NBA Standings -

The NBA is one of the most important and followed sports leagues in the United States, along with the NFL, MLB, and NHL. It is also the most premium basketball league in the entire world with a global fan following. In this article, let us take a closer look at how the 30 teams are ranked throughout the regular season which ultimately decides whether or not they will make it into the postseason. 

Introduction

The NBA, which consists of 30 teams, has a very long schedule where each team’s regular season is 82 games long. At the end of the regular season, only 16 of these teams can qualify for the postseason and to understand which of those teams will go forward, the NBA standings are of vital importance. 

The 30 teams are divided into 2 conferences of 15 teams each and then they are further subdivided into 3 divisions of 5 teams in each conference. The 82-game schedule for each team is made with the following structure and the teams with the best records enter the playoffs. 

1. Each team plays against the other four teams from the same division twice a year at home and twice away. That gives each team 16 games. 
2. Each team plays against six teams from the other two divisions within the conference four times yearly. That makes another 24 games. Each team plays the remaining four teams within the conference three times annually adding another 12 games. 
3. The remaining 30 games are played against all 15 teams from the other conference twice annually. In this way, the 82 games for each team are set every season. 

Current Season Overview

The latest season which wrapped up in June 2024 was the 78th year of the NBA. The next season which is the 2024-25 season will start on 22nd October 2023 and is the 79th year of the league. 

What are the NBA standings?

The NBA standings is a table that shows where each team in the NBA ranks depending on their respective conference. As the NBA has two conferences, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, and each conference consists of 15 teams, the NBA standings are the way to decide which team will rank in which spot according to their records. 

The NBA regular season standings are determined first and foremost according to the number of wins each team has. If two or more teams are tied with the number of wins, several tie-breaker factors determine the teams' respective positions. 

Within each conference, there are three divisions and the winners of each division get automatic playoff berths, followed by the next best three teams who also get playoff spots. The teams from spots 7 to 10 play in an NBA play-in tournament to decide the final two spots for the playoffs for each conference. 

NBA Conference Standings

The NBA Conference Standings are the all-important standings that determine which of the 8 teams from each conference will ultimately continue their journey toward the NBA Championship. There are only two conferences in the league which are the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference giving us the NBA Western Conference Standings or the NBA West Standings and the NBA Eastern Conference Standings or the NBA East Standings.

All of the teams that are in the league on the eastern side of the country are placed in the Eastern Conference. The teams in the Western Conference are made up of all those in the western and middle parts of the country. 

The teams in each conference are as follows:

What are the NBA playoffs standings?

The NBA playoff standings are a bracket that pits the playoff teams against each other in a best-of-7 series. So, at the end of the regular season when all teams have played their 82 games, and the play-in tournament is over, we get a final list of the 8 playoff teams from each conference seeded from 1 to 8. 

As per the NBA playoffs process, the first round of the playoffs takes place with the 1st seeded team against the 8th seed, the 2nd against the 7th, the 3rd against the 6th, and finally the 4th seed against the 5th seed. 

NBA Playoff Picture

Once the regular season comes to an end and all the teams have played their respective 82 games, the six teams with the best win-loss record from each conference will get direct entry into the playoffs and will be seeded from 1 to 6 as per the standings. That means that four teams still have a chance at making the playoffs. 

Since the 2020 NBA season, the league has adopted a play-in tournament for those teams ranked from 7 to 10 in each conference. As per the current structure, the 7th-placed teams get to play at home against the 8th-placed teams and the 9th-placed teams get to play at home against the 10th-placed teams. 

The winner between the 7th and 8th placed game advances to the next round of the tournament and the same goes for the 9th and 10th placed game. Between the two remaining teams, the winner of their game earns the 7th seed in the playoffs while the loser earns the 8th seed. 

The playoff bracket for the first round of the postseason is as follows (for each conference):

1. Seeds 1 vs Seeds 8
2. Seeds 2 vs Seeds 7
3. Seeds 3 vs Seeds 6
4. Seeds 4 vs Seeds 5