# 1950 NBA Finals

The 1950 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s inaugural 1949–50 season following the merger of the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The Central Division champion Minneapolis Lakers faced the Eastern Division champion Syracuse Nationals in a best-of-seven series with Syracuse having home-court advantage.
In the event, six games were played in 16 days, beginning Saturday and Sunday, April 8 and 9, in Syracuse and incorporating two subsequent Sunday games in Minneapolis. Counting a Central Division tiebreaker played on Monday, March 20, the entire postseason tournament spanned five full weeks to Sunday, April 23.
The NBA was arranged in three divisions (for its first season only) and the first two rounds of the 1950 NBA Playoffs generated three Division champions. With the league's best regular season record, Syracuse had earned a place in the Finals by winning the Eastern Division title on the preceding Sunday, and had been five days idle while the Central and Western champions had played a best-of-three series mid-week.
In Game 1, the Lakers won on a buzzer beating shot by sub Bob "Tiger" Harrison, the first known case of a buzzer beater in the Finals. Six-foot-eight-inch (2.03 m) Dolph Schayes of Syracuse led his team out to the finals after a 16.8 ppg average during the regular season. George Mikan, however, averaged 27.4 ppg and led the league. Mikan would lead the Lakers past Syracuse in six games.
The championship was the Lakers third professional championship in a row after winning the NBL championship in 1948 and the BAA championship in 1949.
While the NBA was considered a new league at the time, it later retconned the three preceding BAA seasons as part of its own history, and thus presents the 1950 Finals as its fourth championship series.

## Series summary

| Game | Date | Home team | Result | Road team |
| Game 1 | April 8 | Syracuse Nationals | 66−68 (0−1) | Minneapolis Lakers |
| Game 2 | April 9 | Syracuse Nationals | 91−85 (1−1) | Minneapolis Lakers |
| Game 3 | April 14 | Minneapolis Lakers | 91−77 (2−1) | Syracuse Nationals |
| Game 4 | April 16 | Minneapolis Lakers | 77−69 (3−1) | Syracuse Nationals |
| Game 5 | April 20 | Syracuse Nationals | 83−76 (2−3) | Minneapolis Lakers |
| Game 6 | April 23 | Minneapolis Lakers | 110−95 (4−2) | Syracuse Nationals |
Lakers win series 4−2

## Box scores

* April 8
* Boxscore
Minneapolis Lakers 68, Syracuse Nationals 66 :
| Scoring by quarter: 16–10, 18–20, 17–23, 17–13 |||
| Pts: George Mikan 37 | Pts: Dolph Schayes 19 |
| Minneapolis leads series, 1–0 |||
* State Fair Coliseum, Geddes, New York Attendance: 7,552
* Bob Harrison hits the game-winning shot from 40 feet at the buzzer.
* April 9
* Boxscore
Minneapolis Lakers 85, Syracuse Nationals 91 :
| Scoring by quarter: 17–16, 14–28, 22–23, 32–24 |||
| Pts: George Mikan 32 | Pts: George Ratkovicz 17 |
| Series tied, 1–1 |||
* State Fair Coliseum, Geddes, New York Attendance: 8,280
* April 14
* Boxscore
Syracuse Nationals 77, Minneapolis Lakers 91 :
| Scoring by quarter: 15–21, 24–21, 16–24, 22–25 |||
| Pts: Johnny Macknowski 25 Asts: Paul Seymour 5 | Pts: George Mikan 28 Asts: George Mikan 8 |
| Minneapolis leads series, 2–1 |||
* St. Paul Auditorium, Saint Paul, Minnesota Attendance: 10,288
* April 16
* Boxscore
Syracuse Nationals 69, Minneapolis Lakers 77 :
| Scoring by quarter: 22–27, 16–11, 19–24, 12–15 |||
| Pts: Schayes, Hannum 18 each Asts: Bill Gabor 6 | Pts: George Mikan 28 Asts: Jim Pollard 4 |
| Minneapolis leads series, 3–1 |||
* St. Paul Auditorium, Saint Paul, Minnesota Attendance: 10,512
* April 20
* Boxscore
Minneapolis Lakers 76, Syracuse Nationals 83 :
| Scoring by quarter: 16–14, 8–24, 19–23, 33–22 |||
| Pts: George Mikan 28 | Pts: Dolph Schayes 19 |
| Minneapolis leads series, 3–2 |||
* State Fair Coliseum, Geddes, New York Attendance: 9,024
* April 23
* Boxscore
Syracuse Nationals 95, Minneapolis Lakers 110 :
| Scoring by quarter: 18–25, 21–26, 17–30, 39–29 |||
| Pts: Dolph Schayes 23 Asts: Johnny Macknowski 5 | Pts: George Mikan 40 Asts: Jim Pollard 10 |
| Minneapolis wins series, 4–2 |||
* Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota Attendance: 9,812 Referees: Jim Biersdorf, John Nucatola