Western Conference (NBA)

The Western Conference is next to the Eastern Conference one of the two conferences in the highest North American basketball league, the NBA . It contains 15 of the 30 and thus half of the teams in the NBA and is further divided into three divisions , each with five teams. In the 2003/2004 season there were only two divisions per conference, each with seven or eight teams.

The conferences were introduced in the 1970/71 season. Previously there was only an Eastern and a Western Division (with the exception of a Central Division in the 1949/50 season ).

Playoff mode

The three division winners and the top five other teams advance to the Western Conference Playoffs . In the first round of these playoffs , the first place in the regular season will play against the eighth place, the second against the seventh etc. in a series of a maximum of seven games against each other. The team that is the first to record four wins ( best-of-seven mode ) goes to the next round. The winner of the Western Conference plays against the winner of the Eastern Conference for the title.

Teams

Atlanta Boston Charlotte Chicago Cleveland Dallas Denver Detroit Houston Indianapolis 2 ×  Los Angeles Memphis Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis New Orleans 2 ×  New York Oklahoma City Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Portland Sacramento San Antonio San Francisco Salt Lake City Toronto Washington

Locations of the NBA franchises

Northwest Division (on the map above in yellow )	Pacific Division (on the card above in purple )	Southwest Division (on the map above in red )
Denver nuggets Minnesota Timberwolves Oklahoma City Thunder Portland Trail Blazers Utah Jazz	Golden State Warriors Los Angeles Clippers Los Angeles Lakers Phoenix Suns Sacramento Kings	Dallas Mavericks Houston Rockets Memphis grizzlies New Orleans Pelicans San Antonio Spurs