1971-72 NBA Season Standings

The Los Angeles Lakers, riding a then-record 33-game winning streak during the season, went 69-13 (a record at the time) and beat the New York Knicks 4-1 in the Finals for their first title in Los Angeles. The San Diego Rockets relocated to become the Houston Rockets this season, while the San Francisco Warriors were renamed the Golden State Warriors; the league remained at 17 teams with no expansion.

Basketball: Standings ▾

Sourcing caveat: The Atlantic/Central (East) and Midwest/Pacific (West) division structure continued; playoff seeding was actually determined by division finish, not the single conference-wide ranking shown here, which is a per-conference merge of both divisions sorted by winning percentage (recalculated GB relative to the conference's top team) for consistency with this dataset's format. Cincinnati and Philadelphia were tied at 30-52 (.366); order shown alphabetically.

Eastern Conference

Seed	Team	W	L	PCT	GB
1	BCBoston Celtics	56	26	.683	-
2	NYKNew York Knicks	48	34	.585	8.0
3	BBBaltimore Bullets	38	44	.463	18.0
4	AHAtlanta Hawks	36	46	.439	20.0
5	CRCincinnati Royals	30	52	.366	26.0
6	P7Philadelphia 76ers	30	52	.366	26.0
7	CCCleveland Cavaliers	23	59	.280	33.0
8	BBBuffalo Braves	22	60	.268	34.0

Western Conference

Seed	Team	W	L	PCT	GB
1	LALLos Angeles Lakers	69	13	.841	-
2	MBMilwaukee Bucks	63	19	.768	6.0
3	CBChicago Bulls	57	25	.695	12.0
4	GSWGolden State Warriors	51	31	.622	18.0
5	PSPhoenix Suns	49	33	.598	20.0
6	SSSeattle SuperSonics	47	35	.573	22.0
7	HRHouston Rockets	34	48	.415	35.0
8	DPDetroit Pistons	26	56	.317	43.0
9	PTBPortland Trail Blazers	18	64	.220	51.0

Sources

Data last verified: 11 August 2026.

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