The basketball world cannot live without brackets. From March Madness to the NBA playoffs, sports fans thrive on the drama of go-big-or-go-home matchups. It is the time of year when one round of high-stakes basketball ends and another begins — and the NBA playoffs are around the corner.
For newer and casual viewers, the postseason structure may seem convoluted at first — an endless array of teams arranged into seemingly nonsensical geographical groups. So, how exactly does the NBA’s postseason work?
The NBA Play-In Tournament
The NBA playoffs features 16 teams — eight from the East and eight from the West — as they battle through four rounds of best-of-seven series to determine a champion. However, before the NBA playoffs officially commence, there’s a relatively newer twist that has completely transformed the postseason landscape and significantly raised the stakes for lower-seeded teams: the play-in tournament.
Introduced in 2022, the NBA’s play-in tournament is a high-stakes elimination mini-tournament between the teams that finish the regular season ranked seventh through 10th seed in each conference. The purpose of the tournament is to increase competition for the last two spots of each conference. Here’s how it works:
- The No. 7 seed and No. 8 seed play each other. The winner secures the No. 7 spot in the playoff bracket.
- The No. 9 and No. 10 seeds also face off. The loser is eliminated.
- The loser of the No. 7 and No. 8 matchup then faces the winner of the No. 9 and No. 10 matchup, in which the winner secures the eighth and final playoff seed for that conference.
Within this one-game elimination format, the play-in tournament has gained popularity among viewers and has consistently added an extra layer of suspense to the end of the regular season while awarding the top seeds a few extra days of rest.
The Traditional NBA Playoff Bracket
Once the dust of the play-in tournament settles, the NBA playoffs follow a time-honored structure. The top eight teams in each conference are seeded based on their regular season records, and each round is a best-of-seven series, meaning that the first team to win four games advances to the next round.
In the first round, the No. 1 seed faces the No. 8 seed, No. 2 faces No. 7, No. 3 faces No. 6, and No. 4 faces No. 5. The team with the higher seeding is afforded home-court advantage, meaning the last and final game of the series will be played on its home court, if it gets that far.
The team with home-court advantage hosts Games 1, 2, 5, and 7 of the series, while the lower seed hosts Games 3, 4, and 6.
After the first round, it’s on to the conference semifinals, followed by the conference finals, after which conference champions will be crowned. The champions of the Eastern Conference are awarded the Bob Cousy Trophy (ECF MVP is given the Larry Bird Trophy), while the champions of the Western Conference are awarded the Oscar Robertson Trophy (WCF MVP is given the Earvin “Magic” Johnson Trophy).
The winners of the East and West will finally meet in the NBA Finals — arguably one of the most anticipated events in sports.
The stakes rise with every passing game of the playoffs. No team has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit, while only 13 have emerged victorious after being down 3-1. The beauty of the NBA playoffs lies in its difficulty — while fortune can win one game and perhaps even a play-in tournament, sheer luck is no good in a seven-game series. There are no shortcuts or lucky breaks — simply a fundamental test of talent, depth, and will.
This year will be no different. As the NBA postseason fast approaches, all eyes will shift to who will rise, who will fall, and who will ultimately lift the storied Larry O’Brien Trophy.