New NBA Divisional Alignment

The Charlotte Bobcats will be in a new Southeast Division when the team takes the court for their inaugural season in 2004-05. The Bobcats will be joined in the division by the Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic and Washington Wizards. The new divisional alignment divides the NBA’s 30 teams into six, five-team divisions. Each conference now has a total of 15 teams with three divisions of five teams.

Under the new plan, teams will play divisional opponents four times each (two home games/two road games), conference opponents outside the division three or four times each and opponents outside the conference two times each (one home game/one road game). The three regular season divisional winners in each conference will earn a playoff berth and one of the conference’s top three playoff seeds based on regular season record. The remaining five playoff berths for each conference will be based on regular season records with no regard to divisional alignment. Home court advantage throughout the NBA playoffs will be based solely on regular season record, not playoff seeding, thus a divisional winner that has a higher playoff seed than an opponent will not necessarily have home court advantage in the playoff series.