The British Basketball League 2016/17 play-offs is upon us. The dust has settled and now we’re into the post-season where careers are defined.

Each team has played 33 regular season games all leading up to this moment.

The rules

The eight teams with the most wins in the league make the play-offs and turned into seeds. The top seed (the team that won the most games) face the eighth seed (the team that won the least amount of games that made the playoffs).

Second faces seventh, third against sixth and fourth will play fifth. These are the quarter-finals and will determine who advances.

The quarter-finals and semi-finals are played over two legs, different to a best-of-seven series that the NBA employs. An aggregate score is taken over the two games to determine who advances.

The play-off final is then played at The O2 Arena and is just over a single leg, a winner-takes-all scenario.

Who made the play-offs?

Leicester Riders finished as the top seed with a 27-6 record and will face Surrey Scorchers who recorded a 15-18 record, just one win more than 9th placed Plymouth Raiders.

Second seed Newcastle Raiders (23-10) play Bristol Flyers (16-17), Glasgow Rocks (21-12) face London Lions (18-15) while Worcester Wolves and Sheffield Sharks will play each other, after they both finished with a 20-13 record.

Who should I look out for?

Rahmon Fletcher of Newcastle recorded the highest points-per-game (20.5) and the highest assists-per-game (6.7) numbers of any player in the play-offs this year and will certainly be one to watch. He was named BBL Cup Final MVP so he relishes the big occasions.

Big man Rashad Hassan of London finished just behind Fletcher in terms of PPG (19.7) and also grabbed more rebounds than any player in the regular season.

While Worcester forward Maurice Walker finished fifth in the league’s total PPG (18.9) but led the league in terms of rebounds-per-game (9.1) and is truly dominant around the glass.

Where can I watch?

Tonight’s Leicester vs Surrey game can be seen on the BBC Sport website, while the semi-finals will also be shown there along with the BBL and WBBL play-off finals.

Tickets are available on each club’s website for the games.

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About the author
Jack Mceachen
Sports Journalist in Staffordshire University.