The NBA Finals Name____________________________________ Check out the infographic below. How does the average age of NBA champion teams compare to the league's average team age? How can we use this information to help us predict future NBA champs?

https://visual.ly/teams-stay-together-win-together

The graphs below provide data on all of the past NBA Championships won by team.

Celtics;17;24%

Lakers;16;23%

Bulls;6;9%Spurs;5;7%

Warriors;5;7%

Pistons;3;4%

Heat;3;4%

76ers;3;4%

OtherTeams;13;18%

NBAChampionshipsbyteam

1. Look at the two graphs showing the number of NBA championships won by NBA team. Record at least three mathematical observations from the data in the graphs.

2. Compare and contrast the two types of graphs. How do the graphs provide you with a different look at the data? Which graphical representation do you think is more useful? What makes you say that?

3. The Lakers have met the Celtics 12 times in the NBA Finals. The Celtics have won nine of the meetings. Write as many different mathematical comparisons about these 12 meetings as you can.

4. Not only have the Celtics and Lakers won more NBA Finals than any other team in the NBA, but also they have been in more NBA Finals than any other team. Use the following facts to complete the Venn diagram. The diagram will help us get an idea of how many of the finals have had either the Celtics or Lakers in it.

• There have been a total of 70 NBA Finals. • The Celtics and Lakers have met in twelve finals against each other. • The Lakers have been in a total of 31 finals. • The Celtics have been in a total of 21 finals.

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Celtics Lakers Bulls Spurs Warriors Pistons Heat 76ers OtherTeams

NBAChampionshipsbyteam

5. The Lakers or Celtics have been in a lot of finals, but not all of them. Where do you put the number of times that neither the Lakers nor Celtics have been in the finals? Make sure to correctly place this value.

6. How many of the NBA Finals have either had the Celtics or Lakers in it? (Remember, you can’t just add the Celtic and Lakers total trips, because they played each other in many of the finals).

7. If you were to randomly attend one of the previous 70 NBA Finals in person (yes, you can go back in time), what would be the probability that either the Celtics or Lakers would be playing in that series? Express your answer as a lowest term fraction and as a percent. 8. The highest scoring average in the NBA Finals belongs to Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls, who averaged (mean points per game) exactly 41 points a game in the 1993 NBA Finals against the Suns. This series lasted six games, give a possible set of points that Jordan could have scored each game that would average out to 41 points per game. Test your set of numbers by finding the average of your set. How do you know if a set of numbers has an average (mean) of 41?

Sources: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nba/01playoffs/finals/records.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Finals Note: The first few professional basketball finals were the BBA Finals, not the NBA Finals.

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