Season 2012–13 Champions Miami Heat (3rd title) | Teams 16 | |
Runner-up San Antonio Spurs (5th finals appearance) Semifinalists Indiana Pacers
Memphis Grizzlies | ||
The 2013 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 2012–13 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat defeating the Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals. LeBron James was named NBA Finals MVP.
Contents
- Format
- Tiebreak procedures
- Eastern Conference
- Western Conference
- Bracket
- 1 Miami Heat vs 8 Milwaukee Bucks
- 2 New York Knicks vs 7 Boston Celtics
- 3 Indiana Pacers vs 6 Atlanta Hawks
- 4 Brooklyn Nets vs 5 Chicago Bulls
- 1 Miami Heat vs 5 Chicago Bulls
- 2 New York Knicks vs 3 Indiana Pacers
- Conference Finals 1 Miami Heat vs 3 Indiana Pacers
- 1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs 8 Houston Rockets
- 2 San Antonio Spurs vs 7 Los Angeles Lakers
- 3 Denver Nuggets vs 6 Golden State Warriors
- 4 Los Angeles Clippers vs 5 Memphis Grizzlies
- 1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs 5 Memphis Grizzlies
- 2 San Antonio Spurs vs 6 Golden State Warriors
- Conference Finals 2 San Antonio Spurs vs 5 Memphis Grizzlies
- NBA Finals E1 Miami Heat vs W2 San Antonio Spurs
- NBA Records
- References
The Miami Heat headed into the playoffs with a franchise-best 66 wins, topping the league in the regular season. Their 2012 Finals opponents, the Oklahoma City Thunder, topped the Western Conference with 60 wins, making it the first time since 2006 that the two teams who faced off in the previous year's finals topped their respective conferences in the next regular season.
The New York Knicks entered the playoffs with their best regular-season performance since 1997, finishing atop the Atlantic Division for the first time since 1994. The Indiana Pacers won the Central Division for the first time since 2004, while the Los Angeles Clippers made franchise history by winning their first Pacific Division title and having a 56-win season, tied with the Memphis Grizzlies, whose 56 wins were also a franchise record. The Denver Nuggets earned the West's third seed and headed into the playoffs with a franchise-record 57 wins.
The Brooklyn Nets and Golden State Warriors made their first playoff appearances since 2007. This also marked the first time that Barclays Center hosted a playoff game. The Houston Rockets made their first playoff appearance since 2009, while the Milwaukee Bucks appeared for the first time since 2010. The Bucks were the first team since 2011 to make the playoffs despite finishing below .500 in the regular season.
The San Antonio Spurs continued the longest active playoff streak at 16 straight appearances. The Dallas Mavericks missed the playoffs for the first time since 2000, ending the second-longest active streak of playoff appearances, which stretched 12 years. The Orlando Magic also missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006, ending the longest active streak in the Eastern Conference.
Game 7 between Chicago and Brooklyn marked the 14th straight postseason with at least one Game 7. The 1999 NBA Playoffs was the last time that a Game 7 was not played.
Format
The six division winners and 10 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 are:
- Division leader wins tie from team not leading a division
- Head-to-head record
- Division record (if all the tied teams are in the same division)
- Conference record
- Record vs. playoff teams, own conference
- Record vs. playoff teams, other conference (only in two-way tie)
- Point differential, all games
If there were more than two teams tied, the team that wins the tiebreaker gets 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.
Eastern Conference
— = Did not achieve
Western Conference
— = Did not achieve
Notes
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 for the playoffs does not necessarily belong to the higher-seeded team, but instead the team with the better regular season record. Teams with home court advantage are shown in italics. If two teams with the same record meet in a round, standard tiebreaker rules are used. The doodle rule for determining home court advantage in the NBA Finals is head to head record followed by record vs. opposite conference.
* Division winner
Bold Series winner
italics Team with home-court advantage
Eastern Conference
All times are in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)(1) Miami Heat vs. (8) Milwaukee Bucks
This was the first playoff meeting between the Heat and the Bucks.
(2) New York Knicks vs. (7) Boston Celtics
This was the 15th playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Celtics winning eight of the first 14 meetings.
(3) Indiana Pacers vs. (6) Atlanta Hawks
This was the fifth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the each team winning two series apiece.
(4) Brooklyn Nets vs. (5) Chicago Bulls
The Nets led wire-to-wire as they routed the Bulls 106-89 to take a 1-0 series lead. A dominant first half allowed the Nets to put the game away early as they outscored the Bulls 25-14 in the first quarter and 35-21 in the second quarter, building a 60-35 halftime lead.
Following their embarrassing Game 1 loss, the Bulls bounced back with a 90-82 win, evening the series at 1-1 and stealing homecourt advantage. The Bulls took control of the game in the third quarter, outscoring the Nets 22-11 in the period and building a 12-point 4th quarter lead. The Nets attempted to rally, but the Bulls made enough clutch shots to hold them off. After scoring 89 points through 3 quarters in Game 1 (and 106 for the game), the Nets were held to 82 points for all of Game 2.
The Bulls took a 2-1 series lead with a 79-76 victory. Despite squandering most of a huge fourth quarter lead, the Bulls hung on to win when Cj Watson airballed a game tying three pointer at the buzzer.
