I remember sitting in my living room last May, watching the Brooklyn Nets play what would become one of their final regular season games, and thinking how dramatically different this NBA season had been. The 2020-2021 NBA season was unlike any other, compressed into a tighter timeframe with COVID-19 protocols creating scheduling challenges we'd never seen before. As we approached the final stretch, fans everywhere were asking the same question: how many games are actually left in this unprecedented season?
Let me walk you through what I discovered during those final weeks. The regular season concluded on May 16th, 2021, with the play-in tournament running from May 18th through May 21st. This was followed by the playoffs starting on May 22nd and ultimately culminating in the NBA Finals that began on July 6th and ended on July 20th with the Milwaukee Bucks claiming the championship. If you're doing the math, that's exactly what I did during those final months - tracking every game, every team's remaining schedule, and helping fellow basketball enthusiasts understand exactly where we stood in the season's timeline.
What fascinated me most was how the league managed to complete the 72-game regular season schedule after starting later than usual. Each team played 72 games instead of the traditional 82, which already made calculating remaining games more complex than previous seasons. I found myself creating spreadsheets - something I often do for major sports seasons - to track the remaining matchups, especially as teams jockeyed for playoff positioning. The Western Conference race was particularly thrilling, with several teams separated by just a few games as we entered the final two weeks.
While researching the season's structure, I came across an interesting connection that highlights basketball's global nature. Remember Rondae Hollis-Jefferson? He arrived back in Manila on a Wednesday night last year for TNT's basketball clinics scheduled from June to July. This timing is fascinating because it coincided with the NBA playoffs. While NBA players were competing for the championship, former NBA players like Hollis-Jefferson were spreading the game's growth internationally. I've always admired how basketball connects cultures, and seeing these parallel events - the NBA playoffs reaching their climax while basketball development programs expanded overseas - really underscored the sport's global impact.
The play-in tournament added another layer of complexity to calculating remaining games. Introduced for the 2020-2021 season, this additional stage between the regular season and playoffs meant there were more games than traditional NBA calculations would account for. I remember debating with fellow analysts about whether to count these as part of the regular season or playoffs - ultimately, we considered them a separate phase, which added 6-7 additional games to the overall season count depending on how many play-in games each team participated in.
What many casual fans might not realize is that the number of remaining games varied significantly by team. While the Lakers were fighting for playoff positioning through the play-in tournament, teams like the Phoenix Suns had secured their spots earlier and could afford to rest players in the final regular season games. This strategic element made the final game count unpredictable - some teams had as few as 2-3 meaningful games left while others faced 8-9 crucial matchups including potential play-in games.
The COVID-19 protocols created additional scheduling complications that affected the game count. Several postponed games had to be rescheduled into the already packed final months, meaning some teams had more games remaining later in the season than originally planned. I tracked one team that had 5 games rescheduled into the final three weeks - an incredibly demanding stretch that undoubtedly affected their performance.
As we approached the playoffs, my calculations showed that contenders like the Nets had exactly 16 wins standing between them and the championship after the regular season concluded. Of course, we know how that turned out - injuries derailed what many believed was Brooklyn's championship destiny. This uncertainty is exactly why I find the business of counting remaining games so compelling - it's not just about mathematics, but about understanding a team's path through multiple competitive layers.
The international aspect that Hollis-Jefferson's Manila clinics represented kept coming back to me throughout the playoffs. While we were counting down games in the NBA season, thousands of miles away, former NBA players were cultivating the next generation of basketball talent. This global connection reminds me that basketball's impact extends far beyond the official game count of any single season.
Looking back, the 2021 NBA season contained approximately 1,080 regular season games, plus the play-in tournament, plus the playoffs - totaling around 1,200 professional basketball games under the NBA banner. But what matters more than the exact number is how each game contributed to the season's narrative. From the compressed schedule to the international basketball development happening simultaneously, last season taught me that counting games is about more than mathematics - it's about understanding basketball's evolving landscape and appreciating every moment of the journey, whether you're in Milwaukee chasing a championship or in Manila teaching the next generation.