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The Oklahoma City Thunder won Game 7 of a highly contested NBA Finals series against the Indiana Pacers to secure the franchise’s second league championship. It was the team’s first since making the move from Seattle to OKC in 2008.
Across a 58-year history, the Thunder (SuperSonics) have made five appearances in the NBA Finals. They’ve gone 2-3 in those title bouts, giving them a 40% success rate with a title on the line.
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That winning percentage ranks 13th amongst current NBA organizations. Five squads have never made the Finals while another five are winless in the championship round, the Pacers included.
There are 10 teams that boast a success rate of 50% or better. That number does not take into account overall game-by-game record, only whether or not the team secured a title upon reaching the championship round. Below is the list of franchises with the best winning percentages in the NBA Finals.
Houston Rockets (.500)
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The Houston Rockets are a combined 2-2 across four NBA Finals appearances. The most recent came in 1994-95 season where a lineup led by Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon led the team to a title.
Houston actually went back-to-back in 1994 and 1995 after losing their first two NBA Finals series (’81, ’86). The Rockets reached the Conference Finals as recently as 2018 but could not advance further.
Los Angeles Lakers (.531)
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The Los Angeles Lakers boast the most NBA Finals appearances in the league’s history, and the second-most titles behind another team on this list. In all, the Lake Show is 17-15 in 32 championship series.
Los Angeles most recently won a title in the 2020 bubble behind LeBron James and Anthony Davis. They made the Western Conference Finals in 2023 but fell to eventual champion Denver in four games.
Golden State Warriors (.583)
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The Warriors are a combined 7-5 in NBA Finals series, ranking behind only the Lakers and Celtics in league championships. The most recent title came in 2022 with a team led by Steph Curry.
Four of Golden State’s seven championships have come within the last 10 years. They also lost two NBA Finals series in that time. Technically, the first of the Warriors’ title wins and losses came as members of the BAA, though the NBA largely recognizes the league’s history as its own.
Milwaukee Bucks (.667)
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The Milwaukee Bucks got above .500 in the NBA Finals after bringing home a championship in 2021. It was the franchise’s first title in five decades. Milwaukee has appeared in three NBA Finals, winning two.
The Bucks made the championship series twice in the 1970s, going 1-1 with a sweep of the Baltimore Bullets and a loss to the Boston Celtics. Their most recent title team was led by Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Boston Celtics (.783)
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The Boston Celtics own the most hardware in league history with 18 titles on record. They’ve appeared in 23 NBA Finals, going an incredible 18-5 in those series.
The most recent championship came in 2024 with a team led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Boston beat the Dallas Mavericks to take that series in five games, ending a 15-year championship drought.
San Antonio Spurs (.833)
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The Spurs are a combined 5-1 across six NBA Finals series. Most recently, the franchise won it all in 2014 with the likes of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Kawhi Leonard.
San Antonio appeared in four title series between 1999 and 2007, winning each. They lost in 2013 to the Heat before exacting revenge on Miami a year later.
Denver Nuggets (1.000)
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The Denver Nuggets represent the first team on this list with a perfect mark in NBA Finals play, albeit in just one NBA Finals trip. Led by MVP Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets won their first and only NBA title in 2023.
They previously made a finals series in their last season as ABA members, where they fell to the New York Nets before making the move to the NBA. The ’23 title remains the franchise’s only in its history.
Toronto Raptors (1.000)
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The Raptors, like the Nuggets, are 1-0 in their lone NBA Finals appearance. Toronto won it all in 2019 behind Kawhi Leonard. It remains one of just two times the franchise has made it to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Toronto is the youngest team on this list, having been started in 1995-1996. The Raptors have made the postseason 13 times in their 30-year history with seven of those playoff runs ending in the first round.
Sacramento Kings (1.000)
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The Kings are the last of three teams to own a 1-0 record in the NBA Finals. Sacramento, which started playing in the NBA in the 1949-50 season, has made the championship series just once in 77 years.
The lone title came in 1951 when the team was called the Rochester Royals. The franchise has not been back to the NBA Finals since, with just a pair of Western Conference Finals to show. The Kings have only made the playoffs once since 2006.
Chicago Bulls (1.000)
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The Chicago Bulls are a perfect 6-0 in six NBA Finals appearances, each of which came in the 1990s. The franchise won it all in ’91, ’92, ’93, ’96, ’97, and ’98 with two separate three-peats.
Each of those squads was led by Michael Jordan, but they’ve been unable to replicate success since his departure. The Bulls last appeared in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2011, and have made the postseason just twice since 2015.