This season's title chase features three teams that have won 40 or more games, and the winner will be crowned at Ariake Colosseum on Sunday.
The Kyoto Hannaryz, meanwhile, are the only one of the quartet returning to Tokyo for this season's Final Four, having advanced this far for the third straight season under bench boss Honoo Hamaguchi. Even so, they are the underdog, having gone 34-18 in the regular season and then outlasting the Shiga Lakestars in the Western Conference semifinals on May 11 in the mini-game tiebreaker at Hannaryz Arena.
The Eastern Conference top-seeded Toyama Grouses (44-10 overall) have won 13 consecutive games, including a second-round playoff series on May 10 and 11 against the Niigata Albirex BB, to reach the Final Four for the first time in the eighth-year franchise's history. Of the four remaining teams, coach Bob Nash's Grouses have been in the league the longest.
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