What Does The NBA Playoff Bracket Look Like?

If you’re wondering what the NBA playoff bracket looks like, you’re in luck. We’ve got a complete breakdown of all the matchups, so you can see who’s playing who and when.

The NBA Playoff Bracket

The NBA Playoff bracket is set. The first round of the playoffs will begin on April 15th and will end on April 21st. The second round will begin on April 22nd and will end on April 28th. The conference finals will begin on April 29th and will end on May 5th. The NBA Finals will begin on May 30th and will end on June 16th.

The First Round

The first round of the playoffs is a best-of-seven series. The team with the better record plays at home for games one, two, five, and seven. The format does not change from regular season to playoffs from here on out. If a series ends in four or five games, the higher-seeded team will advance. If it goes to six or seven, then the lower-seeded team advancing would be the upset.

The Second Round

The second round of the NBA Playoffs is upon us. After an eventful first round that saw many upsets and close games, the field has been whittled down to just eight teams. From the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, and Toronto Raptors will all be vying for a spot in the conference finals. Coming out of the West, the Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, and Utah Jazz will all be looking to take one step closer to an NBA Finals appearance.

So what does the second round of the NBA Playoffs look like? Below is a complete schedule and results for all eight second-round series. Be sure to check back frequently for updated scores and highlights!

Eastern Conference
(1) Milwaukee Bucks vs. (5) Miami Heat
Game 1: Heat 115, Bucks 104
Game 2:Heat 108, Bucks 86
Game 3:Bucks 115, Heat 100
Game 4:Bucks 118, Heat 115
Series:Bucks lead 3-1

(2) Toronto Raptors vs. (3) Boston Celtics
Game 1:Celtics 112, Raptors 94
Game 2:Celtics 99, Raptors 91
Game 3:Raptors 102, Celtics 99
Game 4:Raptors 104, Celtics 103
Series:Tied 2-2

Western Conference
(1) Los Angeles Clippers vs. (5) Dallas Mavericks
Game 1:Clippers 118, Mavericks 110
Game 2:Mavericks 135, Clippers 133 (OT)
Game 3: Mavericks 122, Clippers 111 Game 4:Clippers 112 , Mavericks 107 Series :Clippers lead 2-2

(2) Denver Nuggets vs. (3) Houston Rockets
Game 1 : Rockets 122 , Nuggets 90 Game 2 :Nuggets 100 , Rockets 96 Game 3 :Nuggets 124 , Rockets 111 Game 4 :Nuggets 117 , Rockets 108 Series tied 2-2

The Conference Finals

In the Conference Finals, the two remaining teams from each conference play each other in a best-of-seven series. The team with the better regular-season record has home-court advantage.

The Conference Finals are followed by the NBA Finals, in which the winners of the Eastern and Western Conferences face off in a best-of-seven series. The team with the better regular-season record again has home-court advantage.

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.

The Finals were initially structured in a 2–2–1–1–1 format (the format in which each team plays games 1, 2, and 5 at their home court), which was used until 1985, followed by a 2–3–2 format (in which the first two and last two games are played at the home court of the team with the better regular season record) from 1986 to 2013. Since 2014, the Finals have adopted a 2-2-1-1-1 format.

How The NBA Playoff Bracket Is Determined

The NBA playoff bracket is determined by a number of factors. The seeding is based on each team’s record in the regular season. The higher the seed, the better the team’s record. The playoff bracket is also determined by where each team is located. The top seeds are located in the Eastern and Western Conference.

The Regular Season

The NBA regular season is an 82-game marathon that starts in late October and runs through mid-April. For almost five months, teams battle it out every night for a chance to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy at the end of the season.

At the end of the regular season, the top eight teams in each conference (Eastern and Western) qualify for the NBA Playoffs. The conference seeds are determined by each team’s record. The seedings are used to create a bracket, which is set before the playoffs begin.

To avoid having two playoff meetings in three years, between division winners and wild card teams that finished with identical records, a simple tiebreaker system is used. If two division winners Finish with identical records, they will be seeded 1-2 based on their record against teams in their own division (potentially giving one team an easier path to the Finals). If two wild card teams have identical records, they will be seeded 5-6 based on their record against other playoff qualifiers from their conference (again, potentially giving one team an easier path).

The NBA Playoff Seeding

The seeding in the NBA playoffs is a process that determines which teams will occupy the top positions in each conference. It is a complicated process that takes into account various factors, such as won-loss record, head-to-head record, and strength of schedule. The seeding is important because it determines home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, as well as which teams will face each other in the first round.

There are two ways to win an NBA playoff series: either win four games before your opponent does, or have a better record than your opponent when the series is over. In either case, it is advantageous to have a higher seed, because it means you will most likely face a weaker opponent in the first round, and you will have home-court advantage if the series goes to seven games.

The seeding process begins with each team being placed into one of three categories: division winners, conference runners-up, or wild cards. The division winners are the teams that finish first in their respective divisions, while the conference runners-up are the teams that finish second overall in their conferences (regardless of division). The wild cards are the two teams with the best records who did not win their divisions or finish as conference runners-up.

Once all the teams have been placed into their respective categories, they are seeded according to their records. The division winner with the best record is given the #1 seed, while the other division winners and conference runners-up are seeded according to their records (e.g., if two division winners have identical records, they would be given the #1 and #2 seeds). The wild card team with the best record is given the #7 seed, while the other wild card team is seeded #8.

The first round of the playoffs consists of four best-of-seven series between these eight teams: #1 vs. #8, #2 vs. #7, #3 vs. #6, and #4 vs. #5. In each series, home court advantage goes to the team with the better seed (e.g., if the #1 seed faces off against the #8 seed, they would have home court advantage). If a series goes to seven games, home court advantage would alternate between sides every other game (e.g., if Team A has home court advantage for Games 1 and 2 but loses both games, Team B would then have home court advantage for Games 3 and 4). From there on out (i.e., from round 2 of playoffs on), there is no re-seeding; whoever wins a series moves on regardless of seedings.)

The NBA Playoff Schedule

The first round of the NBA playoffs are played between the eight division winners and the eight non-division winners with the best regular season record. These teams are seeded one through eight in each conference, with the division winners holding the three divisional seeds and the team with the best regular season record being seeded first. The playoff bracket is set so that, in each round, the lower seeded team will play at home first.

The four remaining teams in each conference then face off against each other in further rounds of best-of-seven matches until a conference champion is crowned. The two conference champions advance to the NBA Finals, where they compete in a best-of-seven series to determine who will become NBA champion for that season.