NBA seeds and play‑in set
The regular season finished with the Denver Nuggets clinching the No. 3 seed in the West and the Los Angeles Lakers landing No. 4, while Toronto clinched a playoff spot outright and avoids the play‑in. ( ) The play‑in window opens April 14–17, moving the league into the postseason’s compressed qualification phase. (sports.yahoo.com)
The National Basketball Association regular season ended Sunday with 10 of the 20 postseason seeds locked in, and the play-in field now set in both conferences. (nba.com) In the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder finished first at 64-18, the San Antonio Spurs took second at 62-20, Denver claimed third at 54-28, and the Los Angeles Lakers landed fourth at 53-29. Houston finished fifth at 52-30, and Minnesota took sixth at 49-33. (nba.com) That left four West teams in the SoFi play-in: the Phoenix Suns at No. 7, the Portland Trail Blazers at No. 8, the Los Angeles Clippers at No. 9, and the Golden State Warriors at No. 10. The bracket opens with Suns-Blazers in the 7-8 game and Clippers-Warriors in the 9-10 game. (nba.com) In the Eastern Conference, the Detroit Pistons finished first at 60-22, Boston second at 56-26, New York third at 53-29, Cleveland fourth at 52-30, Toronto fifth at 46-36, and Atlanta sixth at 46-36. Toronto avoided the play-in by beating Brooklyn, while Atlanta dropped to sixth after losing to Miami. (nba.com, bleacherreport.com) The East play-in field is Philadelphia at No. 7, Orlando at No. 8, Charlotte at No. 9, and Miami at No. 10. Philadelphia and Orlando meet for one playoff berth, and Charlotte and Miami meet in the elimination game. (nba.com) The play-in is a four-team race in each conference for the last two playoff spots. The No. 7 seed hosts the No. 8 seed, the winner gets the conference’s No. 7 playoff seed, and the loser gets one more game against the winner of the No. 9-versus-No. 10 matchup for the No. 8 seed. (nba.com) That format compresses the next four days. The play-in runs from April 14 through April 17, and the first round of the playoffs starts April 18. (nba.com) With the top six seeds now fixed, two first-round series are already set in each conference. Denver will face Minnesota and the Lakers will face Houston in the West, while New York draws Atlanta and Cleveland draws Toronto in the East. (sports.yahoo.com) The top two seeds in each conference now wait on the play-in winners. Oklahoma City and San Antonio will not know their opponents until the West bracket produces Nos. 7 and 8, and Detroit and Boston are in the same position in the East. (nba.com) The bracket is no longer hypothetical now that Sunday’s 15-game slate is complete. Starting Tuesday, every postseason game either locks in a seed or ends a season. (usatoday.com, nba.com)
