NBA Playoff Bracket Pool for 2026-27 — free for friends
Sixteen teams and a best-of-seven series in every round. An NBA playoff bracket pool has your group call every series before the first round tips off, then watch the points stack up by round. It opens on Sportpoolz before the play-in, free and with no money involved.
Free forever — no credit card, no money changing hands.
How an NBA playoff bracket pool works
The playoff field is sixteen teams, eight from the East and eight from the West, and every round is a best-of-seven series. Before the first round starts, you fill out the whole bracket: the winner of each first-round series, who wins each matchup that creates, and so on through the conference finals to the champion. You can also call how many games each series takes.
The play-in decides the last four places in the field, and it is neither picked nor scored — the bracket starts with the sixteen teams it produces. Brackets lock when the first round tips off, and from then on the standings move with every series that ends.
How it scores
- Points by round: by default a correct series is worth 1 point in the first round, 2 in the conference semifinals, 4 in the conference finals and 8 in the Finals, so late rounds carry the pool.
- Series length: the manager can add a bonus for calling how many games a series goes.
- Tiebreaker: your guess at the total points scored in the final game.
- Membership: the usual cap of 2 to 30 members, set by the manager.
Key dates for the 2026-27 playoffs
- Playoff bracket pools open on Sportpoolz: Saturday, April 10, 2027
- Regular season ends: Sunday, April 11, 2027
- Play-in games: April 13–16, 2027
- Playoffs begin: Saturday, April 17, 2027
Pools open first, so your group is assembled before the play-in. Brackets lock at the first first-round tip-off.
A sample bracket, scored
- First round: you get six of the eight series right — 6 points.
- Conference semifinals: three of four right — 6 more.
- Conference finals: one of two — 4 more.
- Finals: your champion from April wins it all — 8 more, for 24 in total.
A friend who nailed all eight first-round series but lost their champion in the second round can finish well behind you. Calling the late rounds is where a bracket is won.
Common questions
Do I pick the play-in games?
No. The play-in decides the seventh and eighth seeds in each conference and is not part of the bracket. You pick from the sixteen-team field once it is set.
How is a series bracket different from a playoff ranking pool?
A bracket asks who beats whom in every series, so an early upset can knock out a team you had going deep. A ranking pool asks you to order the playoff teams once and pays for every game they win, with no matchups to predict.
Be ready the day it opens
Sportpoolz is free. Create your account now, and starting your pool takes a couple of minutes once it opens.