NBA

2024-25 will be the 79th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The pre-season begins on October 4th, 2024, and the regular season begins on October 22nd. 

The 2024-25 NBA season will feature an 82-game schedule leading up to a postseason in the spring of 2025. It will also feature the second edition of the NBA in-season tournament, a new addition in 2023 that will spice up the regular season and add more excitement for fans. 

The 2024-25 NBA In-Season Tournament will begin on November 12 and finish on December 17 with the ‘NBA Cup.’ 

NBA Scores

In basketball, points are scored by throwing the rounded, orange ball through a hoop that stands at ten feet tall. 

If a shot is made from within 22 feet of the hoop, the team scores two points. If a shot is made from beyond 22 feet of the hoop, the team scores three points. There is an arc that surrounds the hoop, known as the three-point line, so players are aware of where they need to be to score the extra point. 

Teams can also score after being fouled. Shooting fouls occur when a player is fouled during his attempted shot. When a player is fouled while attempting a two-point shot that he misses, he is awarded two free throws. Each free throw is worth one point, giving him an opportunity to score both points he would have missed. If a player is fouled while attempting a three-point shot, he is awarded three free throws. If a player makes a shot and is fouled, he is awarded a single free-point shot, called an “and-one.” 

For non-shooting fouls, teams are awarded free throws once they enter the bonus period. After a team has been fouled five times in a quarter, they are awarded two free throws for every additional time they are fouled in the quarter. 

NBA Rules

Each game lasts 60 minutes, with two 30-minute halves broken up into fifteen-minute quarters. The winner of the game is the team that scores the most points. 

Five players for each team are on the court at any given time, with the players holding various positions such as guard, forward, wing, center, and point guard. 

The NBA standings are directly determined by wins and losses. The team with the most wins is the top seed, the team with the next-most wins would be the second seed, and so on. If two teams are tied, the tiebreaker would be their head-to-head record. 

NBA Playoffs and Play-In Tournament

After the 82-game regular season, the postseason begins. The NBA is divided into two conferences, each consisting of 15 teams, and the top six teams from each conference qualify automatically for the postseason. 

The teams that are ranked seventh through tenth in each conference participate in a play-in round to determine the final two playoff teams in each conference. The seventh and eighth seeds play a one-game playoff, and the winner gets the seventh seed. The ninth and tenth seeds play a one-game playoff, and the winner of that game plays the loser of the seven-eight matchup to determine the final playoff spot. 

Once the postseason field is complete, the teams face off in a seven-game series. The bracket is fixed, meaning the winner of the one-versus-eight matchup plays the winner of the four-versus-five matchup, while the winner of the two-versus-seven matchup plays the winner of the three-versus-six matchup. Once a winner of each conference has been crowned, a final seven-game series is played to determine the NBA championship, known as the NBA finals. 

The 2025 NBA Playoffs begin on April 19, 2025, and the NBA Finals will begin on June 5th. 

NBA Standings

As mentioned before, the NBA is divided into two conferences, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. As we wait for the 2024-25 NBA season to begin, here is a look at the final standings for the 2023-24 regular season for both conferences. The standings have been adjusted to account for the 2023-24 NBA season.

Eastern Conference

1. Boston Celtics
2. New York Knicks
3. Milwaukee Bucks
4. Cleveland Cavaliers
5. Orlando Magic
6. Indiana Pacers
7. Philadelphia 76ers
8. Miami Heat
9. Chicago Bulls
10. Atlanta Hawks
11. Brooklyn Nets
12. Toronto Raptors
13. Charlotte Hornets
14. Washington Wizards
15. Detroit Pistons

Western Conference

1. Oklahoma City Thunder
2. Denver Nuggets
3. Minnesota Timberwolves
4. Los Angeles Clippers
5. Dallas Mavericks
6. Phoenix Suns
7. Los Angeles Lakers
8. New Orleans Pelicans
9. Sacramento Kings
10. Golden State Warriors
11. Houston Rockets
12. Utah Jazz
13. Memphis Grizzlies
14. San Antonio Spurs
15. Portland Trailblazers

NBA Schedule

The NBA schedule begins on Oct. 22, 2024, when the defending champion Boston Celtics will welcome the New York Knicks to tip off the season. From there, each team plays an 82-game schedule over the course of the next six months. Christmas Day will be a particularly loaded day for the NBA, with five marquee matchups including Lakers-Warriors and 76ers-Celtics. 

All-Star Weekend will be in February, from the 14th to the 16th. The weekend will feature some of the league’s best and most exciting talent in a range of skills challenges and an all-star game. Top rookies and other young stars compete in the Rising Stars Challenge, which takes place on Friday. Saturday features mini-games such as the Skills Challenge, 3-Point Contest, and Slam Dunk Contest. Then on Sunday, the leagues' top stars face off in the All-Star game, which will be held at Chase Center in San Francisco. 

NBA Draft

The NBA Draft is held each year in June and gives every team an opportunity to select two prospects, either from college or internationally. To determine the order of the draft, a lottery is held for the 14 teams who did not make the playoffs. For fairness, the teams with the most losses are given better odds of getting a higher draft choice, but the lottery system is in place to prevent teams from being incentivized to tank. Among the 16 playoff teams, their draft order is determined by their final position in the playoff standings. 

NBA Teams

There are 30 teams in the NBA, including 29 from the United States and one from Canada. 28 cities are represented in the NBA from 21 states and Washington D.C., with two cities (New York and Los Angeles) serving as the home of two teams. 

The teams are split into the following conferences: 

WEST: 

• Portland Trailblazers
• Sacramento Kings
• Golden State Warriors
• Utah Jazz
• Denver Nuggets
• Los Angeles Clippers
• Los Angeles Lakers
• Dallas Mavericks
• Oklahoma City Thunder
• Minnesota Timberwolves
• Phoenix Suns
• Memphis Grizzlies 
• New Orleans Pelicans 
• Houston Rockets 
• San Antonio Spurs

East: 

• Boston Celtics 
• New York Knicks
• New York Nets 
• Philadelphia 76ers
• Charlotte Hornets 
• Orlando Magic
• Miami Heat 
• Chicago Bulls 
• Indiana Pacers 
• Milwaukee Bucks 
• Detroit Pistons 
• Washington Wizards 
• Toronto Raptors 
• Atlanta Hawks 
• Cleveland Cavaliers