How Does a NBA Playoff Bracket Work?
The NBA wraps up play at the end of the season with a special playoff series just as in most sports, but how does a NBA playoff bracket work? After the normal season of play, the best teams in each conference compete with each other to find the superior team within the conference. The Eastern and Western conferences then determine the best teams to send on to the playoff game.
The playoff game is the biggest contest of the NBA season. Within each conference, the top eight teams are selected and a bracket of games is set up to determine the best of the eight teams.
All through the season fans back their favorite teams and then, as playoff time draws close, they rally behind one of the teams that they favor to see in the playoffs. The final playoff series of games will determine the national championship team. To fully understand how does a NBA playoff bracket work, you need to understand the series of playoff games that determine this champion.
After the Season
Once the regular season has finished, all of the basketball teams are ranked according to win/loss records. The top eight teams are then arranged in a bracket structure to determine which teams will progress to the playoffs. The bracket structure arranges the teams as follows:
- The team ranked #1 plays team ranked #8
- #2 plays #7
- #3 plays #6
- Teams #4 and #5 play each other
The winner of each of these series progress to the next bracket and is pitted against the winner of the other series. In other words, the winner of the first bracket will play the winner of the second bracket. The winner of the third bracket opposes the winner of the fourth bracket. This reduces the number of teams competing for a playoff spot from eight to four.
The number of games played in the first bracket of the playoff series is five games with the first team to win three games advancing to the next bracket. The games are played in alternating cities. The higher ranked team hosts the first two games. The lower ranked hosts the next two games and the higher ranked team hosts the last game.
The Semi-Finals
The first round of finals is then completed and the teams move on to the semi-finals. In this series of games, the team with the best of seven games advances to the finals bracket.
The games are divided between home cities as follows:
- The highest ranked team hosts the first two games
- The lowest ranked team hosts the next two games
- The next three games alternate back and forth between the home cities until all seven games have been played.
The winners of the two semi-final brackets then progress to the Finals bracket to play for the spot in the playoffs. The game location is selected in the same fashion as the semi-final games were played. The winner of the finals games then progresses to the NBA playoffs.
How Does a NBA Playoff Bracket Work?
The first part of the playoff bracket is then completed and it narrows down the teams to the best team from the Western Conference and the best team from the Eastern Conference. These two teams will then compete for the position of National Champions.
The series is decided based on the best of seven games. The games are played in a 2, 3, 2 series with the first two games given home court advantage to the team with the best regular season record. If the series runs into those last two games, then the home court advantage returns to the team that had it during the first two games.
The bracket system is somewhat complex but ends up giving each team similar advantages throughout the series of games played. This run through of the playoff bracket gives you the ability to answer how does a NBA playoff bracket work.