Scoring

• 1 point for every game you pick right. Wrong pick = 0.
• A Stone Cold Lock that comes in is worth 3; one that misses costs you 1.
• Bonus questions add points on top.
• Miss a deadline and you get 0 for those games — same as picking wrong.
• Ties break on total correct picks, then alphabetically.

The monthly lock

• Picks run a calendar month at a time, not week by week.
• A month locks at the tipoff of its first game. Everything in that month is then fixed — including games at the end of the month.
• So you are committing the whole month before a ball is bounced in it. Later months stay open, so you can pick as far ahead as you like.
• Nobody's picks are visible until their month locks.

Stone Cold Locks

• You get 5 for the whole season. Pick a game, then hit the 🔒 to make it a lock.
• Right = 3 points instead of 1. Wrong = −1. They are meant to hurt.
• Move them around as much as you like until the season starts. After that both the lock and the pick underneath it are frozen — even for a game in April.
• You do not have to use all five. Unspent locks are simply wasted.
• Warm-up games can't be locked.

Streaks

A run banks each milestone as it passes it, so an unbroken fifteen is worth all three. Each one pays once per run — break the streak and the next run can earn them again. A game you didn't pick ends the run.

Warm-Up Round

• The preseason games are a practice round — scored and shown, but kept out of the season standings.

Bonus questions

• Bonus questions, each with its own deadline and its own points.
• Most are pick one. Some are pick several — the starting five, say — where getting all of them right pays full and getting all but one pays a consolation.
• A few are closest guess, like where the Jazz finish in the West: exactly right pays most, one or two places out still pays something.
• Each question spells out its own scoring on the card.
• Points land in your season total as soon as the answer is known.

Fine print

• The NBA has only scheduled 80 of the 82 games. Two more get added in December once the Cup bracket is set. They arrive after December has already locked, so they get a catch-up window of their own — you will not be scored on games nobody had a chance to pick.
• Final scores update on their own a few hours after each game.
• Everyone's picks stay hidden until their month locks.
• The commissioners (Bill and Adam) can reopen a month or fix a mistake.