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1982 NBA playoffs

postseason tournament

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ2326408 ↗
Source-derived summary

The 1982 NBA playoffs were the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1981–82 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers defeating the Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia 76ers 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals. Magic Johnson was named NBA Finals MVP for the second time.

It was the second NBA Finals meeting in three years between the Lakers and Sixers, and ended with the same result—a 4–2 Lakers victory—as the previous confrontation. They met again in 1983, with Philadelphia getting revenge in a sweep. The Sixers beat the Celtics again in the Eastern Conference Finals, the second of their three series wins in a four-year stretch.

The Bullets' 2–0 sweep of the Nets was their last playoff series victory until 2005.

This was the third straight year the Bucks failed to advance to the third round with the #2 seed despite a first-round bye, although they did not have the better record in each of those matchups, and thus not having home-court advantage.

Bracket

First round

Eastern Conference first round

(3) Philadelphia 76ers vs. (6) Atlanta Hawks

This is the most recent playoff series between the 76ers & Hawks until 2021.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “1982 NBA playoffs” is postseason tournament. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through playoffs, postseason and tournament, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1982, 1981, 1983, 2005—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, playoffs, postseason and tournament is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “postseason tournament” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2326408. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1981, 1983 and 2005.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow 1982 NBA playoffs primary sources, 1982 NBA playoffs archive and playoffs research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “1982 NBA playoffs” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.