NBA playoffs 2024: news, schedule, standings, and highlights for the first round.

The 2023–24 NBA regular season is over, and the 2024 NBA playoffs’ opening round is rapidly approaching. Drama is sure to abound following an incredible regular season.

In an attempt to make it back to the Finals for the first time since 2022 and raise an NBA championship banner for the first time since 2008, the Boston Celtics secured the top seed in the Eastern Conference in March and will enjoy homecourt advantage during the whole postseason. Like the No. 2 seed New York Knicks, they will wait to find out who their first-round opponent is based on the outcomes of the play-in tournament.

The top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, who are in the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and are vying for the team’s first NBA championship since moving to Oklahoma City in 2008, are ahead of the reigning champion Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference.

The 16-team NBA playoffs will start with four games on Saturday and four more on Sunday following the play-in tournament. In order to proceed, eight teams from each conference will play each other in a best-of-7 series in the first round. The NBA playoffs consist of four best-of-seven rounds, with no club reseeding following a round. In every series, the team with the superior regular-season record will start the series at home.