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All posts by Andrew MorganHow many games are in an NBA season?’ is a more complex question to answer than it would initially appear.
Every team plays 82 games in the regular season. There are 30 teams in total, so there are at least 1,230 individual matches.
However, the ultimate winner will have played at least 16 more games because they will have to compete in four rounds of best-of-seven matches during the playoffs. This includes the championship game or NBA finals. There are 15 best-of-seven series in the playoffs so this adds another 60 matches at least to the season. There will be 105 matches at most.
You also need to factor in the NBA Play-In Tournament, which delivers eight more games. Consequently, the minimum number of games in an NBA season is 1,298 while the maximum is 1,343. However, this doesn’t include the NBA Cup.
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How Long Is An NBA Season?
The NBA regular season starts in the last week of October and lasts until around mid-April so it is around five-and-a-half months long. Adding the playoff matches and the championship matches takes the season to the end of June, therefore the NBA season is around eight months. The All-Star Weekend takes place in February. The NBA Cup, previously known as the NBA In-Season Tournament, takes place in November and December.
How Many Games Are in The NBA Regular Season
Every NBA team plays 82 games during the regular NBA season. These are broken down into 41 home games and 41 away games.
There are six divisions across two conferences and five teams in each division in the regular season schedule. The Eastern Conference has the Atlantic, Central, and Southeast Divisions while the Western Conference has the Northwest, Pacific, and Southwest Divisions.
Fifty-two of the 82 games are against teams in the same conference. One team plays the four other teams in their division four times, which accounts for 16 games. They will also play six teams from the other two divisions in the same conference four times, which totals 24 games. They will face the remaining four teams three times, making 12 games. That is 52 games against teams in the same conference.
They will also play every team in the other conference twice to make up the other 30 NBA games played.
How Many Games Are Left In The NBA Season?
At the time of writing this article, we are nearing the end of the current NBA regular season. Most teams have fewer than 20 regular season games left. The playoffs will start after this, where there will be 15 best-of-seven series with at least four games each series. The NBA Play-In Tournament will also have eight games.
How Many Games Are in The NBA Playoffs
Sixteen teams compete in the NBA playoffs. Six teams from each conference, seeded based on their win/loss ratio in the regular season standings, automatically qualify for the playoffs. The teams positioned seventh to 10th in each conference enter a play-in tournament to decide who will take the remaining four spots, with two spots available for each conference.
First, the seventh and eighth-placed teams in each conference face each other. The winner of that match progresses straight to the playoffs as the seventh seed from their conference. The loser of that match goes on to play the winner of a match between the ninth and 10th placed teams in each conference. The winner of that match takes the eighth seed position in their conference. This means there are eight matches before the playoffs officially start.
During the playoffs, there are 15 best-of-seven series that will include at least four matches, meaning there will be at least 60 matches during the playoffs. However, there could be up to seven matches in a game series, so there could be as many as 105 matches in the NBA playoffs.
The playoffs are made up of four rounds, culminating in the NBA Finals. The first round involves eight seeded matches and the winner of each match proceeds to the next round.
How Many Games Are There in the NBA In-Season Tournament
The NBA in-season tournament that started in 2023 has already changed its name to the NBA Cup. It is a hybrid tournament that features a group stage and knockout stage with all 30 teams of the NBA entering the group stage.
The teams are divided into three groups of five teams in each conference. The makeup of the groups is different from the divisions they are normally in. During the group stage, each team plays the other four teams in their group once. These matches are made up of normal regular season matches. That makes 60 matches.
The winner of each group proceeds to the knockout stage along with a runner-up with the best record as a wild card. These eight teams make up the quarter-finals, which are hosted by the two most successful teams in the group stage. The winner of each match proceeds to the next round. The semis and the final are played in Las Vegas. There are seven knockout matches so in total there are 67 NBA Cup matches. These games, apart from the Championship Game, also form part of the NBA Regular Season.
NBA All-Star Game
The NBA All-Star game is a non-competitive exhibition match involving a team representing each conference. It is the main event of an All-Star weekend that also involves a celebrity game, a rising stars game, the slam dunk contest, and a three-pointer contest. This weekend usually takes place in February.
The 24 players are decided by a weighted vote process where fans account for 50% of the vote, the players 25%, and the media take care of the final 25%. The vote selects the starting five made up of three front-court players and two guards. Coaches vote for the reserves of the team.
NBA Teams, Conferences and Divisions
There are 30 different teams in the NBA. They are split into two conferences, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, with 15 teams in each conference. These conferences are then broken down into divisions with five teams in each division. In the Eastern Conference, the divisions are the Atlantic Division, the Central Division, and the Southeast Division. In the Western Conference, the divisions are the Northwest Division, the Pacific Division, and the Southwest Division.
Twenty-nine of the teams come from the United States of America, but there is also the Toronto Raptors who are based in Canada.
Conclusion
The NBA is made up of 30 teams broken up into six divisions that are then separated by geography. The regular NBA season lasts for around six months but will go on for eight months with the playoffs included. Every team will play 82 regular season games. The winner and runner-up will play at least four more best-of-seven games in the playoffs, which means they will play at least 98 matches.
There is also the NBA Cup, with most games counting towards the regular season standings, which takes place in November and December. The All-Star Game takes place across a weekend celebration in February.
NBA Season Duration FAQs
How many games are in an NBA Season including playoffs?
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