What Time Do The NBA Games Start Today?
It’s time to find out when today’s NBA games start! Check out the schedule below to see tip-off times and TV info for every matchup.
Introduction
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a men’s professional basketball league in North America, composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). It is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, and is widely considered to be the premier men’s professional basketball league in the world.
Eastern Conference
The Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of two conferences that makes up the league, the other being the Western Conference. Both conferences are themselves made up of 15 teams organized into three divisions.
The primary goal of each team in the Eastern Conference is to qualify for the NBA Finals, which sees the two best teams in each conference compete against each other for the chance to win the NBA championship.
The current Eastern Conference standings are as follows:
-Milwaukee Bucks (59-22) *
-Toronto Raptors (57-24) *
-Philadelphia 76ers (51-30) *
-Indiana Pacers (48-34) *
-Boston Celtics (49-33) *
-Miami Heat (44-37) *
-Brooklyn Nets (42-40) *
-Orlando Magic (42-40) *
Western Conference
The Western Conference is made up of 15 teams: the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, Portland Blazers, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz, and the Denver Nuggets.
The NBA season starts October 16th and ends April 10th. The playoffs start April 13th and end June 19th.
Here is the schedule for the first week of games in the Western Conference:
Tuesday October 16th:
Los Angeles Lakers vs Los Angeles Clippers- 10:30 pm ET
Portland Blazers vs Sacramento Kings- 10:00 pm ET
Minnesota Timberwolves vs San Antonio Spurs- 8:00 pm ET
Houston Rockets vs New Orleans Pelicans- 8:00 pm ET
Oklahoma City Thunder vs Utah Jazz- 9:00 pm ET
Wednesday October 17th:
Denver Nuggets vs Phoenix Suns- 9:00 pm ET
Golden State Warriors vs Memphis Grizzlies- 8:30 pm ET
Conclusion
The NBA Finals are the championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The winning team of the series receives the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.
The Finals were initially structured in a 2–2–1–1–1 format (the team with the better regular season record plays on their home court for Games 1, 2, 5, and 7), meaning that one team would necessarily have an advantage in the series due to playing two more games at home. With some exceptions, home court advantage in the NBA Finals goes to the team with the better regular season record; if both teams have identical records, then home court advantage is given to the team whose conference has won more championships. In 1985, when the NBA switched to a 2–3–2 format to reduce travel (thus allowing all games in a potential seven-game series to be played at one arena), it became possible for either team to play three consecutive games at home; consequently, home court advantage now depends solely on whether or not a team earned it through their regular season record. Home court disadvantage does exist in other best-of-seven formats used by other major professional sports leagues throughout North America: it exists when there is a possibility that one team may play four of seven games at their opponent’s arena rather than three; for example, this occurred during Major League Baseball’s 2005 American League Championship Series when New York (the AL East champions) hosted Anaheim (the AL West champions) for Game 3 and either Game 6 or 7 due to schedule conflicts at Yankee Stadium and Edison International Field caused by Hurricane Katrina.
The 2016 NBA Finals began on June 2, 2016 and ended on June 19, 2016. The Eastern Conference champions, the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the defending NBA champions and Western Conference champions, the Golden State Warriors 4–3 in a rematch of last year’s Finals. This was Cleveland’s first title since 1964, while Golden State failed to repeat as back-to-back NBA champions for first time since they joined then-defunct American Basketball Association in 1971.
