Throughout more than 76 seasons, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has had many intense rivalries.
Rivalries are classified into three primary groups; intradivisional, interdivisional, and interconference.
Interdivisional rivalries comprise games between opponents in different divisions but within the same conference.
Conference games are often important, as a team's record in common games, as well as its overall record against its conference, are sometimes used as tiebreakers for playoff seeding at the end of the regular season.
Also, many regular season opponents meet again in the playoffs, and the result of a regular season game can determine the team that will have home-court advantage in the playoff series.