NBA calendar: regular season, playoffs, Finals and draft (2023)

The best basketball league in the world, the NBA, takes place between October and June, but before, during and after that period there are numerous key dates and deadlines that are vital when it comes to understanding the game.NBA schedule. Through this page we intend to explain the development of the entire competition with the most important days that every fan should know.

When does the 2023-24 NBA season start?

TheNBA 2023-24 season will begin on October 24, 2023and it will end throughout the month of June 2024, dates within what has been customary in the league for decades. It will be the second campaign in five courses that will not be affected in any way by the coronavirus pandemic at the calendar level after suffering a four-month break in 2019-20, starting two months late in 2020-21 and having reduced by a month the summer break 2021-22.

What are the key dates of the NBA calendar for the 2023-24 season?

The key dates for the NBA 2023-24 schedule are as follows:

• NBA Market 2023:On July 1, 2023, new contracts and transfers began to be agreed.
• NBA Summer League:between July 7 and 17 in Las Vegas.
• Preseason 2023:At the end of September, the training camps will open for all teams. On September 27, training will begin for teams that play pre-season games away from the United States; On October 2, the rest of the teams will begin training.
• 2023 preseason matches:Between October 5 (Abu Dhabi Games) and October 20, each team will play between 4 and 6 matches.
• Start of the 2023-24 NBA season:heOctober 24thwill begin the regular season of 82 games per team with1,230 games that can be seen in streaming in the NBA League Pass.
• Home ‘NBA Tournament’:On November 3, 2023, the first games of the new NBA tournament that will be held between November and December will begin. All will count towards the regular season except the grand finale.
• NBA game in Mexico:Atlanta and Orlando will play in Mexico City on November 9.
• Semifinals and final 'NBA Tournament':the semifinals will be played on December 7; on December 9 the final. All three games will be played in Las Vegas.
• NBA Christmas Day 2023:five special games on December 25.
• NBA game in Paris:Chicago and Detroit will play in Paris on January 11, 2023.
• Martin Luther King Jr. NBA Day:multitude of parties from first hour of the day on January 15, 2023.
• All-Star 2024:will be held in Indianapolis between February 16 and 18, 2024.
• Rest season:between February 16 and 21, 2024 there will be no regular season.
• Second part of the season:as of February 22, 2024.
• End of regular season:April 14, 2024.
• Play-in tournament to access playoffs:between April 16 and 19, 2024.
• NBA playoffs start 2024:April 20, 2024.
• NBA 2024 Final Dates:June 6, 2024.
• Draft 2024:June 20, 2024.

What's new for the NBA 2023-24 schedule?

The main novelty of the NBA 2023-24 calendar is the introduction of a new competition, the so-called 'NBA In-Season Tournament', which is like an NBA Cup. The thirty teams in the league will play each other divided into six groups from November 3 throughout the month. The winners of those six groups and the best two will play a quarterfinal that will leave us with four semifinalists.

Well, both the semifinals (December 7, 2023) and the final (December 9, 2023) will be played in Las Vegas and after that last game we will know which is the first team to win the 'NBA Cup'.

All the games of the 'NBA Cup' will be valid for the regular season classification with the exception of the final, a match that will not count since that will be the only additional match that will be played this season compared to what has been usual for decades. That is, the finalists of the 'NBA Cup' will play 83 games between October and April for 82 games for the rest of the teams.

Three changes to the NBA 2022-23 calendar

1. There will be no parties on Election Day.As part of the league's efforts to promote social justice, the league has decided not to schedule any games for Tuesday, November 8, US Election Day. This decision aims to encourage all fans to go vote. As a result, the thirty teams in the league will play the day before. It is a rarity that the NBA leaves calendar days without games. The usual thing is that since the regular season begins there are games every day except two: Christmas Eve and the day of the NCAA final.

