NBA Schedule 2023-24

Thursday, 28 Mar 2024
Away Home Time Venue
Boston
BOS
Atlanta Hawks
ATL
05:00 AM State Farm Arena, Atlanta,USA
Milwaukee
MIL
New Orleans
NOP
05:30 AM Smoothie King Center, New Orleans,USA
Friday, 29 Mar 2024
Away Home Time Venue
Detroit Pistons
DET
Washington Wizards
WAS
04:30 AM Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.,USA
Los Angeles Clippers
LAC
Orlando
ORL
04:30 AM Amway Center, Orlando,USA
Los Angeles Lakers
LAL
Indiana
IND
04:30 AM Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis,USA
Golden State Warriors
GSW
Charlotte Hornets
CHA
04:30 AM Spectrum Center, Charlotte, NC,USA
Philadelphia 76ers
PHI
Cleveland Cavaliers
CLE
05:00 AM Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH,USA
Chicago Bulls
CHI
Brooklyn Nets
BKN
05:00 AM Barclays Center, Brooklyn,USA
New York
NYK
San Antonio
SAS
05:30 AM AT&T Center, San Antonio,USA
Phoenix Suns
PHX
Oklahoma City Thunder
OKC
05:30 AM Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City,USA
Portland Trail Blazers
POR
Miami Heat
MIA
05:30 AM American Airlines Arena, Miami,USA
Minnesota Timberwolves
MIN
Denver Nuggets
DEN
06:30 AM Pepsi Center, Denver,USA
Houston Rockets
HOU
Utah Jazz
UTA
07:00 AM Vivint Smart Home Arena, Salt Lake City,USA
Dallas Mavericks
DAL
Sacramento Kings
SAC
07:30 AM Golden 1 Center, Sacramento,USA
Saturday, 30 Mar 2024
Away Home Time Venue
Boston
BOS
New Orleans
NOP
02:30 AM Smoothie King Center, New Orleans,USA
Memphis Grizzlies
MEM
Orlando
ORL
04:30 AM Amway Center, Orlando,USA
Milwaukee
MIL
Atlanta Hawks
ATL
05:00 AM State Farm Arena, Atlanta,USA
Sunday, 31 Mar 2024
Away Home Time Venue
Cleveland Cavaliers
CLE
Denver Nuggets
DEN
01:00 AM Pepsi Center, Denver,USA
Miami Heat
MIA
Washington Wizards
WAS
03:30 AM Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.,USA
Philadelphia 76ers
PHI
Toronto Raptors
TOR
03:30 AM Scotiabank Arena, Toronto,Canada
Los Angeles Clippers
LAC
Charlotte Hornets
CHA
03:30 AM Spectrum Center, Charlotte, NC,USA
Los Angeles Lakers
LAL
Brooklyn Nets
BKN
03:30 AM Barclays Center, Brooklyn,USA
Golden State Warriors
GSW
San Antonio
SAS
04:30 AM AT&T Center, San Antonio,USA
Chicago Bulls
CHI
Minnesota Timberwolves
MIN
04:30 AM Target Center, Minneapolis,USA
Dallas Mavericks
DAL
Houston Rockets
HOU
04:30 AM Toyota Center, Houston,USA
Oklahoma City Thunder
OKC
New York
NYK
04:30 AM Madison Square Garden, New York,USA
Utah Jazz
UTA
Sacramento Kings
SAC
06:30 AM Golden 1 Center, Sacramento,USA
Monday, 01 Apr 2024
Away Home Time Venue
Portland Trail Blazers
POR
Orlando
ORL
04:30 AM Amway Center, Orlando,USA
Brooklyn Nets
BKN
Indiana
IND
04:30 AM Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis,USA
Memphis Grizzlies
MEM
Detroit Pistons
DET
04:30 AM Little Caesars Arena, Detroit,USA
Boston
BOS
Charlotte Hornets
CHA
04:30 AM Spectrum Center, Charlotte, NC,USA
Phoenix Suns
PHX
New Orleans
NOP
05:30 AM Smoothie King Center, New Orleans,USA
Atlanta Hawks
ATL
Chicago Bulls
CHI
05:30 AM United Center, Chicago,USA


Image courtesy - NBA Instagram account

The National Basketball League, better known as the NBA, is the most dominant basketball league on the planet. This league operates in the United States where the sport first came into existence and was invented by a Canadian-American educator and physician named James Naismith.


