Play‑in: Magic and Suns advance
Orlando beat Charlotte with Paolo Banchero scoring 25 points to clinch a playoff berth, and Phoenix beat Golden State 111–96 with Jalen Green scoring 36 to grab the West’s No. 8 seed. (nytimes.com)(espn.com) Those results set first‑round matchups: Orlando will face East No.1 Detroit and Phoenix draws West No.1 Oklahoma City. (nytimes.com)
Orlando and Phoenix grabbed the National Basketball Association’s last two playoff spots Friday night, closing the play-in tournament and locking in the full first-round bracket. (nba.com) The Magic beat the Charlotte Hornets to secure the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed, with Paolo Banchero scoring 25 points. The Suns then beat the Golden State Warriors 111-96 for the Western Conference’s No. 8 seed, behind 36 points and eight 3-pointers from Jalen Green. (nba.com) (espn.com) Those wins set two first-round matchups that start the 2026 playoffs: Orlando will face the top-seeded Detroit Pistons in the East, and Phoenix will face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the West. The playoffs begin Saturday, April 18, after the play-in ran from April 14 through April 17. (espn.com) (nba.com) The play-in is the National Basketball Association’s four-team mini-tournament for seeds seven through 10 in each conference. Teams that finish seventh and eighth get two chances to make the playoffs, while teams that finish ninth and 10th have to win twice to get in. (nba.com) Orlando entered as the East’s No. 8 regular-season finisher at 45-37, one spot ahead of Charlotte at 44-38. Phoenix finished the regular season 45-37 and eighth in the West, while Golden State was 10th at 37-45. (espn.com) The top of both conferences shifted enough this season to make these pairings look unusual by recent standards. Detroit finished 60-22 for the East’s best record, and Oklahoma City led the West at 64-18. (espn.com) Friday’s results also ended Golden State’s season on the spot, which is how the final play-in game works: win and take the No. 8 seed, lose and go home. Charlotte was eliminated under the same format in the East game earlier in the night. (nba.com) (sports.yahoo.com) The bracket is now complete, and the margin for error is gone. Orlando opens against a 60-win Detroit team, and Phoenix gets a Thunder team that finished with the league’s best point differential at plus-11.1 per game. (espn.com)
