The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional league which is made up of 30 teams. Twenty-nine of the teams are from the United States and one from Canada. The association is ranked among the top four main professional sports leagues in the USA and Canada and considered the highest level of professional basketball in the world. The International Basketball Federation recognizes the league.
How the Teams Are Divided
All the 30 NBA teams are divided into two conferences, the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference. Each of the conferences is further divided into divisions. The Western Conference hosts the Pacific, Northwest, and the Southwest divisions. The Eastern Conference hosts the Atlantic, Central, and Southeast divisions.
How NBA Games Are Played in the Regular Season
The first 16 features of the regular season involve each team playing all the other teams in the same division a total of four times. Later on, each side is matched against six other teams which are from different divisions, though still in the same conference. Four games are played against each of the teams, which gives a total of 24 games. A team then finally faces the remaining teams in the conference three times each, making the overall number of games within a conference 52 for each side.
To close the regular season, each team faces all teams of the other conference two times, home and away. That means that each team plays 82 games before the end of the regular season.
The NBA Basketball Playoffs
At the end of the regular season, the best eight teams from each conference compete in the playoffs. Each playoff matchup is decided by seven games, with the first team to win four games proceeding to the next stage. The winners of each conference playoff are crowned the conference champions. The two conference champions then play against each other in the NBA finals.