How Many Regular Season Games Are Left in the NBA?

With the NBA season drawing to a close, fans are wondering how many regular season games are left. Here’s a look at the schedule and what to expect.

The NBA Season

The regular season

The regular season of the National Basketball Association (NBA) is the portion of the season before the playoffs. It consists of 82 games for each of the 30 teams in the league. The regular season runs from October through mid-April. Regular-season NBA games are split between home and away games. Each team plays every other team in its conference four times and every team in the other conference three times.

From its inception in 1946, through 1957, the NBA regular season consisted of anywhere from 50 to 63 games scheduled between November and March, with no games played during January. In those days, most NBA teams played between 12 and 14 games against each other, with some teams playing as few as eight games. From 1958 through 1961, when expansion increased the number of teams in the league to eight, the NBA played a 72-game schedule.

The number of games increased again to 74 for the 1961–62 season. In 1962, because cold weather postponed several games typically held early in the season (games were not yet played indoors), an extended regular season was necessary; it ran 89 days and consisted of 79 total games.

After that one-year experiment, which expanded both ends of the regular season by more than two weeks each (earlier start in November; later end in March), schedule makers returned to a 74-game schedule that began in mid-November and ended early April—the standard 82-game format used today was not instituted until 1967–68.

The playoffs

The playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the conclusion of the regular season to determine theleague’s champion. Eight teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs.

The four division winners in each conference are seeded one through four based on their regular season record, with the home court advantage going to the higher seed. The other four teams in each conference are “wild card” seeds, seeded fifth through eighth based on their regular season record. These eight teams face each other in the first round of the playoffs, otherwise known as the wild card round, with the winners advancing to face the top four seeds in each conference in the second round, or divisional semifinals. The divisional semifinals are followed by the conference finals, and then finally the NBA Finals.

So how many games are left in the NBA season? That all depends on how far your team goes in the playoffs. The first round of playoff games is a best-of-seven series, meaning that a team needs to win four games before they advance to the next round. The conference semifinals and finals are also best-of-seven series, so a team needs to win three rounds in order to make it to the NBA Finals.

The NBA Finals is a best-of-seven series as well, so if your team makes it all the way to that round, they’ll need to win four more games in order to be crowned NBA champions. So in total, if your team makes it all the way to the NBA Finals, they could potentially play 21 more games before the end of the season.

How Many Games Are Left in the NBA Season?

As of March 1st, 2018, there are only 11 weeks left in the NBA regular season. This means that every team has between 10 and 14 games left to play. The NBA season is very long, and it can be difficult to keep track of how many games are left. However, it is important to know how many games are left so that you can properly plan your viewing schedule.

Regular season

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional men’s 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.

The regular season began on October 22, 2019, and will end on April 15, 2020. Each team will play 82 games, 41 each at home and on the road.

Playoffs

The playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the conclusion of the regular season to determine the league champion. Eight teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs. The four division winners in each conference are seeded 1–4 based on their regular season record, and the remaining teams are seeded 5–8.

The first three rounds of the playoffs, commonly referred to as the NBA playoffs, are played between two teams in a best-of-seven format. The Finals is played between the two conference champions in a best-of-seven series with a 2–2–1–1–1 homecourt advantage format: the team with homecourt advantage plays games 1, 2, 5 and 7 at home, while their opponents play games 3, 4 and 6 at home.

In order to ensure that all teams have an equal opportunity to make the playoffs regardless of conference, a playoff system was implemented prior to the 1984–85 season: if two teams from opposite conferences had equivalent records at the end of the regular season, they would meet in a special first-round playoff.

What Happens if the Season Ends Early?

Cancelled games

The 2014-2015 season was marred by a number of injuries to key players, as well as some teams underperforming relative to expectations. One of the most talked about storylines was the possibility of the season being cut short due to these issues.

While it is certainly possible that the season could be cancelled early, it is unlikely. The NBA has already contingency plans in place for shortened seasons, and they would likely try to avoid cancelling the season entirely if at all possible.

If the season were cancelled early, the most likely scenario is that each team would play a certain number of games (likely between 60 and 70) and then the playoffs would begin. This would mean that a lot of teams would not have played an equal number of games, which could lead to some interesting results.

Of course, if the season does end early, it is also possible that the playoffs could be cancelled entirely or that they could be played with a different format than what is currently used. However, it is impossible to know exactly what would happen in this situation since it has never happened before.

Playoffs

The National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament among the league’s eight first-round playoff teams, in which each team competes against one another in a best-of-seven series. The four winners advance to the second round of the NBA playoffs, also known as the conference semifinals, where they compete against the four other winners of the first round series.

In the conference semifinals, the matchups are determined by who had the better record in the regular season. The team with the better record gets home-court advantage, meaning they get to host Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 (if necessary). If both teams have identical records, then it goes to who won the season series between the two teams.

How Does This Affect the NBA?

There are only a few weeks left in the NBA regular season! This means that teams are gunning for their playoff spots and every game matters. The race for the playoffs is always exciting to watch, but how does this affect the NBA?

TV ratings

TV ratings for the NBA have steadily declined over the past few years. In the 2016-17 season, ratings were down 10% from the previous season. This decline continued into the 2017-18 season, with ratings falling another 5%.

Many experts have attributed this decline to a variety of factors, including a lack of marquee matchups, competition from other sports leagues, and Cord-cutting (people who are cancelling their cable TV subscriptions).

What does this mean for the NBA?

It’s difficult to say how exactly this will affect the NBA. A decline in TV ratings could lead to a decline in revenue from TV deals. This could then lead to a decrease in player salaries and a reluctance by ownership to invest in other areas of the league (such as marketing and player development).

It’s also possible that the decline in TV ratings is just a temporary blip and that ratings will rebound in the coming years. Only time will tell how this will all play out.

Attendance

As the season comes to a close, teams are starting to jockey for playoff position. With only a few weeks left in the regular season, every game becomes more and more important. The pressure is beginning to mount and we are starting to see some interesting things happen around the league.

One of the most surprising developments has been the drop in attendance. For a sport that relies so heavily on ticket sales, this is definitely cause for concern. With television ratings also down, it’s clear that something is wrong.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what the problem is, but there are a few theories floating around. One popular theory is that the NBA has become too predictable. There are only a handful of teams that have a realistic chance of winning the championship and that doesn’t leave much room for upset or surprise.

Another theory is that players have become too isolated from fans. In previous generations, players were much more accessible and fans felt like they had a personal connection with them. Nowadays, players are guarded by agents and media relations professionals and they aren’t nearly as accessible as they used to be.

Whatever the reason, attendance is down and that’s bad news for the NBA. If something doesn’t change soon, the league could be in serious trouble.

Merchandise sales

One of the biggest impacts the NBA has is on merchandise sales. In fact, the NBA is the second most popular sports league when it comes to merchandise sales, behind only the NFL. The NBA alone is worth an estimated $3.5 billion in retail sales each year. That number doesn’t even include the sales of licensed products, such as video games and apparel.