2. Less trips.Another goal that the NBA has is to reduce the number of trips that teams take to play in order to preserve the health of the players. During the 2022-23 season, no less than 88 games that teams play at home will be held without the visiting team having traveled between those games. The jump is remarkable since in the 201-22 season there were 53 games of this type and in the 2022-23 there will be 88. Of those 88 games, 55 will be achieved by playing the same two teams twice in the same city and the other 33 They will come from games played in New York against the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets in a row.

It has also been possible to reduce the number ofback-to-backs—two games played in two nights— from 13.5 per team last season to 13.3 in 2022-23. Since the 2014-15 season there has been a reduction of 19.3back-to-backto the current 13.3.

3. NBA rivalry week or 'NBA Rivals Week'.For the 2022-23 season, the NBA has introduced another novelty called "NBA Rivals Week" in order to attract more public attention. Classic and contemporary rivalries between teams and players will be harnessed by the league to schedule eleven head-turning matchups over five days, from January 24-28. There will be clashes between Heat and Celtics, Lakers and Clippers, Nets and 76ers, Warriors and Grizzlies, Mavericks and Suns, Warriors and Raptors, Knicks and Nets and, of course, between Celtics and Lakers as the end of the party.

When is the NBA schedule released?

Whether you are planning a trip to the United States to see your favorite team or simply want to know when your team will play the 82 games of the season, you should wait until August to find out the details of each season.The NBA usually waits until the first or second half of August to publish its schedule..

On those dates, the NBA indicates with a first communication the most interesting games of the first four days of the course as well as the clashes on Christmas Day, one of the most important days for the League for decades. Days later the League finishes communicating the entire calendar.

NBA preseason dates

Until well into September the NBA has no official movement. The preseason usually lasts just over three weeks in which the teams play between five and eight games. In 2019, the NBA reduced the duration of the preseason and the number of games in it in order to extend the duration of the season.

The NBA preseason is usually used to deepen the tactical and physical work with the players since once the official course begins, training is very limited due to the lack of time available between trips and games. In preseason, the NBA also usually organizes games in countries in Europe, Asia and some cities in America that are not used to seeing the NBA.

Length of the regular season schedule

The NBA season usually begins in mid-October, 10 days earlier than was usual until 2016. The desire of the competition leaders to give more breaks during the season made it possible to start the regular season earlier while maintaining its completion date in mid-April.

Between those two periods, just over 175 days for each team to play 82 games. Yes, every franchise in the NBA ends up playing a game pretty much every other day considering that during All-Star the games are halted for a week.

During the first days of competition in October, the League schedules matches of great media interest, pitting the leading teams against each other with the aim of capturing the attention of the largest number of fans. In the following list you can see the most important key dates of the Regular Season such as special days or deadlines related to the transfer market.

NBA playoffs and Finals schedule

Losplayoffs, the playoffs for the title that are played by 16 teams —8 from each conference— usually begin in mid-April and last for approximately two months until the conclusion of the NBA Finals, which are always held in June. between the Eastern Conference champion and the Western Conference champion.

• Mid April:usual start dateplayoffs.
• April May:delivery of thenba awards, as Defender of the Year, Rookie of the Year or MVP.
• Early June:Beginning of the NBA Finals.

Draft, mercado y Summer League

Once the Finals conclude anda new champion is part of the NBA recordIt gives way to a period of frenetic activity in the NBA that has a lot of interest for the fans: the draft, the prizes and the entire transfer period. First the draft is held, usually in New York, the city where the NBA organizes a gala to choose 60 players who were not part of the League until then, mostly young people from the university.

Subsequently, every July 1, the signing and transfer period begins in which all the teams remodel their rosters with new signings of free agents or agreeing transfers with other teams.

• End of June:NBA Draft celebration.
• 1 julio:Beginning of the transfer and transfer period.
• Early July:Home of the Las Vegas Summer League.

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More information

• The NBA Cup: calendar, groups, format and playoffs.
• How to watch the NBA online in League Pass.
• The NBA list of winners, all the champions in history.