How the NBA Playoffs Work
The NBA Playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament among the 16 teams that qualify for the playoffs.
Introduction
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The NBA playoffs are a best-of-seven tournament held after the conclusion of the NBA’s regular season to determine the league’s champion.
The playoffs follow a tournament format. Each team plays an opponent in a best-of-seven series, with the first team to win four games advancing to the next round, until the final round, whose winner is crowned the league champion.
A playoff series is structured so that there are two possible outcomes: either the lower-seeded team wins, or the higher-seeded team wins.
The first step in NBA playoff seeding is to divide the league’s 30 teams into two conferences: the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Each conference has three divisions, and each division has five teams. The three division winners in each conference are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, as are the next five teams in each conference with the best records, regardless of divisional affiliation.
This leaves a total of eight spots up for grabs in each conference. The NBA uses a commissioner-controlled tiebreaker system to seed all sixteen playoff teams; this system can seed teams across divisions and conferences against each other
The Regular Season
The NBA regular season is an 82-game marathon. It starts in late October, right after the conclusion of the preseason, and runs through early April. By the time the playoffs roll around, every team is beat up and tired. The teams that make the playoffs are the ones that have persevered and proven themselves to be the best in the league.
The NBA’s regular season is 82 games long
The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) regular season is 82 games long, and each team plays every other team in its respective conference four times. In the past, there were only two conferences (Eastern and Western), but since the 2004-05 season, there have been three conferences (Eastern, Western, and Pacific). Each conference is split into three divisions (East, Central, and Atlantic in the Eastern Conference; Midwest, Southwest, and Northwest in the Western Conference; and Pacific and Southwest in the old Pacific Division).
At the end of the regular season, the three division winners in each conference automatically qualify for the playoffs. The next five teams with the best records in each conference also make the playoffs, regardless of whether they won their division or not. These eight teams are seeded based on their regular season record.
The playoff format is a best-of-seven series. The team with the better regular season record gets home court advantage, meaning they get to host Games 1, 2, 5, and 7 (if necessary).
The first round of playoff match-ups are:
(1) Seed vs. (8) Seed
(2) Seed vs. (7) Seed
(3) Seed vs. (6) Seed
(4) Seed vs. (5) Seed
The winners of each first round series advance to the second round to play each other. The second round matchups are:
Winner of 1 vs 8 matchup vs Winner of 4 vs 5 matchup
Winner of 2 vs 7 matchup vs Winner of 3 vs 6 matchup
The winners of these second round series advance to the Conference Finals to play each other. The Conference Finals are also best-of-seven series with home court advantage going to the higher seed.
Finally, the two Conference Finals winners advance to play each other in the NBA Finals. The NBA Finals is also a best-of-seven series with home court advantage going to whichever team had a better regular season record
The playoffs begin after the regular season ends
In the NBA, the playoffs begin after the regular season ends. The top eight teams in each conference (Eastern and Western), ranked in order by their win-loss records, advance to the playoffs. The playoffs are a best-of-seven series, meaning that the team with the better win-loss record must win four games before the other team can win three games.
The first round of the playoffs is called the conference quarterfinals or first round, followed by the conference semifinals or second round. The conference finals or third round is then played between the winners of each conference’s semifinals series. Finally, the NBA Finals is played between the two conference champions to determine who will be crowned NBA champion for that season.
The Playoffs
The NBA Playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament among sixteen teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA), held annually after the NBA’s regular season to determine the league’s champion.
The playoffs are a single-elimination tournament
The NBA playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the league’s champion. A playoff series is a best-of-seven series. The team that wins four games in the series advances to the next round, while the losing team is eliminated from the playoffs.
The playoffs are divided into four rounds
The playoffs are divided into four rounds, each of which is a best-of-seven series. The first round pits the 8th seed from each conference against the 1st seed from the opposite conference, the 6th seed against the 3rd seed, and the 7th seed against the 2nd seed. In the second round, the winners of those series face each other, as do the losers. The winners of those two series advance to their respective conference finals. The winners of those series advance to the NBA Finals.
The 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.
The Finals are a best-of-seven series
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.
The Finals were first held in 1947, when the Basketball Association of America (BBA) and the National Basketball League (NBL) merged to form the NBA. Until 1958, when Boston defeated the St. Louis Hawks in six games, each Finals was contested between two teams from either the Eastern or Western Division Finals. From 1959 onwards, when the NBA expanded by adding more teams, it has been played between the conference champions.
The Finals has been played at a variety of venues throughout its history, but since 1985 it has been held exclusively at one site: the Staples Center in Los Angeles (which also serves as home to two other teams from Los Angeles, the Lakers and Clippers). The Warriors are currently in their fifth consecutive Finals appearance, while the Cavaliers are making their fourth straight appearance.
The team with the better regular season record has home-court advantage in the Finals
The team with the better regular season record has home-court advantage in the Finals. This means that if the series is tied at two games apiece, for example, the team with the better regular season record would have home-court advantage for the fifth and potentially seventh games of the series. Home-court advantage does not guarantee that a team will win a series; it simply means that, if necessary, the seventh game of a series would be played at that team’s home arena.
Conclusion
The NBA Finals are a best-of-seven series played between the Western Conference and Eastern Conference champions to determine the National Basketball Association (NBA) champion for the season. The series is played in a 2–2–1–1–1 format (the team with the better regular-season record plays four games at home), meaning that one team will have home-court advantage in games one, two, five, and seven, while the other plays at home in games three, four, and six.
The first two games of the series are played at each team’s respective home court, with Games 3 and 4 played at the home court of the team that did not have home-court advantage in the first two games of the series, Game 5 played at the home court of the team that did have home-court advantage in the first two games (regardless of whether either team has won two or three games by that point), and Games 6 and 7 (if necessary) played in reverse order from Game 5’s sequence.
