The NBA season will begin on October 27th with 30 teams split into 6 regional divisions. The 6 divisions are split into 2 conferences, the eastern conference and the western conference.
Each game is played over 4 twelve minute quarters, in the event of a tie there are further 5 minute over-time periods until there is a winner. Each team will play 82 matches up until the 14th April, where the teams who have qualified for the playoffs will continue where as the rest must go home. Thirty teams and 82 matches do not quite match up, so how is the schedule made?
Each team must play their other 4 division rivals four times (two home games and two away games), so that is 16 games. They must also play four games against 6 of the remaining 10 conference teams, and three against the remaining 4 conference teams (2 from each division). The decision on who gets the extra home game in the 3 games and the 4 teams you play these games against is down to a 5 year rotation system. This comes to another 36 games making 52 in total. The remaining 30 games come from home and away games against the 15 teams in the other conference.
How does a team qualify for the playoffs? There are 16 teams of the 30 that will qualify, 8 from each conference. The three division champions in the conference plus the next 5 teams with the best record over the 82 matches will qualify. There are no ties in the NBA so it is a simple percentage point system e.g. 41 wins from 82 will give you a 0.500 score. This is also how the seeding works with the team’s being ranked by their regular season records, the division champions are given priority to some extent (The lowest seed that they can receive is 4th). In the case of a tied record, there is a set tie-breaking method.
Once the seeds are established there will be 8 series to be played, four in each conference. The 1st seed vs 8th, 2nd vs 7th, 3rd vs 6th and 4th vs 5th. The winners will go through to the conference semi-finals, where the winner of the series between 1st and 8th will play the winner of the series between 4th and 5th, and the other game being between the winners of the remaining two series. The winners of these series will progress to the conference finals, and the winner of that series progresses to the NBA Finals against the other conference champions.
Series are a best of 7 games affair, the team with best regular season record seals 4 home games (home-court advantage). This doesn’t always adhere to the seeding due to priority given to divisional champions. The format is 2-2-1-1-1, so the home team will host games 1, 2, 5 and 7. The series can of course finish early once a team has reached 4 wins. This changes in the NBA Finals, where the format is 2-3-2, so the home team will host games 1, 2, 6 and 7.
So that’s the format of the NBA, it is as intriguing as it is complicated. I am happy to answer any other questions on the rules or format of the league and the sport in general.
