How Many More NBA Games Are Left?
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The NBA season is winding down and there are only a few games left. How many more games are left in the season?
How the NBA Season Works
The NBA season runs from October to June, with each team playing 82 games. The regular season is followed by the NBA playoffs, which is a single-elimination tournament held among the league’s eight best teams. The conference semifinals and finals are played, and then the NBA Finals, which is a best-of-seven series between the winners of the two conferences. So, how many more games are left in the season?
The regular season
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the premier professional men’s basketball league in North America. It is composed of 30 teams, 29 from the United States and 1 from Canada. The NBA season consists of 82 games for each team, 41 games at home and 41 on the road. These games are played over a span of about six months, from late October/early November to mid-April. Each team plays 82 games, mostly on weeknights with a limited number of weekend games. NBA teams also play four preseason exhibition games before the regular season starts.
The playoffs
The National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament annually held after the NBA’s regular season to determine the league’s champion. The playoffs were established in 1947, the same year the NBA was founded. The playoffs began with three rounds of best-of-five series. Since 1963, the NBA Finals have consisted of a best-of-seven series. Each team plays one home game and one away game in each round, for a total of six games. The team with four wins advances to the next round and plays against another advancing team, until only one team remains in each conference to compete in the NBA Finals.
How Many Games Are Left in the Season?
The amount of games left in the season depends on the team. The Lakers have 82 games in the season. As of March 3rd, they have played 63 games. So, they have 19 games left in the season.
Regular season
As of April 11th, there are 30 games left in the NBA regular season. Each team plays 82 games total in the regular season. The regular season runs from October to April. The playoffs start in April and the Finals end in June.
Playoffs
In the NBA, the playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament among sixteen teams that have qualified in advance by winning at least half their games in the 82-game regular season. The tournament generally starts in late April, with the top eight teams in each conference—Eastern and Western—participating. First and second seeds receive home court advantage, meaning they can play up to four of their seven games at home. This format makes it so that higher seeds would have to be beaten twice on their home court to be eliminated, as opposed to just once for lower seeds.
What Happens if the Season Is Cancelled?
There are only a few weeks left in the NBA season, and with the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the nation, there is a very real possibility that the season could be cancelled. If that happens, it would have a major impact on the league and its players. Let’s take a look at what would happen if the NBA season was cancelled.
Refunds
As mentioned earlier in the cancellation announcement, all tickets will be refunded. If you purchased your tickets through Ticketmaster or the NBA App, you will automatically be refunded and do not need to take any action. If you purchased your tickets through a third party (such as a broker or resale site), you will need to reach out to them directly for information on refunds.
TV contracts
TV contracts are a very important part of the NBA. They are how the league makes the majority of its revenue, and they dictate when games are played. So, if the season is cancelled, what happens to those TV contracts?
The short answer is that the league would likely have to refund some money to the networks, but it’s unlikely that the entire value of the contract would be lost. The reason for this is that TV networks typically only pay for rights to air games, not for the games themselves. So, if there were no games to air, the networks would simply not pay anything.
Of course, this is all contingent on whether or not the season is actually cancelled. If it’s merely delayed, then there would likely be no issue with TV contracts. But if it’s cancelled completely, then it’s possible that the NBA would have to give some money back to the networks.
