How Many Games Are In the NBA Playoffs?

The NBA playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament held annually to determine the league champion of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

How the Playoffs Work

The NBA Playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament among the sixteen teams that qualified for the playoffs. Eight teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs. This means that if a team from each conference has the best record, they will both qualify for the playoffs. The seeding of the teams is based on their regular season records.

The NBA Playoff Bracket

The NBA Playoff Bracket is a tournament consisting of 16 teams (8 from the Western Conference and 8 from the Eastern Conference), who compete to determine the NBA champion. The bracket is divided into four rounds:

-The First Round is a best-of-seven series between the 8th seed from each conference and the conference’s top seed.
-The Second Round is a best-of-seven series between the winners of the First Round matchups in each conference.
-The Conference Finals are a best-of-seven series between the winners of the Second Round in each conference.
-The Finals are a best-of-seven series between the winners of the Conference Finals.

The team with the better record in each matchup receives home court advantage, meaning they will host Games 1, 2, 5, and 7 (if necessary). The team with home court advantage will also be given 2 days off between each game (as opposed to 1 day for the other team).

The NBA Playoff Schedule

The NBA playoff schedule is a tournament schedule that determines the best professional basketball team in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The NBA playoffs have been held every year since 1947, and they conclude with the NBA Finals.

The playoff schedule is structured so that eight teams from each of the two conferences (Eastern and Western) qualify for the playoffs. These teams are seeded according to their regular season records. The four teams with the best records in each conference are given the top seeds, while the next four teams are given the next four seeds, and so on.

In each round of the playoffs, two teams face off against each other in a best-of-seven series. The team with the better regular season record is given home-court advantage, meaning that they will host Games 1, 2, 5, and 7 (if necessary).

The first round of the playoffs is known as the first round or opening round. The second round is known as the conference semifinals, while the third round is known as The Finals.4

How Many Games Are In the NBA Playoffs?

The NBA playoffs are a best-of-seven tournament held after the conclusion of the NBA regular season. The winners of the NBA Finals are crowned the NBA champions. In the playoffs, teams compete in a single-elimination tournament.

The First Round

In the first round of the NBA Playoffs, there are a total of eight series’. Each series is best out of seven games. Therefore, in the first round there are a total of 56 games played.

The Conference Semifinals

The Conference Semifinals are a best-of-seven series. The team that has the better regular season record will host Games 1, 2, 5, and 7. The other team will host Games 3, 4, and 6.

The Conference Finals

In the Conference Finals, each team plays the other team in its conference four times. The first team to win four games in the best-of-seven series advances to the NBA Finals.

The NBA Finals

The NBA Finals is the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. Since the formation of the NBA in 1946, the championship series has been played every year except for 1949 and 1998.

The NBA Finals was originally organized into a best-of-five format in 1947, and remained that way until 1957. From 1958 until 1971, the NBA Finals was a best-of-seven format. It reverted back to a best-of-seven format in 1987. The number of games in an NBA Finals series has varied, depending on how many games each conference finalist has won.

If one team wins its conference finals series in four games (a “sweep”), that team will have had 10 days of rest before playing Game 1 of the NBA Finals. If both teams win their conference finals series in seven games, there will only be three days between the end of those series and the start of the NBA Finals.

In 2014, for example, the Miami Heat swept its conference finals series against the Indiana Pacers, while the San Antonio Spurs needed all seven games to get past the Oklahoma City Thunder. As a result, Miami had nine days off before playing Game 1 of the NBA Finals against San Antonio on June 5, 2014; San Antonio only had three days off between its last game against Oklahoma City and its first game against Miami.

Conclusion

NBA Finals
The four round playoff system used by the NBA today was not introduced until 1947. Prior to that, there were three rounds of playoffs with the first round being a best-of-three format and the next two rounds being best-of-seven. In total, there have been 3,331 playoff games in NBA history. Of those games, 1,785 have been won by the home team and 1,546 have been won by the away team.