NBA field locked
The NBA regular season closed with the postseason bracket set and the Play‑In Tournament due to start in two days, locking the immediate postseason picture (USA Today) (usatoday.com). In the West Denver earned the No. 3 seed while the Lakers grabbed No. 4, and the East’s six teams that avoided the Play‑In include Detroit, Boston, New York, Cleveland, Atlanta and Toronto (Yahoo Sports) (sports.yahoo.com).
The National Basketball Association playoff field is set after Sunday’s 15-game finale, with the Play-In Tournament opening Tuesday, April 14. (nba.com) Six teams in each conference bypassed the Play-In by finishing in the top six. In the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder are No. 1, the San Antonio Spurs No. 2, the Denver Nuggets No. 3, the Los Angeles Lakers No. 4, the Houston Rockets No. 5 and the Minnesota Timberwolves No. 6. (nba.com) In the East, the Detroit Pistons finished first, followed by the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks. Toronto clinched the last guaranteed playoff spot Sunday by beating Brooklyn, according to the league’s regular-season recap. (nba.com) The Play-In is the National Basketball Association’s four-team qualifier for the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds in each conference. Teams seeded seventh and eighth play for the No. 7 spot, while the loser gets one more game against the winner of the ninth-versus-10th matchup for the No. 8 spot. (nba.com) That format means four first-round series are already locked in before any Play-In games are played. New York will face Atlanta and Cleveland will face Toronto in the East, while Denver will face Minnesota and the Lakers will face Houston in the West. (sports.yahoo.com) The other four series will be filled in after the Play-In ends on Friday, April 17. Detroit and Boston are waiting on the East’s seventh and eighth seeds, and Oklahoma City and San Antonio are waiting on the West’s seventh and eighth seeds. (nba.com) The East Play-In field is Philadelphia, Orlando, Charlotte and Miami. The West Play-In field is Phoenix, Portland, the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State. (nba.com) The first round of the playoffs starts Saturday, April 18, after the league built in one off day between the end of the Play-In and the start of the bracket. The National Basketball Association lists Game 1 of the Finals for June 3. (nba.com) Sunday’s results settled several late races that had remained open into the final day, including Denver’s move into the West’s No. 3 seed and the Lakers’ hold on No. 4. USA Today reported before the games that no first-round series had been finalized entering the regular season’s last day. (usatoday.com) Now the standings are no longer shifting daily. The next games that count toward the bracket arrive Tuesday night, when the Play-In starts trimming a 20-team postseason field down to the 16 teams that will open the playoffs on April 18. (nba.com)
