Chicago Bulls playoff tickets go on sale to the general public this Saturday.

Bulls newsletter subscribers have the option to purchase their playoff tickets starting today.

If you're wondering which game to purchase tickets for, I'm here to offer some suggestions, and to briefly explain how the NBA playoffs are configured.

Since the playoffs are not yet determined, fans are basically purchasing tickets to an unknown game. In other words, nobody knows who the Bulls will play, and what time they will play.

Here is the basic format for purchasing playoff tickets for the first and second rounds:

Playoff series breakdown

Every round is a seven game series. Out of those seven games, the team with home-court advantage will have four home games, and the other team will have only three home games. However, seven games are not guaranteed, since it only takes four victories to win the series. A team could win the series with four straight wins, requiring only four games.

Playoff tickets are always sold for the maximum amount of possible home games, which is four.

Playoff series formats

Each playoff series (not including the Finals) are played in this format: 2-2-1-1-1. (The Finals are played in 2-3-2 format.) These numbers indicate each team's home-court games. The team with home-court advantage will receive four of the home games, as opposed to three.

For example, if Team A is playing Team B in the first round, here's where each game will be played:

• Game 1: Team A @ Team B
• Game 2: Team A @ Team B
• Game 3: Team B @ Team A
• Game 4: Team B @ Team A
• Game 5: Team A @ Team B
• Game 6: Team B @ Team A
• Game 7: Team A @ Team B

In this example, Team B has the home-court advantage, and are awarded four possible home games.

Purchasing your playoff tickets

How does all this tie-in with purchasing playoff tickets?

Since we don't know yet how any team will finish, it is impossible to judge how many home-court games your team will be awarded. (Remember, teams with home-court advantage get four home games, and the other team gets three.)

However, we do know some things:

Judging by the format (2-2-1-1-1), your team is guaranteed at least two home games. If you don't want to take any risks, and absolutely must see a playoff game, your best bet is to purchase Game A or Game B.

The only drawback to purchasing the early games is that you might miss some late-series drama (exciting finishes, etc). If you'd rather gamble on a better game, later in the series, purchase Game C or Game D, but realize these games are not guaranteed to be played.

If you're kind of in-between, ie: definitely want to see a game, but would like to see a better game, I think the best bet is Game C. There's a possibility that Game C may not be played, but only if your team loses four straight. If you think they can get at least one win, during the first four games, then Game C is guaranteed. And since it's later in the series, it might be a better game.