How the NBL Season and Finals Work: Ladder, Play-In and Grand Final
A plain-English guide to the NBL season: how the ladder is ranked, who makes the finals, how the play-in works, and how the semi-finals and best-of-five Grand Final series are decided.
Updated
The National Basketball League (NBL) is Australia's top professional basketball competition. Ten clubs, nine in Australia and one in New Zealand, play a home-and-away regular season from late September to around February, and the best teams then go through a finals series that ends with a Grand Final in March. If you have just started following the league, this is how it all fits together.
The regular season
Every club plays the same number of regular-season games, split evenly between home and away, but not every team plays every other team the same number of times. Games are grouped into numbered rounds, and most rounds have games spread from Thursday to Sunday. You can see every game by round on the NBL schedule and results page, or subscribe to the fixture in your own calendar app.
Before the season proper, clubs play preseason games, including the NBL Blitz tournament. Those games do not count towards the ladder. In recent seasons the league has also run the Ignite Cup, an in-season tournament that uses selected regular-season games, so some games carry extra stakes on top of their ladder value.
How the NBL ladder is ranked
Teams are ranked by wins and losses. There are no draws in basketball (tied games go to five-minute overtime periods until someone wins), and there are no competition points, so the ladder is simply a race for the best record.
- Win percentage decides the order. Early in the season, when teams have played different numbers of games, this is the fairest comparison.
- Percentage is points scored divided by points conceded, multiplied by 100. A team above 100 has scored more than it has allowed. It is the most visible way of separating teams on the same record.
- Tiebreakers. Under the league's rules, results between the tied teams are considered first when separating clubs on the same record, so a head-to-head win can be worth more than a big percentage.
The live NBL ladder on this site updates after every final siren and shows each team's home and away record, streak, recent form and remaining schedule difficulty. (It orders tied teams by percentage, so the official order can differ when a head-to-head tiebreaker applies.)
Who makes the NBL finals?
In the format the league has used in recent seasons, the top six teams on the ladder qualify for finals basketball, and the top two are rewarded with a direct path to the semi-finals. The teams finishing third to sixth go through a play-in tournament to decide the last two semi-final places. The league occasionally adjusts the format, so check the official announcement for the current season.
The play-in tournament
- 3rd vs 4th: the winner goes straight through to the semi-finals. The loser gets a second chance.
- 5th vs 6th: a knockout game. The loser's season is over.
- Loser of 3v4 vs winner of 5v6: the winner takes the final semi-final spot.
That structure makes finishing third or fourth valuable (two chances to advance) and finishing in the top two even more so (a week of rest while the others fight it out).
Semi-finals
The four remaining teams meet in two best-of-three semi-final series. The minor premier plays the lowest-ranked survivor of the play-in, and second plays the other. Higher-ranked teams get home-court advantage, including hosting a deciding third game.
The Grand Final series
The two semi-final winners meet in a best-of-five Grand Final series. The first team to three wins is crowned NBL champion. Recent series have often gone the full distance: Tasmania won the 2023–24 title in a deciding fifth game, and Illawarra did the same in 2024–25.
Key terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Minor premiers | The team that finishes top of the ladder after the regular season. |
| Champions | The team that wins the Grand Final series. Finishing top of the ladder does not guarantee the title. |
| Run home | A team's remaining regular-season fixtures. The ladder page rates each run home by the current record of the opponents still to play. |
| Differential | Points scored minus points conceded across the season. |
Follow the race
The quickest way to keep track is the ladder, which charts every team's position round by round, plus each team page for results, fixtures and form. For individual players, the NBL stat leaders page ranks the league in every category.
Frequently asked questions
How many teams make the NBL finals?
In the format used in recent seasons, six teams qualify. The top two go straight to the semi-finals and the teams finishing third to sixth play a play-in tournament for the other two semi-final spots.
Is the NBL Grand Final a single game?
No. The NBL Grand Final is a best-of-five series. The first team to win three games is the champion.
How is the NBL ladder calculated?
Teams are ranked by win percentage. There are no draws and no competition points. Percentage (points for divided by points against, times 100) and head-to-head results are used to separate teams on the same record.
When does the NBL season start and finish?
Preseason games, including the NBL Blitz, are played in September. The regular season usually starts in late September and runs to around February, with the finals and Grand Final series in February and March.