http://www.nba.com/news/realign_031117.html

  Eastern, Western conferences each to have three divisions
  NBA Approves Realignment for 2004-05 Season

  NEW YORK, Nov. 17 – The NBA Board of Governors has approved a realignment
  plan that will take effect with the start of the 2004-05 season, NBA Commi
  -ssioner David Stern announced today.

  The NBA's newest member, the Charlotte Bobcats,  will tip off its inaugural
  season as part of the Eastern Conference while the New Orleans Hornets will
  move from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference. Each conference
  will now have a total of 15 teams with three divisions of five teams.

  The newly approved divisions are:

   Eastern Conference 

  Atlantic Division: Boston Celtics, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks,
                     Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Raptors.

  Central Division: Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons,
                    Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks.

  Southeast Division: Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Bobcats, Miami Heat,
                      Orlando Magic, Washington Wizards .

   Western Conference 

  Southwest Division: Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies,
                      New Orleans Hornets, San Antonio Spurs.

  Northwest Division: Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves,
                      Portland Trail Blazers, Seattle SuperSonics, Utah Jazz.

  Pacific Division: Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers,
                    Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings.

  Under the new plan,  teams will play divisional opponents  four times each
  (two home games/two road games), conference opponents outside the division
  three or four times each  and opponents  outside the conference  two times
  each (one home game/one road game).

  The three regular season divisional winners in each conference will earn a
  playoff berth and one of the conference's top three playoff seeds based on
  regular season record. The remaining five playoff berths for each conferen
  -ce will be based on  regular season records  with no regard to divisional
  alignment.

  Home-court advantage throughout the NBA playoffs  will be based solely on
  regular season record, not playoff seeding, thus a divisional winner that
  has a higher playoff seed than an opponent will not necessarily have home
  -court advantage in the playoff series.