Do Basketball Games Switch Sides?

Rule 3, Section I covers the basket. A team's basket is the ring and net through which its players try to shoot the ball. The visiting team has the choice of baskets for the first half, and the basket it selects when it first enters the court becomes its basket for the first half. For a game at a neutral site, the choice belongs to the first team named in the official schedule.

Then the rule gives the switch in one sentence: the teams change baskets for the second half. All overtime periods are considered extensions of the second half.

The tie-score rule says play resumes in 2:30 without change of baskets for any of the overtime periods required. Because overtime is an extension of the second half, a team keeps the basket it had at the end of the fourth period for as long as the game lasts. The detail about the length of overtime is on the page about how many overtimes a game can have.

Between the halves there are 15 minutes, according to Rule 5, Section II. Each regulation period is 12 minutes, and the teams change baskets for the second half, which starts after the 15-minute break. The same rule gives 2:30 between the first and second periods and between the third and fourth periods in local games, and 3:30 in national TV games.

The rulebook treats the two baskets as equal. Both baskets are the same height, 10 feet above the floor, as covered on the page about the height of NBA rims, and the court is symmetrical. The rule exists to settle which team shoots at which basket, and when, and not to give anyone an advantage.

The basket is only part of how the rules start a period. Rule 6, Section I says the game, and each overtime, starts with a jump ball in the center circle. The team that gains first possession of the game puts the ball in play at its opponent's end line to begin the fourth period, and the other team puts the ball in play at its opponent's end line at the beginning of the second and third periods.

That alternation is separate from the change of baskets. Possession alternates from period to period, and the baskets change once, at the half. A team can therefore start the second period with the ball and still be defending the same basket as in the first.

All wording comes from Rule 3, Section I and Rule 5 of the official 2025-26 NBA playing rules. The page quotes the rulebook and does not describe arena practice.

The rules are reviewed each year. This page was checked against the 2025-26 edition. More basketball pages are collected on the NBA hub.