NBA Playoff Rules & Regulations

In the National Basketball Association (NBA), each team plays through an 82-game regular season with one goal in mind--to reach the postseason and make a run at the championship. The playoffs have certain rules and regulations that are different from those of the regular season.

  1. Qualifying

    • At the end of the regular season, eight teams in both the Eastern and Western Conferences qualify for the playoff tournament. Each conference is made up of three divisions, and the teams with the best record in each division are joined by five additional teams.

    Playoff Seeds

    • All eight teams from each conference are given seeded ranks based on their regular season performance. Each of the three division champions and a fourth team with the best record of the remaining teams are awarded the top four seeds based on their regular season record. The fifth through eighth seeds are the four remaining teams with the best records.

    Tiebreakers

    • On some occasions, teams will have identical records. In those cases, the following tiebreakers are employed: head-to-head record, division records, conference records, record against other playoff teams in the conference, record against all playoff teams and highest net point total for the season.

    Playoff Format

    • The NBA playoffs consist of four series of 7 games. In the opening round, the highest seeded team will always play the lowest seed, the second highest seed will play the second lowest, and so on. The higher seeded team will always have home court advantage, hosting games 1, 2, 5 and 7.

    Rules History

    • The current rules & regulations were established in 2007. They have changed numerous times over the years. Until 2003, the first round of the playoffs was a best-of-five series, not a best-of-seven. Up until 1984, the top two teams in each conference received opening round byes. Originally, in the late 1940s, only three teams from each conference qualified for the playoffs.