Which Teams Are in Which NBA Conferences and Divisions?

It’s time for the return of professional basketball and the long-awaited revival of the NBA on NBC, and for some budding fans, that means familiarizing yourself with the basic breakdown of the NBA itself.

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The NBA is made up of 30 teams, competing from the fall well into the following spring for a shot at the NBA Playoffs, and the league championship. Those teams are broken up into conferences, which are further broken up into divisions. With literally hundreds of games unfolding over the next few months, many of them on NBC and Peacock, it’s a lot to take in. It helps to have a certain sense of the structure.

So, if you’re wondering how the NBA’s two conferences and six divisions work, let’s take a closer look.

NBA Conferences and Divisions, explained

As we’ve already established, there are 30 teams in the modern National Basketball Association. Those teams are divided, roughly geographically, into two conferences, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Each conference contains 15 teams, and every team in the league will spend more than half their season playing the other teams in their respective conference.

Each conference is then broken down into three divisions of five teams, again roughly geographically, similar to the NFL. Each team is guaranteed to play at least four games every season against the other squads in their division, and at the end of each season the team with the best record in each division is awarded a Division Title.

This organizational structure is based, in part, around ease of scheduling. Traveling across the country for a game, or going on a lengthy run of road games far away from home, is expensive, tiring, and logistically complex. So while every NBA team will play every other NBA team at least twice every season, teams will always play more games within their home region than away from their home region.

Then, of course, there are the playoffs.

How Conferences and Divisions factor into the NBA Playoffs

While NBA divisions do award titles to the best team every season, they don’t actually have a role to play in playoff selection and function more as a tool for ease of scheduling. For playoff status, you have to look at where each team sits in their conference standings.

The top six teams in each conference at the end of the regular season, based on winning percentage, get an automatic berth for the NBA Playoffs. The seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth best teams in each conference then compete in the NBA Play-In Tournament to determine the remaining two slots for each conference, giving the playoffs a final field of 16 teams. These teams are then given seed numbers to determine matchups, a bracket is laid out, and each conference competes to find a champion before those conference champions meet in the NBA Finals.

Which teams are in each conference and division?

Want to find where your favorite team sits in the NBA organizational structure? Here’s a handy guide:

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic DivisionBoston CelticsBrooklyn NetsNew York KnicksPhiladelphia 76ersToronto RaptorsCentral DivisionChicago BullsCleveland CavaliersDetroit PistonsIndiana PacersMilwaukee BucksSoutheast DivisionAtlanta HawksCharlotte HornetsMiami HeatOrlando MagicWashington WizardsWestern ConferenceNorthwest DivisionDenver NuggetsMinnesota TimberwolvesOklahoma City ThunderPortland TrailblazersUtah JazzPacific DivisionGolden State WarriorsLos Angeles ClippersLos Angeles LakersPhoenix SunsSacramento KingsSouthwest DivisionDallas MavericksHouston RocketsMemphis GrizzliesNew Orleans PelicansSan Antonio Spurs

This season, NBC Sports is bringing tons of NBA games to fans across NBC and Peacock, including All-Star Weekend and the NBA Playoffs, with coverage on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights.

Which Teams Are in Which NBA Conferences and Divisions?

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