They continued to use the bubble throughout the 2020 NBA playoffs for the same purpose. The Bubble was created to shield players from COVID-19 during the final eight matches of the 2019-20 season. (4) Indiana Pacers vs.The 2020 NBA Bubble was held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. Referees: Kane Fitzgerald, Eric Lewis, Dedric Taylor Referees: Scott Foster, Sean Wright, Courtney Kirkland Referees: John Goble, Tony Brown, Curtis Blair Philadelphia 76ers 101, Boston Celtics 128 Referees: Zach Zarba, Pat Fraher, Sean Corbin Philadelphia 76ers 101, Boston Celtics 109 Toronto set an NBA playoff record in Game 4 with 100 bench points in a single game. Referees: Scott Foster, Rodney Mott, Derrick Collins Referees: Zach Zarba, Pat Fraher, Kevin Cutler

Referees: Kane Fitzgerald, Sean Corbin, Brian Forte Referees: John Goble, Tony Brown, Leon Wood Milwaukee was the first team in the league to refuse to play a game for social justice following the shooting of Jacob Blake. Referees: Tony Brothers, Josh Tiven, Tyler Ford

Referees: James Capers, Ed Malloy, Courtney Kirkland Referees: Marc Davis, Kevin Scott, Michael Smith Referees: David Guthrie, James Williams, Tre Maddox Referees: Tony Brothers, Bill Kennedy, Ben Taylor None (Because ninth-place Washington (25–47) finished 7ġ⁄2 games behind eighth-place Orlando (33–40), no play-in was contested.)įirst Round Eastern Conference First Round (1) Milwaukee Bucks vs. In which case the lower-ranked team could advance to their conference playoffs only by defeating the higher-ranked team twice. The teams finishing 8th and 9th in each conference competed for the final playoff seed in their conference, but only if they finished within four games of each other. This year was the only season to use the original play-in game structure. These were the first playoffs since 1997 without the San Antonio Spurs, as they were eliminated from playoff contention on August 14, 2020, ending what was then the longest active playoff streak in the NBA and in the four major sports leagues in North America. None of the teams that made it to the Conference Finals in the 2019 NBA Playoffs made the Conference Finals in 2020. The Toronto Raptors were defending champions, but lost in the Eastern Conference Semifinals round to the Boston Celtics. The games on August 27 and 28 were also postponed, with games resuming on August 29. The last time a play–in game was played to determine a playoff spot was in 1956.Īs part of the bubble, all playoff games were held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex inside Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida.Īll three games that were scheduled to take place on August 26 were postponed by a wildcat strike, in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with the Milwaukee Bucks being the first team not to take the court prior to their game five matchup against the Orlando Magic. If the ninth seed within a conference would have finished the regular season within four games of the eighth seed, they would have then competed in a play–in series. Under this plan, the 22 top teams in the league at the time of the suspension played eight additional regular season games to determine playoff seeding, with 16 of those teams playing in a conventional postseason tournament.

This proposal was then approved by members of the National Basketball Players Association on June 5. On June 4, the NBA Board of Governors approved a plan to restart the season on July 31 in the NBA Bubble. However, the league suspended the season on March 11, 2020, hours after the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and after Utah Jazz Center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus. The playoffs were originally scheduled to begin on April 18. The 2020 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 2019–20 season.

2020 eastern conference finals