1980–81 NBA season

The season ended with the Boston Celtics winning the NBA Championship, beating the Houston Rockets 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals.

As of 2023, this was the last time an NBA season (including postseason) had ended before Memorial Day.

Notes Teams in bold advanced to the next round.

Home court advantage does not necessarily belong to the higher-seeded team, but instead the team with the better regular season record; teams enjoying the home advantage are shown in italics.

Note that in the Western Conference, the lower seeded team won every series.