[ChuckElias]

Joe, what BktBallRef means is that most of us here do only HS basketball. Many of do college also, and only a few of us do pro ball. And even for those here who work pro ball, we only officiate. We don't have anything to do with the schedule or keeping stats. Many of us don't know and don't care what an official "assist" is, for example.

Having said all that, I will try to give you some info to the best of my (extremely limited) knowledge. Each NBA team plays 82 games. Exactly half are played at home and half are on the road. I have no idea how the scheduler determines where each team goes while on the road. I imagine that they try to make it as simple a trip as possible. For example, I would think that if the Celtics were to travel to LA to play the Lakers, they would play the Clips, Kings, Warriors, Blazers, and Sonics during the same trip so they don't have to make several trips to the West Coast.

The league is divided into 2 conferences, East and West. The top 8 teams from each conference are eligible for the playoffs. Each conference plays 3 rounds to determine its conference champion. Then the 2 conference champions play each other to determine the league champion. Beginning this year, all the playoff series are a best-of-seven format.

As far as stats go, the main ones, I guess, are:

Pts = points scored
PPG = points per game
TO = turnovers
A = assists
FGA = field goals attempted
FG (or FGM) = field goals made
FG% = field goal percentage
FTA = Free throws attempted
FT (or FTM) = free throws made
FT% = free throw percentage
Blk = blocks
Stl = steals
Reb = rebounds
M = Minutes played
TPG = technicals per game (Portland Trailblazers only)

I hope that's enough to get you started. Good luck finding what you're looking for!

Chuck