Final NBA Sunday Decider
The NBA regular season hits a true do-or-die day Sunday — every team has now played 81 of 82 games, so the final games will settle remaining seeding and matchups. This matters because while the Eastern Conference’s top four seeds are already locked, key placement and tiebreakers for several other seeds — and some Western seeding swings — still depend on the last night’s results, with the Rockets still able to finish as high as No. 3 or as low as No. 5 depending on outcomes. (usatoday.com) (rocketswire.usatoday.com)
Sunday is one of those rare National Basketball Association nights when every scoreboard changes the bracket at once: all 30 teams play, every club has only one regular-season game left, and the play-in tournament starts two days later on Tuesday, April 14. (nba.com) The cleanest part of the picture is at the top. The Oklahoma City Thunder are locked into No. 1 in the Western Conference, the San Antonio Spurs are locked into No. 2, and in the Eastern Conference the top four are already set as Detroit, Boston, New York, and Cleveland. (nba.com) Everything below that is still moving. After Friday, April 10, the National Basketball Association listed Denver as No. 3, the Los Angeles Lakers as No. 4, Houston as No. 5, and Minnesota as No. 6 in the West, with Denver at 53-28 and both Houston and Los Angeles at 51-30 after Houston lost 136-132 to Minnesota and Los Angeles beat Phoenix 101-73. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2) (espn.com) Houston is the team that makes Sunday messy. Rockets Wire laid out that the Rockets entered the final weekend able to finish No. 3, No. 4, or No. 5 because they were jammed together with Denver and the Los Angeles Lakers in a three-team race. (rocketswire.usatoday.com) That swing changes the whole first round. The National Basketball Association’s bracket after Friday had Denver lined up with Minnesota in the 3-versus-6 series and the Los Angeles Lakers lined up with Houston in the 4-versus-5 series, so one win or one loss on Sunday can flip both opponents and home court. (nba.com) The schedule is built for maximum chaos because the West closes in one window. Houston hosts Memphis, Minnesota hosts New Orleans, Denver visits San Antonio, the Los Angeles Lakers visit Utah, the Golden State Warriors visit the Los Angeles Clippers, and Sacramento visits Portland, with those Western Conference games listed for 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday, April 12. (nba.com) The play-in line is still alive too. After Friday’s games, the National Basketball Association showed Phoenix in the No. 7 game, Portland in the No. 8 game, the Los Angeles Clippers at No. 9, and Golden State at No. 10, which means Sunday can still decide who gets two chances to survive and who has to win twice just to reach the playoffs. (nba.com) The East has less drama at the top and more around the cutoff. Atlanta clinched a playoff spot and the Southeast Division title on Friday, Charlotte was locked into the play-in tournament, and Toronto, Orlando, and Philadelphia were still sorting out who lands safely in the top six and who gets pushed into the extra round. (nba.com) That is why the last day feels different from a normal season finale. Sunday does not just decide records; it decides whether a team opens on April 18 with home court, whether it has to survive the SoFi play-in tournament from April 14 through April 17, and in Houston’s case whether a 51-win season starts from No. 3, No. 4, or No. 5. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2)
