How the NBA Playoffs Work in 2021

The 2021 NBA Playoffs are finally here after a long and grueling regular season. Here’s a quick rundown of how the playoffs work and what to expect.

Introduction

The NBA Playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament among 16 teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA), held annually after the conclusion of the NBA regular season. The playoffs began on April 15, 2021, and will end on May 16, 2021, with the 2021 NBA Finals.

The Format

The 2021 NBA Playoffs will begin on Saturday, May 22, and will conclude no later than Sunday, July 18. The playoffs will follow a traditional bracket format. The eight teams with the best record in each conference—the Eastern and Western—will compete in the first round. The four winners will advance to the conference semifinals, where they will be joined by the four teams that received a first-round bye.

The Regular Season

In a typical NBA season, each team plays 82 games. These games are spread out evenly over a period of about six months, from October to April. The season culminates with the NBA Playoffs, which is a tournament consisting of the best teams from each conference.

The regular season is important because it helps determine which teams will make it to the playoffs. The top eight teams from each conference (16 teams in total) qualify for the playoffs. The seedings are determined by each team’s win-loss record.

The playoffs consist of four rounds of best-of-seven series. The first round is between the 8th seed and the 1st seed, the 2nd seed and the 7th seed, the 3rd seed and the 6th seed, and the 4th seed and the 5th seed. The winners of these series move on to the next round and face each other in another best-of-seven series. This pattern continues until only two teams remain: The winner of the Western Conference and the winner of the Eastern Conference. These two teams then compete in the NBA Finals, which is also a best-of-seven series. The team that wins four games out of seven in either the Western or Eastern Conference Finals earns a trip to play in the NBA Finals.

The Playoffs

The NBA Playoffs are a best-of-seven tournament held every spring to determine the champion of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The playoffs began on April 15, 2021 and will end on June 16, 2021, with the NBA Finals.

In the first round of the playoffs, the seventh and eighth seeds in each conference play each other in a best-of-seven series. The winner of that series becomes the low seed in the second round and plays the first seed in their conference. In the second round, the second and third seeds play each other and the winner of that series plays the winner of the previous series. The NBA Finals is a best-of-seven series between the winners of each conference’s second round playoff.

The 2021 NBA Playoffs will feature sixteen teams: eight from each conference. These teams will be seeded based on their regular season record. The four teams with the best record in each conference will earn a bye to the second round while the remaining teams will play each other in best-of-seven first-round series.

How the Playoffs Work

The Playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the conclusion of the NBA regular season to determine the league’s champion. The tournament brackets are not fixed; they are determined by your win-loss record. The NBA Playoffs begin in April and can last until June.

The First Round

In each conference, the top eight seeds earn a playoff berth. These teams are ranked based on their regular season records. The first-round playoff matchups are:

Seed 1 vs. Seed 8
Seed 2 vs. Seed 7
Seed 3 vs. Seed 6
Seed 4 vs. Seed 5

The playoffs are a best-of-seven series, meaning the first team to win four games advances to the next round. Home court advantage in each series is determined by record, with the higher-seeded team getting home court advantage.

The Conference Semifinals

In the conference semifinals, the four surviving teams from each conference—eight total—play each other in two best-of-seven series. The winners of those series advance to the conference finals.

For 2021, the first and second rounds of the playoffs will be held entirely within the traditional home markets of the seeded teams. That means that if, say, the Los Angeles Lakers (the No. 1 team in the Western Conference) were to host a playoff game, it would be held at Staples Center. If the sixth-seeded Dallas Mavericks had to play a road game in the first or second round, they would do so at American Airlines Center.

The Conference Finals

In each conference, the top four teams with the best record qualify for the Conference Finals. The team with the best record in each conference is seeded first, while the team with the second-best record is seeded second. The remaining two teams are seeded based on their records.

The Conference Finals are a best-of-seven series, meaning that the first team to win four games advances to the NBA Finals. If the seventh game is necessary, it will be played on a neutral court.

The Conference Finals are played between the winners of the two semifinals series in each conference. The first round of the Conference Finals is played between the first and second seeded teams in each conference, while the second round is played between the third and fourth seeded teams.

The NBA Finals

The NBA Finals is 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. Since 1947, the NBA Finals was played between the champions of the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference (also known as Midwestern Division prior to 1970), except in 1950 in which the Eastern Division champion faced the winner between the Western and Central Division. The Eastern Conference/Division leads with 27 wins. The Boston Celtics hold the record for having the most appearances in the NBA Finals with 21, followed by the Los Angeles Lakers with 32.

Conclusion

The 2021 NBA Playoffs will begin on Saturday, May 22. The playoffs will follow a traditional conference-based format, with four rounds of best-of-seven series leading up to the NBA Finals.

The first two rounds will be played entirely within the conference of the higher-seeded team. The Conference Finals and NBA Finals will each feature a matchup between the winners of each conference.

The 2021 NBA Playoffs will feature sixteen teams total: eight from the Western Conference and eight from the Eastern Conference. The top six teams in each conference will automatically qualify for the playoffs, while the remaining two spots in each conference will be determined by a play-in tournament.

In the play-in tournament, the seventh and eighth seed in each conference will play each other in a single game. The winner of that game will claim the seventh seed in their respective conference, while the loser will get another chance to make the playoffs by playing against the ninth seed in a second game. The winner of that second game will claim the final spot in their conference’s playoff field.

Once the playoff field is set, it’s time for round one! In each round of the playoffs, teams are matched up with their opponents based on seeding. The higher-seeded team is always home court advantage, meaning they’ll host games one, two, five, and seven (if necessary).

The NBA Finals are played similarly to any other round of the playoffs, except that they are contested between representatives of each conference instead of being strictly within one conference or another. As such, home court advantage in the Finals alternates between conferences every year. In 2021, home court advantage in the Finals belongs to whichever Western Conference team earns it by virtue of having a higher regular season record than any Eastern Conference team.