This league came into existence on June 6, 1946, in New York City and the recently concluded 2022-23 season was its 76th iteration. The NBA consists of 30 teams out of which 29 are located in the United States and only 1 is in Canada. The most successful franchises in the league are the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers who both have won a record 17 titles each. Let us delve deeper and have a look at the NBA Schedule 2023-24.


Introduction to the NBA Schedule

The NBA features some of the best players to have ever touched a basketball and the league is also the single most reason for globally popularizing the sport to the level it has reached today. All over the world, more and more players from various countries have started playing the game at a much higher level and several clubs outside of the United States have started producing quality players. 


The NBA consists of 30 teams which are divided into two conferences, namely, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. To have a fully functional regular season followed by a postseason to determine one Champion from so many teams, a properly planned NBA schedule. 


Before the start of the regular season, the NBA game schedule is set up in such a way that all teams will play in the pre-season where they can start getting ready for the grueling months ahead. Once the preseason is over and all teams are raring to go, the long regular season gets underway as teams work their tails off in trying to reach the playoffs. The postseason possesses a different type of challenge altogether but any team that wants to win the coveted NBA title has to smartly navigate their way through it. 


Before the regular season winds up and teams start pushing for a playoff berth, there is the mid-season break which features the All-Star Game and other smaller events. 


NBA 2023-24 Season Overview

The NBA season is a long and tiring one for the players and coaching staff. Starting from the beginning of October is the preseason which comes to an end by the third week of the month. The regular season starts from the final week of October and runs till mid-April following which the postseason starts. The final two teams battling it out for the Championship will continue playing till the second or third week of June making it a very hectic NBA schedule. 


Starting from the 2023–24 NBA season, a newly formed in-season tournament will take place from the start of November and will continue for nearly one month. All games from this tournament except for the tournament championship game will be included as part of the regular season. The regular season for the 2023–24 season will start on October 24, 2023, as the defending champions, the Denver Nuggets take on last year’s Western Conference runners-up, the Los Angeles Lakers, in the first game. 


The All-Star break is scheduled to run from February 16 to 21, with the All-Star Game to be played on February 18, 2024. Mark your calendars for the postseason as it gets underway on April 20, 2024, and will go on till the second or third week of June. 


NBA Regular Season Schedule

Making an NBA schedule for 30 different teams in a league where each team has to play 82 games is not an easy task for sure. To make it work, there needs to be some sort of fixed process around which the nitty gritty of the NBA game schedule can revolve. Therefore, the NBA has come up with the following formula around which the entire regular season is structured. The league also releases an NBA TV Schedule, which gives the fans all the broadcasting details. 


First and foremost, before we get into the structure of the NBA schedule 2023-24, it is important to understand how the teams are divided. So, the 30 teams are mainly divided into two conferences of 15 teams each and they are known as the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. As the names suggest, the Eastern Conference consists of all the teams on the Eastern side of the country. As for the Western Conference, only about eight teams fall on the west side of the country, while the remaining seven are more or less in the middle. 


The 15 teams are then further divided into three divisions of five teams each from both conferences. That means there are a total of six divisions with five teams each. The Eastern Conference is divided into the Atlantic, Central, and Southeast divisions, while the Western Conference is further classified into the Northwest, Pacific, and Southwest divisions. 


As every franchise plays 82 regular season games, each team gets to play 41 games at home and 41 games on the road. Thus, the NBA schedules each team’s opponents in the following manner:


  1. Each team will play all the other four teams within their division four times a year which makes 16 games. 
  2. Each team will play six teams from the other two divisions of the same conference four times a year, making that 24 games. Each team will also play the remaining four teams within the same conference a total of three times making that 12 more games. 
  3. The remaining 30 games will be played against all 15 teams from the other conference twice annually bringing the total to 82 games per season. 


