National Basketball Association – The Format
NBA is based upon 30 teams, owned by various franchises. All the teams are located in United States except, a Canadian Franchised team, Toronto Raptors. The teams are divided into two conferences Eastern and Western, further into six divisions Atlantic, Central and Southeast in Eastern conference and Northwest, Pacific and Southwest in Western conference, with each division having five teams.
Regular Season
The competition begins with a regular season, held in late October. In the regular season, each team plays 82 games, 41 home and 41 away. A team plays regular season in such pattern:
- 16 games against the 4 teams in its own division.
- 24 games against the 6 teams of other 2 divisions in its conference.
- 12 games against the rest of 4 teams in its conference.
- 30 games against all the teams of the other conference.
The regular season ends around the middle of April.
NBA Playoffs
NBA playoffs starts at the end of the April, the event unfolds in 4 steps.
First Round
Top 8 teams from each conference make their way to the first round of playoffs. Three division winners, along with the 5 teams with best record qualify for the first round. The teams are seeded one to eight and the higher seeded teams compete with the weaker teams of their conference. The first seed faces the eighth seed, second seed plays the seventh seed, third seed plays the sixth seed and the fourth seed plays the fifth seed. Each team plays a best-of-seven elimination series against its opponent.
Conference Semifinals
The winners of the first round advance to the next round, the conference semifinals, where top four teams of each conference compete against their opponent in a series of seven games.
Conference Finals
The conference semifinal decides the final four teams who play in the conference finals. Top two teams of each conference come face to face and the winners get the conference titles.
NBA Finals
In the Final round, the winner of Eastern conference meets the winner of Western conference to play a best-of-seven series. The team who wins the four games emerged as the champion of the NBA.
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