The NBA Season Explained: From Opening Night to the Finals

Basketball is easy to understand in the moment: put the ball in the hoop. The season, though, is long and has a few moving parts. Here’s how a year in the NBA works, from October to June.

The basics of a game

• Each team has five players on the court.
• A game has four 12-minute quarters.
• Baskets are worth 2 points, or 3 points from behind the three-point line. Free throws are worth 1 point each.
• Teams must shoot within 24 seconds of getting the ball (the shot clock), which keeps the game fast.

30 teams, two conferences

The NBA has 30 teams, split into the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference (15 teams each). Teams mostly compete for playoff spots within their own conference, and the two conference champions meet in the Finals.

The regular season: 82 games

From late October to mid-April, every team plays 82 games, half at home and half on the road. That’s three or four games most weeks, so you’ll never wait long for the next one. A bad night doesn’t matter much; what matters is how a team plays over months.

Big dates during the season:

• Opening week (October): new rosters, new hopes.
• The NBA Cup (November–December): an in-season tournament where certain regular-season games also count toward a separate trophy, with the final four played in Las Vegas in December.
• Christmas Day: a full day of marquee games, an NBA tradition.
• Trade deadline (February): the last chance for teams to make trades for the season.
• All-Star Weekend (February): the league’s best players, the dunk contest and the three-point contest.

The play-in tournament

At the end of the regular season, the top six teams in each conference go straight to the playoffs. Teams finishing 7th through 10th play a short play-in tournament to decide the last two playoff spots in each conference. It makes the final weeks exciting for many more teams.

The playoffs: four rounds

16 teams make the playoffs (eight per conference). Every round is a best-of-seven series: the first team to win four games moves on.

1. First round
2. Conference semifinals
3. Conference finals
4. The NBA Finals (usually in June), East champion vs. West champion

Because each series can go up to seven games, playoff basketball has a lot of drama: adjustments, comebacks and Game 7s.

The offseason

• The NBA Draft (June): teams pick new young players, with the worst teams getting the best chances at the top picks through a lottery.
• Free agency (starting around July 1): players whose contracts ended sign with new teams. Rosters can change a lot in just a few days.
• Summer League (July): rookies and young players get their first games.

How to follow a season without getting lost

1. Pick a team and check their record and conference standing once a week.
2. Watch the big nights: opening week, Christmas Day and the last two weeks of the regular season.
3. Go all in for the playoffs. Even casual fans tune in from April to June.

Next step: find your NBA team so you have someone to cheer for all season.