The 1954 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the 1954 NBA playoffs, which concluded the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1953–54 season. The Western Division champion Minneapolis Lakers faced the Eastern Division champion Syracuse Nationals in a best-of-seven series with Minneapolis having home-court advantage. The Lakers won their third consecutive NBA championship and fifth title in six years dating from 1949.
Minneapolis won Game 1 and the teams thereafter alternated victories, with the Lakers winning the decisive game by a seven-point margin at home. The seven games were played in thirteen days, beginning Wednesday, March 31 and concluding Monday, April 12. The entire postseason tournament spanned 28 days in which both Minneapolis and Syracuse played 13 games."NBA Division Playoffs Open Tonight". The Washington Post. March 16, 1954. This was the Lakers’ last championship during their time in Minneapolis, as the team would move to Los Angeles and would not win the championship again until 1972.
This was the last major professional sports championship won by a Minneapolis-St. Paul-based team until the Minnesota Twins won the 1987 World Series.
Team rosters Minneapolis Lakers
Syracuse Nationals
Series summary Game Date Home team Result Road team Game 1 March 31 Minneapolis Lakers 79–68 (1–0) Syracuse Nationals Game 2 April 3 Minneapolis Lakers 60–62 (1–1) Syracuse Nationals Game 3 April 4 Syracuse Nationals 67–81 (1–2) Minneapolis Lakers Game 4 April 8 Syracuse Nationals 80–69 (2–2) Minneapolis Lakers Game 5 April 10 Syracuse Nationals 73–84 (2–3) Minneapolis Lakers Game 6 April 11 Minneapolis Lakers 63–65 (3–3) Syracuse Nationals Game 7 April 12 Minneapolis Lakers 87–80 (4–3) Syracuse Nationals Lakers win series 4–3
Box scores
With seven seconds remaining, Paul Seymour hit a shot from 43 feet away to give Syracuse the victory. The 62 points scored by the Nationals set a record that still stands (as of ) for lowest amount of points scored in an NBA Finals game from the winning team.
Television Game two was the first NBA Finals contest to be carried live on national television, with the DuMont network providing the coverage. Game five was also aired by DuMont, featuring Marty Glickman doing play-by-play and Lindsey Nelson as the color analyst.
References "1953–54 NBA Season Summary". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2015-04-10. Select "Previous Season" from the heading for 1952–53, and so on. Select "Finals" from League Playoffs for the daily schedule of the final series, and so on.
External links 1954 Finals at NBA.com 1954 NBA Playoffs at Basketball-Reference.com