NBA Playoff Format, Dates & More: start planning for the Nuggets' championship parade

Before the NBA offseason officially ends and we get into the minutiae of training camp, preseason, and all that fun stuff, let’s look ahead to the future and think about the 2025 NBA playoffs. The 2024 playoffs have certainly left a bad taste in the mouths of Nuggets fans and while the team won’t be looking ahead, it’s okay for fans to already be focused on the playoffs and redemption.

NBA Playoff Format and Structure

The NBA playoffs consist of 16 teams - 8 from the Western Conference and 8 from the Eastern Conference. Each conference has a bracket with the 1 seed playing 8, the 2 playing the 7, the 3 playing the 6, and the 4 playing the 5.

Every series throughout the entire playoffs is a best of 7 with the better seed hosting games 1, 2, 5, and 7. There is no reseeding, so the winner of the 1/8 plays the winner of the 4/5 and the winner of the 2/7 plays the winner of the 3/6. The winners of those two series face off in the conference finals and then the winners face off in the NBA Finals for all the marbles.

But what about that pesky play-in tournament?

Starting in the bubble, the NBA adopted a play-in tournament to determine the final playoff seeds in each conference. The top 6 seeds in each conference are set based on regular season records. But the team that finishes the regular season as the 7 seed plays host to the 8 seed and the winner clinches the 7 seed in the playoffs.

The 9 seed also hosts the 10 seed and the winner of that game travels to the loser of the 7/8 game to determine the 8th and final seed in each conference. Every matchup of the in-season tournament is one single-elimination game.

Key dates for the NBA playoffs, NBA Finals, and Play-in Tournament

The NBA regular season ends on Sunday, April 13th, 2025. The play-in tournament starts up that Tuesday night, April 15th, and wraps up that Friday, the 18th. The NBA playoffs begin the next day, Saturday, April 19th, 2025.

The NBA Finals are slated to begin on June 5th of 2025, which is a Thursday night. Based on past years, that means a Finals game 7 would likely take place between the 19th and the 22nd. That part is speculative, but feel free to pencil in the Nuggets to win it all and you can pick the exact date and number of games.