The National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs is the annual elimination tournament held to determine the league champion.

Six teams from each of the two conferences automatically advance to the playoffs based on regular season winning percentage, while those teams finishing seven through 10 from each conference compete in the play-in tournament to determine the final two playoff seeds.

[2] If two or more teams within the same conference are tied in overall winning percentage, tiebreaker criteria are used to determine final rankings.

Prior to 2016, this rule was also used for two-team ties, but only applied if the two teams have the same head-to-head record.

In 1947 and 1948, the Eastern and Western Division champions were matched in a best-of-seven series following the regular season, whose winner advanced to the championship round.

In 1947, the Philadelphia Warriors won the runners-up bracket and beat the Western champion Chicago Stags four games to one, which the NBA recognizes as its first championship; in 1948 Baltimore won the runners-up and beat Eastern champion Philadelphia in the final.

At the same time, the number of playoff teams was increased from three to four from each Division; two rounds of best-of-three series were played, followed by a best-of-seven championship.

With ten league members again for the 1966–67 season, eight teams were again admitted to the tournament, providing a simple three-round knockout (8-team bracket).

Then, in 1975 and 1977, respectively, a fifth and sixth team were added to each Division, necessitating an additional first round of best-of-three series.

This would change slightly after the 2005–06 season; while division winners still receive automatic playoff berths, they are guaranteed a top-four seed, as described below.

After the NBA realigned its two conferences into three divisions each, the seeding rules remained largely unchanged.

In the second year of this format, the 2005–06 NBA season, the two teams with the best records in the Western Conference (and the second- and third-best records in the entire league), the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks of the Southwest Division, did just that.

All six 1947 participants played their first tournament games on Wednesday, April 2; in 1948 the two Eastern runners-up (E2, E3 in the figure) were idle for a few days only because there was a three-way Western tie to break.

Both winners of the runners-up bracket, Philadelphia in 1947 and Baltimore in 1948, reached the final series having played fewer tournament games than their final opponents, Chicago in 1947 and Philadelphia in 1948, had played in the best-of-7 pairings of division champions.

By 1966 the schedule provided more rest for the first-round participants with byes of 11 and eight extra days idle.

[12][13][14][15][16] Described as a best-of-two series, the Trail Blazers, needing only one win as the higher seed, eliminated the Grizzlies in game one to advance to the playoffs.