at the end of every nba regular season, the nba playoffs begin. 8 teams from each, the western, and the eastern conference are assigned a seed 1-8. home court advantage is always determined by seed; higher seed=home court advantage. in the first round of the playoffs, the 1 seed plays the 8 seed;2 plays 7; 3 plays 6; 4 plays 5. all playoff rounds are best-of-7 series, meaning the first team to win 4 games moves on to the next round. since 2014 every round follows a 2-2-1-1-1 format. the higher seeded team will have home games 1, 2, 5, and 7. the lower seed is home in games 3, 4, and 6.