National Basketball Association Playoffs - Format

Format

The NBA announced the current revised playoff seeding system on August 3, 2006. Following the NBA regular season, eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs and are seeded one to eight.

The team that has the best record in each of the three divisions in each conference is declared division champion. The three champions, and another team in the conference with the best record, are seeded one through four by their records. This guarantees that the division champions will be no lower than the fourth seed, and also ensures that a conference's two best teams (by record) are ranked as the top two even if the second-best team doesn't win its division. Of the remaining eleven conference teams, the four with the best records are seeded fifth through eighth based on their record.

In the event two or more teams are tied in the standings, a series of tiebreakers are applied to determine which team receives the higher seeding.

Two-Team Tiebreaker:

1. Division winner (this criterion is applied regardless of whether the tied teams are in the same division)
2. Better record in head-to-head games
3. Higher winning percentage within division (if teams are in the same division)
4. Higher winning percentage in conference games
5. Higher winning percentage against playoff teams in own conference (including tied teams)
6. Higher winning percentage against playoff teams in opposite conference (including tied teams)

Three-Team Tiebreaker:

1. Division winner (this criterion is applied regardless of whether the tied teams are in the same division)
2. Best head-to-head winning percentage among all teams tied
3. Highest winning percentage within division (if all tied teams are in the same division)
4. Highest winning percentage in conference games
5. Highest winning percentage against playoff teams in own conference (including tied teams)
6. Highest point differential between points scored and points allowed

These seedings are used to create a bracket that determines the match-ups throughout the playoffs. Once the playoffs start, the bracket is fixed; teams are never "reseeded", unlike in the NHL where the strongest remaining clubs face the weakest clubs in subsequent rounds. The first round of the NBA playoffs, or Conference Quarterfinals, consists of four match-ups in each conference based on the seedings (1–8, 2–7, 3–6, and 4–5). The four winners advance to the second round, or Conference Semifinals, with a match-up between the 1–8 and 4–5 winners and a match-up between the 2–7 and 3–6 winners. The two winners advance to the third round, or Conference Finals. The winner from each conference will advance to the final round, or the NBA Finals.

Each round is a best-of-seven series. Series are played in a 2–2–1–1–1 format, meaning the team with home-court advantage hosts games 1, 2, 5 and 7, while their opponent hosts games 3, 4, and 6, with games 5–7 being played if needed. The NBA Finals are played in a 2–3–2 format, meaning the team with home-court advantage hosts games 1, 2, 6 and 7, and their opponent hosts games 3, 4 and 5. The home-court advantage is determined in all rounds by record regardless of seed.

The most common criticism of the current structure is related to parity of conferences. On numerous occasions, Eastern Conference teams with losing records qualified for the playoffs, while Western Conference teams with significantly better records ended up missing them.