How many teams are in each conference in the NBA?

NBA Teams Map

NBA stands for National Basketball Association and is the foremost professional basketball league in North America. It is also regarded as the top premier basketball league in the world. The NBA has two conferences divided according to the geographical location of the teams – the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Each conference consists of 15 teams.

Each conference is further divided into three ‘division’ categories, again based roughly on the team’s location. The Eastern Conference has the Atlantic, Central, and Southeast Divisions. While the Western Conference hosts the Northwest, Pacific, and Southwest Divisions.

The 15 teams under Eastern Conference include:

Atlantic
Boston Celtics
Brooklyn Nets
New York Knicks
Philadelphia 76ers
Toronto Raptors

Central 
Chicago Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers
Detroit Pistons
Indiana Pacers
Milwaukee Bucks

Southeast 
Atlanta Hawks
Charlotte Bobcats
Miami Heat
Orlando Magic
Washington Wizards

The 15 teams under Western Conference include:
Northwest
Denver Nuggets
Minnesota Timberwolves
Oklahoma City Thunder
Portland Trail Blazers
Utah Jazz

Pacific
Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Phoenix Suns
Sacramento Kings

Southwest
Dallas Mavericks
Houston Rockets
Memphis Grizzlies
New Orleans Hornets
San Antonio Spurs

The predecessor to the NBA was founded on June 6th, 1946 at the Commodore Hotel in New York City. Behind its founding was a group looking at a future for basketball in post-World War II America. These were the operators of big arenas in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and elsewhere. It was then called the Basketball Association of America and had eleven teams. These eleven teams would play a schedule of 60 games, and each game was to be 48 minutes.

The first President of the League was Maurice Podoloff. His name is now inscribed on the NBA Most Valuable Player trophy. Later the title of the President was changed to the Commissioner.

The NBA regular season starts by the end of October and goes on through mid-April. Each of the 30 teams plays 82 regular season games. At the end of the regular season, the top 16 teams – eight from the Eastern Conference, and eight from the Western Conference, qualify for the playoffs. The No. 1 seed faces the No. 8 seed in the first round, the No. 2 faces the No. 7, and so on. Each playoff series is a best of 7 series, played in a 2-2-1-1-1 format, meaning two games at the top seed’s home court, two games at the lower seed’s home court, then back and forth one game at a time. This is meant to provide a home-court advantage, based on the regular season record, to the higher-seeded team. The playoffs are an elimination tournament resulting in the top teams from each Conference meeting in the NBA finals for the Larry O’Brien (Championship) Trophy.

The 2017-2018 NBA season is the 72nd Season of the National Basketball Association. It began on October 20^th and will last until a new champion is crowned on June 17^th, 2018.

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