Following the path of the NBA Belt, and crowning a regular season champion

There are people who will tell you the regular season doesn’t matter (ahem, Tristan Thompson). I say those people are FOOLS!

That’s because those people do not know about the NBA Belt, a fictional championship belt that turns almost every night in the NBA into a title defense. I have appointed myself the caretaker of this belt, though I’m not the one who came up with the concept. In fact, I’m not sure who or where the idea began, but I love it. 

Here’s how it works. 

The reigning champion comes into the regular season as the NBA Belt Champion. This year, it was the Los Angeles Lakers, and every night the belt-holder plays it’s a title match, with the winner becoming the new champion.

The Lakers lost to the Los Angeles Clippers on opening night, so the belt changed hands, and we were off to the races. 

The beauty of the belt is that most teams have a chance to knock off a champ at some point. The belt can end up in some weird places. Here’s the belt’s path this season. 

Clippers: they beat the Lakers and then won in Denver, but they came back home and got demolished by the Dallas Mavericks 124-73. 

Mavs: Their reign was short-lived, losing it in the next game to the Charlotte Hornets 118-99.

Hornets: Another short reign. Charlotte dropped it to the Memphis Grizzlies in their next game.

Grizzlies: The hot-potato game caught the Grizz as they gave the belt back to the original champions, the Lakers, in their next game.  

Lakers: The home series wrinkle of this season gave us a couple of rematches, which was interesting. The Lakers beat the Grizzlies twice on the road, just barely in the second game. The Lakers became the first team to hold the belt twice this season, and just the second team to actually hold it for more than a game. But that’s all they had it for, because the San Antonio Spurs came to town and took it with a 118-109 win on January 7. 

Spurs: Gregg Popovich and crew went to Minnesota for a two-game set and defended the belt In their first game, an overtime win, but then the Timberwolves won the rematch. It was just their third win of the season, and it came after a seven-game losing streak, but here they stood with the NBA belt. They gave it back to Memphis, though, in their next game. 

Grizzlies: Our second two-time champion of the season, the Grizzlies were supposed to give Minnesota a chance to win it right back in yet another two-game set with the belt on the line, but that game was postponed due to health and safety protocols. 

This started the weirdest stretch for the NBA belt, because the Grizzlies held onto the belt for nearly three weeks. After impressive defenses against Philadelphia and Phoenix, the next five Grizzlies games were postponed. They returned to action against the Spurs in a two-game series and defended the belt both times. Finally, after gaining the belt on January 13, the Griz lost it to the Indiana Pacers on February 2.

Pacers: The belt flipped quickly, with the Pacers going on a four-game losing streak, the first of which handed the belt to the Milwaukee Bucks, who got a triple-double from Giannis Antetokounmpo (27 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists). 

Bucks: Milwaukee defended the belt twice in a row in Cleveland in another two-game series and then against the Denver Nuggets, but then lost it to the Phoenix Suns in a wild finish that saw Antetokounmpo miss a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer.

Suns: That win was game four of a six-game winning streak for the Suns. Title defenses came against Philadelphia and Orlando before losing a barn-burner with the Brooklyn Nets.

Nets: The Nets were cruising through this stretch. The win over Phoenix was their fourth in a row, and they followed that up with four title defenses: on the road against the Lakers and Clippers, then back at home against the Sacramento Kings and Orlando Magic. Then Dallas came to town and snatched the belt back. 

Mavs: They became the third two-time champion of the season, and their win over Brooklyn was the start of a four-game winning streak. They defended against Orlando (their third crack at the belt), OKC, and San Antonio (their third unsuccessful opportunity since winning the belt earlier this season). But then the Thunder parked their tanks and beat the Mavs. 

Thunder: This didn’t last long. They gave the belt to New York in their next game. 

Knicks: They also had a short-lived reign, but the belt only changed boroughs, not cities, as the Nets came into MSG and took their belt back. 

Nets: Brooklyn defended against Indiana, but Orlando finally broke through on their fourth title shot. The Magic survived a 43 point night from Kyrie Irving. 

Magic: Sub-.500 teams don’t win much, so they tend to give up the belt quickly. Orlando did that, losing to the Boston Celtics on March 21. 

Celtics: We know how inconsistent Boston has been, so it should be no surprise that their run with the belt was a short one. Remember the frustrating overtime loss at Memphis? That was a title match, and the Grizzlies became this year’s first three-time champions. 

Grizzlies: OKC had another chance at the belt (not bad for a tanking team), but lost. Then the now three-time champion Memphis went to Utah for a two-game set and gave up the belt to the Jazz.

Jazz: Utah took both games here and held the belt for a bit as they were in the midst of a nine-game winning streak. Memphis even had another shot in this run, but lost, as did the Cavs, Bulls, and Magic (they have been fodder for champs all season long). The belt didn’t change hands until April 5, when Dallas came back for their belt. 

Mavs: The now three-time champion Mavs were the conduit for getting the belt to bad teams. Charlotte and OKC had already won the belt from Luka Doncic and Dallas, and this time it was the Houston Rockets turn. 

Rockets: Of course they gave the belt away quickly. The win over Dallas was sandwiched by two five-game losing streaks, the second of which started with the Clippers taking back the title. 

Clippers: They became two-time champs in the midst of a seven-game winning streak. They had title defenses against Detroit, Indiana, and Detroit again before the Philadelphia 76ers finally broke through on April 16. 

Sixers: Joel Embiid was on a dominant stretch but the Sixers fell into a four-game losing streak the game after getting the belt. They gave it up to the Golden State Warriors behind Steph Curry’s 49 points. 

Warriors: The end of an east coast swing, which included that epic duel between Curry and Jayson Tatum, caught up to the Dubs in Washington. The night after they beat Philly, they gave belt up to the Washington Wizards.

Wizards: The Wiz were rolling in this stretch, winning eight straight games on their way to collecting the NBA Belt. Wins seven and eight were title defenses against the Thunder and Cleveland. The loss came against San Antonio in a 146-143 overtime thriller. 

Spurs: That game sapped the Spurs, who flipped the belt over to Miami in their next game, their first of five straight losses, one of which was Tatum’s 60 point game to lead 32 point comeback. 

Heat: Miami was hot at the end of the season, and they were able to defend the belt twice, against Cleveland and Charlotte, before we got our first four-time champion on May 4 behind 36 points from Tim Hardaway, Jr. of the Dallas Mavericks.

Mavs: The four-time champs went on a winning streak after taking the belt back, beating Brooklyn and Cleveland twice in a home-and-home series. Then the four-time champs created another four-time champion when they lost to the Memphis Grizzlies. 

Grizzlies: The four-time champs looked to take the belt home with them with just three games left in the regular season. The belt was defended twice, catching another two-game series, this tie with the Sacramento Kings. That set up one last game for the belt against the Golden State Warriors. 

Warriors: The Dubs took the belt home after a monster 46 point night from Steph Curry that saw him become the oldest scoring champion since Michael Jordan won it at 35 years old.  Curry, 33, hit nine 3-pointers to carry the Warriors, and help his team become the 2020-21 NBA Belt Champions. 

That’s the end of the road for the belt this season. The play-in tournament doesn’t count and the playoffs are here to determine the next champion. Whichever team wins the title also wins the belt, and I’ll be back next season to follow its path around the NBA. 

It’s a fun way to add some flavor to the regular season. Maybe someday this will grow into something bigger, but for now it’s part of my routine of following the league as a whole, and I hope people have some fun following it.