The Bulls stunned the Nets and took a commanding 3-1 series lead with a 142-134 victory in triple overtime. The Nets trailed 58-55 at halftime. However, they outscored the Bulls 29-18 in the third quarter and led by 8 points heading into the fourth quarter. With less than 3 minutes to go, the Nets extended their lead to 14, and the Bulls trailed 109-95. However, the Bulls would go on a 16-2 run to force the first of three overtimes. Nate Robinson caught fire, scoring 23 points in the 4th quarter, including 12 unanswered points as the Bulls cut the deficit to 109-107 with just over one minute remaining. Carlos Boozer then scored the game tying bucket to even the game at 109. On the Nets' next possession, Brook Lopez was fouled. He made both free throws to put the Nets up 111-109. The Bulls drew up a play to give Luol Deng a go ahead corner three. Deng missed the three, but Joakim Noah grabbed two offensive rebounds and tied the game at 111-111. Deron Williams attempted to win the game at the end of regulation, but his shot rimmed out, and the Bulls forced overtime. During the overtimes, several players fouled out. For the Nets, Gerald Wallace and Reggie Evans would foul out while Robinson, Noah, and Gibson would foul out for the Bulls. The Bulls would go on to win the game in triple overtime as they pushed the Nets to the brink of elimination.
The Bulls entered this game without the services of Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, and Kirk Hinrich, but almost blew a 3–1 series lead to the Nets. However, the Bulls dominated the first half, building a 61-44 halftime lead. In the second half, the Nets fought back as they cut the deficit to 4, but they got no closer as the Bulls prevailed with a 99-93 victory. It was the first time that the Bulls had won a Game 7 on the road in franchise history, becoming the 7th NBA road team to do so after leading series 3–1. They were 0-6 in their last 6 road Game 7's.
This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Bulls winning the first meeting. All previous meetings took place while the Nets were in New Jersey.
(1) Miami Heat vs. (5) Chicago Bulls
The Bulls stunned the Heat in Game 1 with a 93-86 victory. The game was close throughout, with neither team leading by more than 8 points. The Heat entered the fourth quarter with a 62-58 lead and led 86-83 with just over two minutes to play when the Bulls scored the game's final 10 points. After giving up only 37 points in the first half, the Heat's defense allowed the Bulls to score 35 points in the 4th quarter alone. After Marco Bellinelli's game-tying three pointer knotted the game at 86, Nate Robinson took over, scoring two consecutive shots to put the Bulls up 90-86 with just over 40 seconds left. On the Heat's next two possessions, LeBron James would shoot an airball and miss a long three pointer, and Nate Robinson made enough free throws to seal the win and help the Bulls steal homecourt advantage.
This was the seventh playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Bulls winning four of the first six meetings.
(2) New York Knicks vs. (3) Indiana Pacers
This was the seventh playoff meeting between these two teams, with each team winning three series apiece.
Conference Finals: (1) Miami Heat vs. (3) Indiana Pacers
This was the third playoff meeting between these two teams, with each team winning one series apiece.
Western Conference
All times are in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)(1) Oklahoma City Thunder vs. (8) Houston Rockets
This was the seventh playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Thunder/SuperSonics franchise winning five of the first six meetings. All previous meetings took place while the Thunder franchise were still known as the Seattle SuperSonics.
(2) San Antonio Spurs vs. (7) Los Angeles Lakers
The Spurs dominated the Lakers in Game 1 and took a 1-0 series lead.
The Spurs dominated again in Game 2 and took a commanding 2-0 series lead.
The Spurs throttled the Lakers 120-89 and took a commanding 3-0 series lead. For the Lakers, the 31-point loss represented the largest home playoff loss in franchise history.
The Spurs completed their sweep of the injury-depleted Lakers, routing them 103-82. Dwight Howard picked up two technical fouls and was ejected in the third quarter. It would end up being his final game in a Lakers jersey.
This was the 12th playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Lakers winning eight of the first 11 meetings.
(3) Denver Nuggets vs. (6) Golden State Warriors
This was the first playoff meeting between the Nuggets and the Warriors.
(4) Los Angeles Clippers vs. (5) Memphis Grizzlies
This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Clippers winning the first meeting.
(1) Oklahoma City Thunder vs. (5) Memphis Grizzlies
This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Thunder winning the first meeting.
(2) San Antonio Spurs vs. (6) Golden State Warriors
Golden State led by 16 with 4 minutes to go, when they miss 8 of their last 9 shots, while San Antonio caught fire. The Spurs would come back without Tim Duncan, who had been bothered by a stomach virus and had to be in the locker room for the final 4:31 of regulation. San Antonio finally tied the game on a Danny Green 3-pointer with 20 seconds left. Stephen Curry (who scored 22 points in the 3rd quarter) would have a shot to win the game at the buzzer, but he misses his tightly contested 15-footer so the game heads to OT. Manu Ginobili would have a shot to potentially win the game at the end of the 1st OT but it was off the mark so the game heads to a 2nd OT. In the 2nd OT, with the Spurs leading by 3, Ginobili takes an ill-advised 3 with still 12 seconds left on the shot clock and 48 left on the game clock. Curry would score to cut the deficit to 1-point with 32 seconds left. The Spurs would drain the shot clock before Tony Parker missed a contested lay-up, which led to a Warriors fast-break, which was finished off with a reverse lay-up from Kent Bazemore with 3.9 left to give Golden State a sudden 1-point lead. However, Ginobili would make up for his previous misses by hitting the game-winning 3 with 1.2 left to take Game 1.
This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Warriors winning the first meeting.
Conference Finals: (2) San Antonio Spurs vs. (5) Memphis Grizzlies
This was the first sweep of any NBA conference finals series since 2003, when the New Jersey Nets swept the Detroit Pistons.
This was the third playoff meeting between these two teams, with each team winning one series apiece.
NBA Finals: (E1) Miami Heat vs. (W2) San Antonio Spurs
This was the first playoff meeting between the Heat and the Spurs.
NBA Records
The following records were set or tied during the playoffs: