2010 NBA playoffs
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 Cleveland Cavaliers entered the NBA Playoffs with the league's best record for the second straight season.
The Boston Celtics, who won the Atlantic Division, entered the playoffs as a fourth seed.
In addition, the Spurs also avenged their own series losses to the Mavericks, who beat them twice in the previous four seasons.
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.
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 a Game 6 win over the Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers advanced to the NBA Finals for the third straight season.
[2] — = Not Applicable 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.)
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.
The Atlanta Hawks quickly took control of the series by winning the first 2 games against the Milwaukee Bucks, without star center Andrew Bogut.
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 Mavs won 55 games and the Southwest Division title, but for the 3rd time in four years, they failed to escape the first round.
The Cavaliers were considered heavy favorites coming in, but had to rally from an 11-point halftime deficit to win Game 1.
The Cavaliers struck back in Game 3 and handed the Celtics their worst home-playoff loss in franchise history.
Rondo's triple-double (29 points, a career playoff high 18 rebounds and 13 assists) pushed the Celtics to a Game 4 victory.
The Cavaliers early exit led to James's departure for the Miami Heat during the offseason.
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert then accused James of quitting on the team during the series and also alleged that he did the same thing the previous year's Conference Finals.
The Boston Celtics were able to hold off a late Magic rally to steal home-court advantage in Game 1.
[41] However, Orlando fell short as the Celtics were able to advance to the NBA Finals for the second time in three years with a 12-point win in Game 6.
The Suns struck back to tie the series by taking Games 3 & 4 in Phoenix, but after a heart-breaking loss in Game 5 in which Ron Artest followed a missed airball by Kobe Bryant and hit the game-winner at the buzzer, the Suns found themselves trailing 3–2.
