How the NBA season works: NBA Cup, play-in and playoffs

The NBA season runs from late October to June, and it now has three distinct parts: a regular season with a tournament built into it, a short play-in event, and the playoffs. Each has its own rules, and they overlap in ways that confuse even regular fans, such as games that count toward two things at once.

This guide explains how the 2026-27 season works, as of October 2026.

The short version

• There are 30 teams in two conferences of 15. Each team plays 82 regular-season games.
• The NBA Cup is a tournament inside the regular season. Group games in late October and November count in the standings. The knockout rounds are in early December, and the 2026 final is on December 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Only the final does not count in the standings.
• After the regular season, the top six teams in each conference go straight to the playoffs. Teams 7 to 10 enter the play-in tournament for the last two spots.
• The playoffs have 16 teams, eight per conference, in four rounds of best-of-seven series.
• The bracket is fixed (1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5) and is not reseeded.

Conferences, divisions and the regular season

The 30 teams are split into the Eastern and Western conferences, and each conference has three divisions of five teams.

Divisions matter less than you might expect. Winning one does not guarantee a playoff spot or a high seed. Teams are seeded 1 to 15 within their conference purely by record, and a division title only comes up as a tiebreaker.

When two teams finish with the same record, the first tiebreaker is their head-to-head record. After that come steps such as whether either team won its division and each team's record within the conference.

The NBA Cup

The NBA Cup began in the 2023-24 season, when it was called the In-Season Tournament. It gives the early part of the season a trophy of its own, and the only game it adds is the final, for the two teams that reach it.

Group stage. The 30 teams are drawn into six groups of five, three groups in each conference, using the previous season's records. Each team plays the other four teams in its group once, two at home and two away. In 2026, group games run from October 30 to November 27.

Who advances. The three group winners in each conference go through, along with one wild card per conference: the best second-place team. That makes eight teams.

Knockout rounds. The quarterfinals are on December 4 and 5 and the semifinals on December 8 or 9, all at the higher seed's home arena. For 2026, the semifinals moved out of Las Vegas, which hosted them and the final for the first three tournaments. The final, East champion against West champion, is on December 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse, the college arena at Butler University in Indianapolis.

How it fits into 82 games. Teams start the season with 80 games scheduled. The last two are filled in after group play, depending on how far each team goes in the Cup. Every Cup game counts in the regular-season standings except the final, so the two finalists end up playing 83 games, of which 82 count.

The play-in tournament

The play-in decides the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds in each conference. It has been part of the postseason since the 2020-21 season.

Here is how it works in each conference:

1. The No. 7 team hosts the No. 8 team. The winner becomes the No. 7 seed.
2. The No. 9 team hosts the No. 10 team. The loser is eliminated.
3. The loser of the 7-8 game hosts the winner of the 9-10 game. The winner becomes the No. 8 seed, and the loser is out.

So the teams that finish 7th and 8th get two chances to win one game. The teams that finish 9th and 10th have to win two in a row, and the 10th-place team plays both of its games on the road. All of it happens in the few days after the regular season ends in April.

Teams that finish 11th or lower are out, which is why the race for 10th place matters more than it used to.

The playoff bracket

Sixteen teams, eight per conference, play four rounds:

1. First round
2. Conference semifinals
3. Conference finals
4. NBA Finals, East champion against West champion

The bracket is set before the first round and does not change. On one side of each conference, No. 1 plays No. 8 and No. 4 plays No. 5. On the other, No. 2 plays No. 7 and No. 3 plays No. 6. The winners keep meeting along those lines, so the No. 1 seed's second-round opponent is the winner of 4 vs. 5.

Every series is best-of-seven with a 2-2-1-1-1 pattern: the team with home court hosts Games 1, 2, 5 and 7. In the conference rounds, home court goes to the higher seed. In the NBA Finals, it goes to the team with the better regular-season record. The Finals usually wrap up in June.

Where people get confused

• NBA Cup games are also regular-season games. A group-stage win counts for the Cup and the standings at the same time.
• The Cup and the championship are separate. A team can win the Cup in December and miss the playoffs in April, or skip the Cup knockouts and win the title.
• Play-in teams are not yet playoff teams. The playoffs proper start only after the play-in sets seeds 7 and 8.
• Division winners are not protected. Winning a division guarantees nothing. A division winner with a modest record can be seeded below teams from other divisions with better records.

Frequently asked questions

What is the NBA play-in tournament?

It is a short event after the regular season for the teams that finish 7th to 10th in each conference. Three games per conference decide who takes the No. 7 and No. 8 playoff seeds.

Do NBA Cup games count in the standings?

Yes, all of them except the final. Group games, quarterfinals and semifinals all count, and each team's last two regular-season games are scheduled after group play, based on how far it went in the Cup.

How many teams make the NBA playoffs?

Sixteen. The top six in each conference qualify directly, and the play-in decides the last two spots in each conference, so 20 teams take part in the postseason in some form.

Does the NBA reseed the playoffs?

No. The bracket stays the same from the first round, so the No. 1 seed does not automatically get the weakest remaining opponent.

If you follow a team through an 82-game season, the Cup and the playoffs, Get Your Sports Here can send one short daily email about the teams and players you pick, with every fact linked to its source. It keeps the schedule for everything you follow and can build a one-page game sheet before a big game. If basketball is one of several sports you track, see how to follow multiple sports without the noise, or set up a briefing here.