a Game 7 win, the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Celtics, who defeated them in the 2008 NBA Finals, to win their 16th NBA Championship. The Lakers also became the third team under the 2-3-2 format to come back from a 3–2 deficit to win the final two games at home (the other two teams being their 1988 team and the 1994 Houston Rockets. The Lakers would not return to the NBA Finals until 2020, while the Celtics would not return until 2022.
Format
The 3 division winners and 5 other teams with the most wins from each conference qualified for the playoffs. The seedings are based on each team's record; however, a division winner is guaranteed to be ranked at least fourth, regardless of record.
Tiebreak procedures The tiebreakers that determine seedings were: Division leader wins tie from team not leading a division Head-to-head record Division record (if the teams are in the same division) Conference record Record vs. playoff teams, own conference Record vs. playoff teams, other conference Point differential, all games
If there were more than two teams tied, the team that wins the tiebreaker get the highest seed, while the other teams were "re-broken" from the first step until all ties were resolved. Since the three division winners were guaranteed a spot in the top four, ties to determine the division winners had to be broken before any other ties.
Playoff qualifying
Eastern Conference
Seed Team Wins ClinchedPlayoff berth Division title Best record in Conference Best record in NBA 1 Cleveland Cavaliers 61 March 8 March 17 April 2 April 4 2 Orlando Magic 59 March 16 April 5 — — 3 Atlanta Hawks 53 March 21 — — — 4 Boston Celtics 50 March 24 March 26 — — 5 Miami Heat 47 April 6 — — — 6 Milwaukee Bucks 46 April 6 — — — 7 Charlotte Bobcats 44 April 6 — — — 8 Chicago Bulls 41 April 14 — — —
Western Conference
Seed Team Wins Tiebreaker ClinchedPlayoff berth Division title Best record in Conference 1 Los Angeles Lakers 57 — March 19 April 3 April 9 2 Dallas Mavericks 55 — March 26 April 9 — 3 Phoenix Suns 54 — March 30 — — 4 Denver Nuggets 53 3–1 vs. UTA March 28 April 14 — 5 Utah Jazz 53 1–3 vs. DEN March 28 — — 6 Portland Trail Blazers 50 6–1 vs. SA and OKC March 31 — — 7 San Antonio Spurs 50 3–4 vs. POR and OKC April 4 — — 8 Oklahoma City Thunder 50 2–6 vs. POR and SA April 3 — — — = Not Applicable
Home-court advantage The team with the better record earned the home-court advantage through any playoff round, regardless of seeding. (The NBA is the only one of the four major North American leagues that awards home advantage based strictly on record.) Rank Team Conference Division Wins Losses 1 Cleveland Cavaliers Eastern Central 61 21 2 Orlando Magic Eastern Southeast 59 23 3 Los Angeles Lakers Western Pacific 57 25 4 Dallas Mavericks Western Southwest 55 27 5 Phoenix Suns Western Pacific 54 28 6 Denver Nuggets Western Northwest 53 29 7 Atlanta Hawks Eastern Southeast 53 29 8 Utah Jazz Western Northwest 53 29 9 Boston Celtics Eastern Atlantic 50 32 10 Portland Trail Blazers Western Northwest 50 32 11 San Antonio Spurs Western Southwest 50 32 12 Oklahoma City Thunder Western Northwest 50 32 13 Miami Heat Eastern Southeast 47 35 14 Milwaukee Bucks Eastern Central 46 36 15 Charlotte Bobcats Eastern Southeast 44 38 16 Chicago Bulls Eastern Central 41 41
Bracket Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its conference, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. The division champions are marked by an asterisk. Home court advantage in the NBA Finals does not necessarily belong to the higher-seeded team, but instead the team with the better regular season record (for example, the 4th seed in the Western Conference could have a better regular season record than the 3rd seed in the Eastern Conference and would therefore have home court advantage if the two met in the Finals); teams with home court advantage are shown in italics.
First round All times are in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)
Eastern Conference first round
(1) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (8) Chicago Bulls
This is the last playoff match-up between Chicago & Cleveland until 2015. +Regular-season seriesTied 2–2 in the regular-season series
This was the sixth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Bulls winning the first five meetings. +Previous playoff seriesChicago leads 5–0 in all-time playoff series
(2) Orlando Magic vs. (7) Charlotte Bobcats
+Regular-season seriesOrlando won 3–1 in the regular-season series
This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Hornets franchise winning the first meeting. Note that historical records of the original Charlotte Hornets franchise (later relocated and renamed the New Orleans Pelicans) from 1988 to 2002 are currently with the present Hornets/Bobcats franchise since the 2014–15 season. +Previous playoff seriesCharlotte leads 1–0 in all-time playoff series
(3) Atlanta Hawks vs. (6) Milwaukee Bucks
The Atlanta Hawks quickly took control of the series by winning the first 2 games against the Milwaukee Bucks, without star center Andrew Bogut. But the Bucks managed to take the next 3 games, including a shocking Game 5 win in Atlanta, where they overcame a 9-point deficit in the final 4 minutes. However, Atlanta managed to stave off elimination in front of a raucous Bradley Center crowd, coming away with an 83–69 Game 6 victory. The Hawks then finished off the Bucks in Game 7 and advanced to the next round. +Regular-season seriesAtlanta won 2–1 in the regular-season series
This was the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Bucks winning two of the first three meetings. +Previous playoff seriesMilwaukee leads 2–1 in all-time playoff series This is the most recent playoff series between the Hawks & Bucks until 2021.
(4) Boston Celtics vs. (5) Miami Heat