By: Karl Salkowski

The NBA playoffs feature a best of 7 format with a home-away game structure of 2-2-1-1-1. The playoffs last several months, beginning on April 18th and, assuming the finals go to a game 7, until June 19th. Similar to American football, the NBA has two conferences, the Western and the Eastern conferences. 

On each side of the bracket, the top 6 teams from the regular season automatically earn their spot in the playoffs, but teams ranked 7-10 get the chance to compete for the final two positions. This is called the Play-In Tournament and happens post-regular season but before the beginning of the playoffs. It is a single-elimination style tournament where the 9th and 10th seeds must win 2 games in order to proceed, while the 7th and 8th seeds only need to win 1.

So far, every team in the playoffs has played 3-4 games, with multiple lower seed teams possibly upsetting higher ranked teams. As expected, the top rated team, and defending champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, are leading their series 3-0, and the 2nd seed in the West, the San Antonio Spurs are winning 3-1 against the 7th seeded Portland Trail Blazers. 

However, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the 6th seed in the West, are upsetting the 3rd seed, the Denver Nuggets, 3-1 even after 2 of their starters have faced major injuries. On April 25th, the Timberwolves shooting guard, Donte DiVencenzo, tore his Achilles just over a minute into their fourth game against the Nuggets, and just a couple minutes later in the first half of the same game, Anthony Edwards suffered a left knee injury, possibly taking him out for the rest of the season. 

To round out the Western Conference, the Lakers are leading 3-1 against the Houston Rockets even without two of their starters, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves.

Moving on to the Eastern Conference, one of the biggest upsets so far is the 8th seeded Orlando Magic leading the first seed in the East, the Detroit Pistons, 2-1. In addition, the 2nd seed Boston Celtics are leading the 76ers 3-1 after a blowout game 4. The rest of the Eastern Conference is tied 2-2 after game 4 with no clear winners in sight.