1952-53 NBA Finals
April 4, 1953 – April 10, 1953
1952-53 NBA Finals result: MLMinneapolis Lakers def. NYKNew York Knicks, 4-1, April 4, 1953 – April 10, 1953.
Result
| Team | Series | |
|---|---|---|
| Champion | MLMinneapolis Lakers | 4-1 |
| Runner-up | NYKNew York Knicks |
Games
| Game | Date | Result | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game 1 | April 4, 1953 | NYKNew York Knicks 96–88 Minneapolis Lakers | Minneapolis Armory, Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Game 2 | April 5, 1953 | MLMinneapolis Lakers 73–71 New York Knicks | Minneapolis Armory, Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Game 3 | April 7, 1953 | MLMinneapolis Lakers 90–75 New York Knicks | 69th Regiment Armory, New York, New York |
| Game 4 | April 8, 1953 | MLMinneapolis Lakers 71–69 New York Knicks | 69th Regiment Armory, New York, New York |
| Game 5 | April 10, 1953 | MLMinneapolis Lakers 91–84 New York Knicks | 69th Regiment Armory, New York, New York |
Finals MVP
The Finals MVP award was not introduced until 1969; no Finals MVP was named for this series.
Series context
The 1953 NBA Finals pitted the Minneapolis Lakers, the dominant franchise of the league's first NBA era, against the New York Knicks, who were making their third consecutive Finals appearance. Both clubs had won their divisions during the regular season: Minneapolis finished 48-22 atop the Western Division, while New York went 47-23 to edge the Syracuse Nationals by half a game for the Eastern crown. This was the fourth Finals meeting between the two teams in five years (the Lakers had already beaten New York in the 1949 and 1952 Finals), and Minneapolis's dynasty, built around center George Mikan, was in the process of winning its fifth championship in six seasons dating back to the team's National Basketball League days. Both teams had notable roads to the Finals: Minneapolis needed a quadruple-overtime win over the Indianapolis Olympians in the Division Semifinals, at the time the longest game in NBA history, before beating the Rochester Royals in the Division Finals, while New York swept a Baltimore Bullets team that had posted the worst regular-season record of any playoff qualifier in league history (16-54) before beating Syracuse in the Eastern Division Finals. The series opened in Minneapolis, where the Knicks stunned the Lakers by taking Game 1 on the road, 96-88. Minneapolis responded the next night with a tight 73-71 win to even the series, and the two teams then shifted to New York for the remainder of the series. The Lakers took control in Game 3 with a 90-75 rout, then survived a scare in Game 4, edging the Knicks 72-69 to move within one win of the title. Minneapolis closed out the championship in Game 5, defeating New York 91-84 to clinch the series 4-1. All five games were played over just seven days, an extraordinarily compressed schedule by later standards, with Minneapolis playing twelve total playoff games across the postseason and New York eleven. Mikan, still the league's most dominant offensive force, anchored the Lakers throughout the run, and the team's balanced supporting cast of Vern Mikkelsen, Jim Pollard, and Slater Martin gave Minneapolis a roster with few weaknesses. For the Knicks, this defeat marked their third straight Finals loss (1951, 1952, and now 1953), and the franchise would not return to the Finals for decades. This series capped the first great dynasty of the NBA, a league still finding its footing after the 1949 merger of the NBL and BAA, playing in an era of set shots, low scoring pace by later standards, and no shot clock, several years before the rule would revolutionize the sport in 1954-55. The Lakers' victory reinforced their status as the model franchise of professional basketball's formative years.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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