Conference | Western Conference |
---|---|
League | National Basketball Association |
Sport | Basketball |
Inaugural season | 1970–71 season |
Teams | |
No. of teams | 5 |
Championships | |
Most recent Pacific Division champion(s) | Golden State Warriors (5th title) |
Most Pacific Division titles |
Los Angeles Lakers (23 titles) |
The Pacific Division is one of the three divisions in the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The division consists of five teams, the Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Phoenix Suns and the Sacramento Kings. All teams, except the Suns, are based in California.
The division was created at the start of the 1970–71 season, when the league expanded from 14 to 17 teams with the addition of the Buffalo Braves, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Portland Trail Blazers. The league realigned itself into two conferences, the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference, with two divisions each in each conference. The Pacific Division began with five inaugural members, the Lakers, the Blazers, the San Diego Rockets, the San Francisco Warriors and the Seattle SuperSonics. The Lakers, the Rockets, the Warriors and the SuperSonics all joined from the Western Division.
The Lakers have won the most Pacific Division titles with 23. The Suns have won the second most titles with six. The Warriors have won the Pacific Division title five times, including three consecutive times with the first time being in 2015. 14 NBA champions have come from the Pacific Division. The Lakers have won 11 championships, the Warriors won 2, and the Blazers and Sonics won one championship each. All of them, except the 1976–77 Blazers and the 2001–02 Lakers, were division champions. In the 1991–92 season, six teams from the division qualified for the playoffs. In the 1977–78 season, all teams in the division had winning percentages above 0.500 (50%). The most recent division champion is the Golden State Warriors.