Conference and Division teams breakup 


DivisionEastern ConferenceDivisionWestern Conference
AtlanticBoston CelticsNorthwestDenver Nuggets
Brooklyn NetsMinnesota Timberwolves

New York KnicksOklahoma City Thunder

Philadelphia 76ersPortland Trail Blazers

Toronto RaptorsUtah Jazz

CentralChicago BullsPacificGolden State Warriors
Cleveland CavaliersLos Angeles Clippers

Detroit PistonsLos Angeles Lakers

Indiana PacersPhoenix Suns

Milwaukee BucksSacramento Kings

SoutheastAtlanta HawksSouthwestDallas Mavericks
Charlotte HornetsHouston Rockets

Miami HeatMemphis Grizzlies

Orlando MagicNew Orleans Pelicans

Washington WizardsSan Antonio Spurs


NBA Playoffs Schedule

The NBA playoffs consist of 16 of the 30 teams and feature 8 from each conference. The top 6 teams from each conference get a guaranteed spot, irrespective of their divisions. The final two spots are settled via a Play-In Tournament featuring the teams that finished 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th in their respective conferences. The top two teams from both conferences after the play-in tournament join the previous six teams to complete the playoff bracket. 


The playoffs are all best of seven knockout rounds starting with the First Round which is played between seeds 1 and 8, 2 and 7, 3 and 6, and seeds 4 and 5 respectively. The winner moves on to the Conference Semifinals Round as only 8 teams remain. This is followed by the Conference Finals Round which features 4 teams and the NBA Finals which is between the last two teams that are still standing. 


Key Dates and Events of the 2023-24 NBA Season

Here are the key dates and subsequent events for the NBA Schedule 2023:


Key DatesEvent
October 3, 2023Training Camps open
October 5, 2023Preseason games begin
October 5 & 7, 2023Abu Dhabi Games - Dallas Mavericks vs. Minnesota Timberwolves
October 10, 2023Preseason game - Dallas Mavericks vs. Real Madrid (Madrid, Spain)
October 12, 2023Canada Series - Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Detroit Pistons (Montreal, Canada)
October 20, 2023Preseason ends
October 23, 2023Rosters set for NBA Opening day
October 24, 2023Start of the 2023-24 NBA Regular Season
October 28, 2023NBA G League Draft
November 3, 2023NBA In-Season Tournament begins
November 9, 2023Mexico City Game - Atlanta Hawks vs. Orlando Magic (Mexico City, Mexico)
December 7, 2023In-Season Tournament Semifinals (Las Vegas, NV)
December 9, 2023In-Season Tournament Championship (Las Vegas, NV)
January 5, 202410-day contracts may now be signed
January 10, 2024All NBA contracts are guaranteed for the remainder of the season
January 11, 2024Paris Game - Brooklyn Nets vs. Cleveland Cavaliers (Paris, France)
January 23-27, 2024NBA Rivals Week
February 8, 2024NBA Trade Deadline (3 p.m. ET)
February 16-18, 2024NBA All-Star 2024 (Indianapolis, IN)
February 16-21, 2024NBA All-Star break
April 14, 2024Regular Season ends
April 15, 2024Rosters set for NBA Playoffs 2024 (3 p.m. ET)
April 16-19, 2024NBA Play-In Tournament
April 20, 2024Playoffs 2024 begin
May 6-7, 2024Conference Semifinals begin (possibly move up to May 4-5)
May 12, 2024NBA Draft Lottery 2024 presented by State Farm
May 13-19, 2024NBA Combine (Chicago, IL)
May 21-22, 2024Conference Finals begin (possibly move up to May 19-20)
June 6, 2024NBA Finals 2024 Game 1
June 9, 2024NBA Finals 2024 Game 2
June 12, 2024NBA Finals 2024 Game 3
June 14, 2024NBA Finals 2024 Game 4
June 17, 2024NBA Finals 2024 Game 5 (if necessary)
June 20, 2024NBA Finals 2024 Game 6 (if necessary)
June 23, 2024NBA Finals 2024 Game 7 (if necessary)
June 27, 2024NBA Draft 2024 presented by State Farm


FAQs


Q. How many teams are there in the NBA?

  1. The NBA has a total of 30 teams.

Q. How many conferences does the NBA have?

  1. The NBA is divided into the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference.

Q. What are the divisions in the NBA?

  1. The NBA has six divisions, three in each conference. The Eastern Conference divisions are Atlantic, Central, and Southeast. The Western conference divisions are Northwest, Pacific, and Southwest. 

Q. How many games are in the NBA regular season?

  1. The regular season of the NBA has 82 games for each team. 

Q. What is the duration of the NBA season?

  1. The NBA regular season generally runs from October to mid-April followed by the postseason which ends in the second or third week of June.