Now the premier basketball competition of not only the United States but the world, the NBA has been thrilling fans since it was first founded in 1946. Each season, the best basketball players the planet has to offer gather to do battle, providing fans with approximately 10 months of elite competition and unmissable entertainment. Here, we take a closer look at the NBA calendar.
- Number of Games in the 2023-24 NBA Season
- 2023-24 NBA Season Dates
- 2023-24 NBA Regular Season
- 2023-24 NBA Cup
- 2023-24 NBA Postseason
- 2023-24 NBA Teams
- 2024-25 NBA Schedule
Number of Games in the 2023-24 NBA Season
Every NBA team will play 82 games over the course of the 2023-24 regular season. In total, this equates to 1,230 games during the regular campaign. An additional fixture is played for the NBA Cup (formerly known as the In-Season Tournament) Championship game, which made its debut in 2023. Further games are then held postseason during the NBA Playoffs, although the exact number varies year to year depending on how the teams fare, as each matchup is a best-of-7 series of fixtures.
In terms of the regular season, 82 games is the standard number played each campaign, but there have been outliers in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2019-20 season was severely affected, as a result of which 8 teams only played between 63 and 67 games during the regular season. The other 22 teams, who competed in the bio-secure “NBA Bubble” isolation zone, were able to complete between 71 and 75 fixtures each. The following season – which began just 72 days later – was also shortened by 10 games, meaning each team played 72 games in the 2020-21 campaign.
You can find the complete 2023-24 NBA schedule on Koobit.
2023-24 NBA Season Dates
The overall 2023-24 NBA season – including both the regular season and the playoffs – runs from 24 October 2023 to 23 June 2024.
In recent years, the season dates have been as follows:
- 2022-23 – 18 October 2022 to 12 June 2023
- 2021-22 – 19 October 2021 to 16 June 2022
- 2020-21 – 22 December 2020 to 20 July 2021 (season start delayed due to COVID)
- 2019-20 – 22 October 2019 to 11 October 2020 (season suspended from 11 March 2020 to 30 July)
- 2018-19 – 16 October 2018 to 13 June 2019
2023-24 NBA Regular Season
The 2023-24 regular NBA season runs from 24 October 2023 to 14 April 2024. This is the main portion of the campaign that determines which teams progress to postseason competition.
In the regular season, each team plays 82 games in an asymmetrical format. Every team plays all the opponents in the other conference twice (30 games). Within their own conference, they face the other teams in their geographical division and 6 teams from the other divisions 4 times (40 games), while the remaining 4 teams they play 3 times (12 games). The teams are ranked within their conference by win-percentage.
2023-24 NBA Cup
The 2023-24 season saw the introduction of the NBA Cup, known initially as the NBA In-Season Tournament, which ran from 3 November to 9 December 2023. Aside from the NBA Cup Championship game, which is a special additional fixture on the calendar, all the games are regular season matches that also count toward regular season standings.
The teams are randomly divided into 6 groups of 5 (known as East Group A, B, and C, and West Group A, B, and C) and play each of their opponents once apiece (2 games at home, 2 on the road) in a round-robin format known as Group Play. Group Play games take place on "Tournament Nights"; all games played on these nights are part of the NBA Cup.
The top teams from each group plus the best runner up from each conference advance to the single-elimination Knockout Rounds, comprised of quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final.
2023-24 NBA Postseason
The postseason is the key part of the campaign in which the conference and overall NBA champions are determined.
NBA Play-In Tournament
The 2023-24 postseason begins with the NBA Play-In Tournament from 16-19 April 2024. At the end of the regular season, the top 6 teams in each conference proceed directly to the NBA Playoffs. The final 2 playoff places for each conference are decided by the “Play-In Tournament,” contested by the teams who finished 7th through 10th.
The Play-In Tournament is essentially a “mini-playoff” comprised of 6 games. The teams who finished 7th and 8th play each other, with the winners advancing directly to the playoffs. The 9th and 10th teams also face off, with the losers eliminated from postseason contention and the winners getting to play the losers of the 7th-8th game for the final playoff spots.
NBA Playoffs
The NBA Playoffs run from 20 April to 23 June 2024, with the NBA Finals starting on 6 June. The NBA Finals may end earlier than 23 June, depending on how the games play out. Once the playoff lineup is complete after the Play-In Tournament, the 16 teams are separated into brackets by conference and battle through 3 knockout rounds – each a best-of-7 series of games – to determine the Eastern and Western Conference champions, who then face off in the NBA Finals to become the overall league champions.
View the full NBA Playoffs schedule and NBA Finals schedule here.
Offseason
Following the postseason is the offseason before the 2024-25 campaign begins. During this period, NBA teams will play in various exhibition events, most notably the California Classic Summer League (6-10 July 2024), Salt Lake City Summer League (8-10 July 2024), and NBA Summer League (12-22 July 2024).
2023-24 NBA Teams
The league is comprised of 30 teams, all based in the US save for the sole Canadian representatives, the Toronto Raptors. The teams are split evenly into Eastern and Western Conferences, and within them 3 geographical divisions: Atlantic, Central, and Southeast in the former, and Northwest, Pacific, and Southwest in the latter.
In 2023-24, the defending champions are the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets won their first ever NBA Championship in 2023, defeating the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals over 5 games.
The current lineup of teams and venues are as follows:
Eastern Conference
- Atlanta Hawks, State Farm Arena
- Boston Celtics, TD Garden
- Brooklyn Nets, Barclays Center
- Charlotte Hornets, Spectrum Center
- Chicago Bulls, United Center
- Cleveland Cavaliers, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
- Detroit Pistons, Little Caesars Arena
- Indiana Pacers, Gainbridge Fieldhouse
- Miami Heat, Kaseya Center
- Milwaukee Bucks, Fiserv Forum
- New York Knicks, Madison Square Garden
- Orlando Magic, Kia Center
- Philadelphia 76ers, Wells Fargo Center
- Toronto Raptors, Scotiabank Arena
- Washington Wizards, Capital One Arena
Western Conference
- Dallas Mavericks, American Airlines Center
- Denver Nuggets, Ball Arena
- Golden State Warriors, Chase Center
- Houston Rockets, Toyota Center
- Los Angeles Clippers, Crypto.com Arena
- Los Angeles Lakers, Crypto.com Arena
- Memphis Grizzlies, FedExForum
- Minnesota Timberwolves, Target Center
- New Orleans Pelicans, Smoothie King Center
- Oklahoma City Thunder, Paycom Center
- Phoenix Suns, Footprint Center
- Portland Trail Blazers, Moda Center
- Sacramento Kings, Golden 1 Center
- San Antonio Spurs, Frost Bank Center
- Utah Jazz, Delta Center
2024-25 NBA Schedule
The 2024-25 season is set to run on a similar timeframe to this campaign, starting in October 2024 and ending in June 2025, with the regular season concluding in April. The schedule for the 2024-25 season is likely to be released in mid-August 2024.