How Long Is the NBA Season?
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The NBA season is 82 games long. However, teams often play several games a week, which can make the season seem shorter. The NBA playoffs are also a best-of-seven format, so the season can last up to six weeks longer if a team makes it to the Finals.
The NBA regular season is 82 games long.
The NBA regular season is 82 games long, which is actually shorter than most people think. The NBA season starts in late October and runs through early April, with a brief break in February for the All-Star Game. The playoffs start in mid-April and can last until mid-June, depending on how many teams make it to the Finals.
The NBA playoffs are 16 games long.
The NBA playoffs are a best-of-seven tournament held after the end of the NBA regular season to determine the league’s champion. The playoffs were first instituted in 1947, following a three-year trial period during which the NBA experimented with other formats. The tournament has been held every year since, typically in late April and early May.
The playoffs are Structure
The NBA playoffs are structured as a single-elimination tournament, with each team playing until it has either won four games or lost four games. If a seventh game is necessary, it is played two days after the sixth game.
Teams that win their first two playoff series advance to the Conference Finals, where they compete against each other for a chance to play in the NBA Finals. The teams that lose their first two playoff series play each other in the Conference Semifinals. The winners of the Conference Semifinals advance to the Conference Finals, while the losers of those series go home.
The NBA Finals is a best-of-seven series between the winners of the Eastern and Western Conference Finals. The team with the better record in the regular season earns home-court advantage in the Finals.
The NBA Finals are 7 games long.
The NBA Finals are a best-of-seven playoff series played between the champions of the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The winners of the Finals are awarded the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, which replaced the Walter A. Brown Trophy in 1983.
The series was originally known as the BAA Finals prior to the 1949–50 season when the Basketball Association of America (BAA) merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to form the NBA. The competition oversaw further name changes throughout its early years, being known as the Western Division Finals (1950–1952), before settling on Eastern Division Finals (1953–1969), when between 1953 and 1967, east and west were divided into two conferences with five divisions each. It subsequently became known as the NBA Finals in 1970, when a new playoff system was introduced in which each conference would have an equal number of teams qualify for the postseason regardless of divisional alignment.
Best-of-seven has been used in all but one year since 1950, and was selected again as this format for 2016 after being used exclusively from 1987 until 2013, when it switched to a best-of-five first round. Currently, all games are broadcast nationally on television by ABC/ESPN in English and ESPN Deportes/Univision Deportes Radio in Spanish; locally, some broadcasting rights are retained by other networks and radio stations.
