The NCAA basketball tournament, aka March Madness, is literally a month-long emotional rollercoaster. From the insane buzzer-beaters to the Cinderella stories that have you rooting for a random school you’ve never heard of, it’s no wonder millions of viewers tune in for every game. But now, it’s April, and the madness is sadly coming to a close tonight. If you’re new to basketball (and your TikTok algorithm has noticed), you might be hearing mumblings about the NBA Playoffs. Basically, March Madness but in May and for professional athletes rather than collegiate ones. However, there are a couple more differences than timing and the caliber of play. There’s definitely some must-know terminology and a few structural differences that set the NBA postseason apart from the NCAA tournament. Luckily, you have a little time before the games start to brush up on your lingo. Consider this your cheat sheet for the NBA Playoffs!
SEEDING:
Throughout this article and in sports media in general, you’ll hear teams referred to by numbers. In the NCAA tournament, it’s 1-16 because it’s a massive pool of 64 teams divvied up based on region. The NBA playoffs are on a much smaller scale, so the seeding is 1-8. The process for deciding seeds in college basketball is so convoluted (and low-key mysterious) that there’s a whole selection show on the Sunday before March Madness kicks off. Seeding in the NBA is much chiller because there are a lot fewer moving parts; teams are seeded primarily based on winning percentage in the regular season.
THE PLAY-IN
The Play-In tournament is a somewhat new addition to the NBA Playoffs. It was technically initially implemented in the 2020-21 season, coming off the COVID-19 “bubble” tournament, but it became a permanent fixture the following season.
The Play-In is basically a secret first round of the Playoffs, very similar to the First Four of March Madness. The teams that aren’t quite good enough to get an automatic bid and not quite bad enough to miss the tournament entirely are given one last shot at a slot in the Playoffs. The structure is a little confusing, so work with me here:
The 7th seed team and the 8th seed team play a singular game. The winner of this game is the 7th seed of the NBA Playoffs (yay!), but the loser isn’t out yet! The 9th and 10th seeds also play a singular game, except the stakes are a little higher. The loser of the 9/10 game is out of playoff contention. The winner of that game then plays the loser of the 7/8 game for the 8th seed in the Playoffs.
THE PLAYOFFS
Ok, finally, time to talk about the actual Playoffs. Just kidding. First, we gotta talk about conferences. Unlike the NCAA, which has 31 (well, 32 once the Pac-12 comes back) conferences, the NBA only has two: the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Other than Memphis, this is literally just where the team’s city is with respect to the Mississippi River; the teams to the east of the Mississippi are in the Eastern Conference (except Memphis), and the teams to the west are in the Western Conference. Teams are seeded 1-8 within their conference, so after the Play-In, only the top 16 teams make it into the actual Playoffs. Even though as of April 1st, the regular season is still going on, there have already been some “eliminations.” These aren’t really eliminations; some teams’ win percentages are just SO bad that not even winning all of their remaining games would move them into playoff contention. These teams are the Jazz, the Pelicans, the Wizards, the Hornets, the Nets and the 76ers.
| Western Conference | Eastern Conference |
| Portland Trail Blazers Sacramento Kings Golden State Warriors Los Angeles Clippers Los Angeles Lakers Phoenix Suns Utah Jazz Denver Nuggets Dallas Mavericks Oklahoma City Thunder San Antonio Spurs Houston Rockets New Orleans Pelicans Memphis Grizzlies Minnesota Timberwolves |
Milwaukee Bucks Chicago Bulls Indiana Pacers Detroit Pistons Cleveland Cavaliers Toronto Raptors Philadelphia 76ers New York Knicks New York Nets Boston Celtics Washington Wizards Charlotte Hornets Atlanta Hawks Miami Heat Orlando Magic |
Now that the conferences are out of the way, there’s still one more major difference between the NCAA tournament and the NBA Playoffs: the number of games. Part of the appeal (and the madness) of March Madness is that every game is single elimination. There are no second chances, just 40 minutes to win it or your season is over. The Playoffs are not like that. Every single round is a best-of-seven series, meaning a team must win four games to “win.” Win all four in a row? Awesome, you’ve swept the other team and won this round! Let’s move on to the next. Win three, but lose the next four? Ouch, better luck next time. Basically, every game counts, but games five, six and seven count that much more.
Not only are there fewer rounds in the NBA playoffs than in the NCAA tournament, but the rounds also don’t get the cutesy names March Madness has. The three rounds of the playoffs were split up by conference, with teams from the east and the west only getting the chance to meet in the Finals:
In the first round, matchups are determined by seed:
- 1st seed vs. 8th seed (S1)
- 2nd seed vs. 7th seed (S2)
- 3rd seed vs. 6th seed (S3)
- 4th seed vs. 5th seed (S4)
The winners of the first round advance to the second round, the Conference Semifinals:
- Winner of G1 vs. Winner of G4 (S6)
- Winner of G2 vs. Winner of G3 (S7)
The winners of the second round advance to the Conference Finals:
- Winner of S6 vs. Winner of S7 (CFC)
The winners of each Conference Finals series advance to the NBA Finals, where they battle it out in one final best-of-seven series to find out who will hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy and be the NBA champion!
The NBA regular season is super long (82 games), so there are definitely lulls in excitement. However, to me, the Playoffs are always awesome because every single player is giving it their all at all times. If you enjoyed watching the Florida Gators (or any other team) ball out in March Madness, I would highly recommend you tune into at least a series or two of the Playoffs!