NBA Playoffs 2024: Ultimate Guide for Beginners

The pinnacle of North American basketball gets underway on the 20th of April and will conclude in June as the NBA Playoffs return for another exciting year. It is considered to be the most testing competition in basketball with the best teams from all over North America coming together to compete for Basketball’s most coveted prize. Below we cover the ins and outs of the tournament including the teams, players, prize money and format.

Below is all the information you need about this year’s NBA playoffs 2024.

Introduction to the NBA playoffs 2024

The NBA play-offs is a post-season tournament, the idea of which is to take successes from the regular league’s season into a knockout style tournament to crown the season’s ultimate champion. The NBA playoffs 2024 start on the 20th of April and will conclude as early as the 14th of June, or as late as the 23rd of June depending on how many games it takes to settle the NBA finals.

There are 16 teams competing from the Eastern and Western Conference which will eventually be whittled down to just two, one from each conference, and only one will be crowned NBA champions.

What are the NBA Playoffs 2024?

The NBA Playoffs are a post-season knockout style tournament played between 16 teams, eight from the Western Conference and eight from the Eastern Conference. These are seen to be the best 16 teams in the world and the knockout style tournament end with the NBA Finals, which crown the NBA Champions, the best team in basketball for that year.

The NBA play-offs has a total prize pool of around 27.5 million dollars. All qualifying teams receive around $328,000. Reaching the conference semi-finals sees the team’s pocket $390,000, with the conference finals granting a sum of $645,000. The runners-up in the finals receive $2.5 million while the winners take home around $3.8 million, a relatively small prize for one of the world’s biggest sporting events. The amount of prize money each player receives is down to the teams.

Aside from the money, the playoffs are crowning glories for the careers of many players, and many debates about which player is better than who come down to NBA playoffs and finals records as it is the toughest test in basketball.

When do the NBA Playoffs 2024 Start?

The playoffs begin on the 20th of April and will run until at least the 14th of June, potentially finishing as late as the 23rd of June. The 14th of June is when the fourth game of the finals is played – this will only be the end of the finals if one team is 4-0 up in the series. If not, the series will continue until one team has won four games, with the seventh game scheduled for the 23rd of June.

Where are the NBA playoffs 2024 played?

The NBA playoffs are not held at a specific venue, with teams playing at their regular season home courts. In a seven-game series the first two games will be played at the higher ranked team’s court with the second two being played at the home of the lower ranked team. If the series continues past four games the venue will alternate, starting with the higher ranked team, in order to give a home advantage to the team with the higher ranking. This will continue until up to seven matches have been played.

Understanding the Format of the NBA Playoffs 2024

In this section we dive into the workings of the NBA playoffs 2024, how the rounds work, how playoff brackets are decided, and what happens in the event of a tie.

How do the NBA Playoffs 2024 Work?

In a straight knockout style tournament, the first phase is an intra-conference knockout tournament consisting of three stages. There are two conference brackets consisting of eight teams from each conference in the first round. After a first round, conference semifinals and conference finals stage, there is one team from each conference remaining and they will face off in the NBA Finals, with the winner crowned NBA Champions.

What is the Playoff bracket for the NBA Playoffs 2024?

There are two playoff brackets in the NBA Playoffs 2024, one for the Eastern Conference and one for the Western Conference.

The teams qualify for the playoff brackets through the regular season, with the top eight from each conference entering their respective playoff brackets, seeded one to eight based on their finishing position in their conference in the regular season.

Within the playoff brackets, teams from within the same conference face off in a knockout style tournament with a first round, conference semifinals and conference finals stage, leaving just one team in each bracket who play against each other in the NBA finals.

How many rounds are there in the NBA playoffs 2024?

There are three rounds of intra-conference games, followed by one NBA finals series. We break down how each round works below.

First round: Based on their regular season finish, teams are seeded 1 through 8 within their conference to form an eight team NBA playoff bracket. The number one seed plays the number eight seed with two playing seven, three playing six and four playing five. All of these are seven-game series.

Conference semi-finals: The conference semi-finals are still intra-conference games, with the winners of the first-round games meeting at this stage. The winners of the first seed vs eighth seed match plays the winner of the fourth vs fifth seed game. The winners of the third seed vs sixth seed match play the winners of the second seed vs seventh seed match. All of these are a seven-game series.

Conference finals: After the conference semi-finals stage there are just two teams left in each conference. The two remaining teams in each conference face off against each other in the conference finals, the winners of which will be crowned conference champions.

NBA Finals: The two conference champions go head-to-head in a seven-match series with the winner being crowned 2024 NBA Champions.

What happens if a series is tied in the NBA Playoffs 2024?

In a best of seven series there cannot be a tie in the end, as the first team to win four matches will win the series.

In the event of a tie in a singular game an overtime period lasting five minutes will be played and the team with the most points at the end of the overtime will be the winners. There is no limit to the amount of five-minute overtime periods that can be played in a single match.

This ensures that there cannot be a tie in the series.

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Predictions and Analysis for the NBA Playoffs 2024

This section will look at each team’s chances of winning the NBA Playoffs 2024, and their odds in the betting market.

Following a very good run of form and being heavily favoured to take this year’s Eastern conference, the Boston Celtics are 2/1 favourites to win the Championship for a record 18th time, and pick it up for the first time since 2008.

Last year’s Championship winners, The Denver Nuggets, are sitting pretty at the top of the North West table making them Western Conference favourites and second favourites overall for the championships at 3/1.

Despite being the joint-most successful franchise in history, the Los Angeles Lakers are the underdogs in the Western Conference at 18/1 to add to their 17 championships.

2021 winners, Milwaukee Bucks, are in good form again this year in the Eastern Conference and are 7/1 to win this year’s Championships. We think the winner will come from the Eastern Conference this year and that is priced at 10/11.

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