NBA playoff picture tightens
With one day left in the regular season the Eastern Conference’s top four seeds are locked but the Western Conference is still scrambling for the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, so every final game matters for seeding and potential playoff matchups. (sports.yahoo.com) The Play‑In Tournament kicks off Tuesday for teams finishing 7–10 in each conference, and the full playoffs are scheduled to begin April 18 — so the next week will decide who gets the easier routes. (sports.yahoo.com)
The regular season ends Sunday, April 12, but the Western Conference still has a live fight over the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, which is the difference between opening at home and drawing a different side of the bracket. The Eastern Conference is calmer at the top, where Detroit, Boston, New York, and Cleveland have already locked the first four spots. (nba.com) (sports.yahoo.com) If the standings froze now, the West would line up with Oklahoma City first, San Antonio second, Denver third, and the Los Angeles Lakers fourth. That leaves Denver and the Lakers staring at one last day where a single win or loss can flip who gets the higher seed. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2) That race matters because the first round opponent changes with it. The current West bracket has Denver lined up with Minnesota at No. 6 and the Lakers lined up with Houston at No. 5, so the No. 3 and No. 4 lines are not just cosmetic. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2) The middle of the West is messy too, but in a different way. Phoenix is sitting seventh, Portland eighth, the Los Angeles Clippers ninth, and Golden State tenth, which means two of those four teams will have to survive the Play-In Tournament just to reach the real bracket. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2) The Play-In Tournament works like a step ladder with one safety net. The team that finishes seventh hosts the team that finishes eighth for one playoff berth, while the ninth-place team hosts the 10th-place team in an elimination game, and the winner of that then plays the loser of the 7-versus-8 game for the last spot. (nba.com) (nba.com) That setup is why Sunday’s games still feel like playoff games before the playoffs start. Finishing seventh instead of eighth gives a team two chances to win one game, while finishing ninth or 10th means one bad night ends the season immediately. (nba.com) (nba.com) The East has less suspense at the top but still has movement near the cut line. Detroit is first, Boston second, New York third, Cleveland fourth, Atlanta fifth, Toronto sixth, Orlando seventh, Philadelphia eighth, Charlotte ninth, and Miami tenth in the current picture. (nba.com) (nba.com) That means the East already knows its basic split. Atlanta and Toronto are on track to skip the Play-In Tournament entirely as the fifth and sixth seeds, while Orlando, Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Miami are headed for the four-team scramble on April 14 through April 17. (nba.com) (nba.com) The calendar gets tight from here. Sunday, April 12 is the last day of the 82-game regular season, the SoFi Play-In Tournament runs April 14 through April 17, and the first round of the National Basketball Association playoffs begins Saturday, April 18. (nba.com) (nba.com) So the league is down to its last sorting step. By the end of Sunday night, the bracket will stop being a moving target and start being a map, with Denver, the Lakers, Phoenix, Portland, the Clippers, and Golden State all still playing for where that path begins. (sports.yahoo.com) (nba.com)
