1951-52 NBA Finals
April 12, 1952 – April 25, 1952
1951-52 NBA Finals result: MLMinneapolis Lakers def. NYKNew York Knicks, 4-3, April 12, 1952 – April 25, 1952.
Result
| Team | Series | |
|---|---|---|
| Champion | MLMinneapolis Lakers | 4-3 |
| Runner-up | NYKNew York Knicks |
Games
| Game | Date | Result | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game 1 | April 12, 1952 | MLMinneapolis Lakers 83–79 New York Knicks | St. Paul Auditorium, St. Paul, Minnesota |
| Game 2 | April 13, 1952 | NYKNew York Knicks 80–72 Minneapolis Lakers | St. Paul Auditorium, St. Paul, Minnesota |
| Game 3 | April 16, 1952 | MLMinneapolis Lakers 82–77 New York Knicks | 69th Regiment Armory, New York, New York |
| Game 4 | April 18, 1952 | NYKNew York Knicks 90–89 Minneapolis Lakers | 69th Regiment Armory, New York, New York |
| Game 5 | April 20, 1952 | MLMinneapolis Lakers 102–89 New York Knicks | St. Paul Auditorium, St. Paul, Minnesota |
| Game 6 | April 23, 1952 | NYKNew York Knicks 76–68 Minneapolis Lakers | 69th Regiment Armory, New York, New York |
| Game 7 | April 25, 1952 | MLMinneapolis Lakers 82–65 New York Knicks | Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota |
Finals MVP
The Finals MVP award was not introduced until 1969; no Finals MVP was named for this series.
Series context
The 1952 NBA Finals brought together the Minneapolis Lakers and the New York Knicks in the first playoff meeting ever between the two franchises, a best-of-seven series that stretched from April 12 to April 25 and, like the previous year's Finals, went the full seven games. Minneapolis, holding home-court advantage as Western Division champions, opened with an 83-79 overtime win in Game 1. New York answered immediately, winning Game 2 80-72, before Minneapolis retook the lead with an 82-77 win in Game 3. Game 4 went to a second overtime thriller, with the Knicks escaping 90-89 to even the series at two games apiece. Minneapolis then pulled ahead again with a decisive 102-89 win in Game 5, only for New York to force a Game 7 with a 76-68 win in Game 6. In the finale, played in Minneapolis on April 25, the Lakers dominated from the outset and won going away, 82-65, to claim the franchise's fourth professional championship in five years. George Mikan was, once again, the singular dominant force of the series and of the entire postseason, reportedly totaling 307 points across the playoffs and consistently posting massive scoring and rebounding numbers through the Finals. His continued dominance in the paint throughout the early 1950s prompted the league to widen the free-throw lane from six to twelve feet before the 1951-52 season specifically to counter his scoring, a change that has endured (with later modifications) as a fundamental part of the sport and is still informally referred to as the "Mikan Rule." An unusual off-court wrinkle affected the series in New York: the Barnum & Bailey circus's annual booking at Madison Square Garden bumped the Knickerbockers out of their home arena for part of the postseason, forcing the team to play some games at the smaller 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan instead, a reminder of how secondary professional basketball still was to other forms of entertainment and how limited NBA teams' control over their own venues could be in this era. The full 1952 playoff tournament spanned 39 days, with Minneapolis playing 13 games and New York 14 across their respective series. This championship extended the Lakers' dynasty under coach John Kundla into a fourth title in five seasons (counting the 1948 NBL crown), a run of sustained dominance unmatched in professional basketball to that point and one that established Minneapolis, rather than any East Coast franchise, as the league's first true basketball capital during the sport's formative NBA years.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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