Nuggets grab No. 3
The NBA regular season wrapped with the Denver Nuggets clinching the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference and the Los Angeles Lakers finishing No. 4. (usatoday.com) The league announced the top six seeds in each conference are now set and the next phase is the Play‑In Tournament that will decide the final playoff spots. ( )
Denver closed the regular season with the Western Conference’s No. 3 seed after beating San Antonio on Sunday night, pushing the Lakers to No. 4. (nba.com) The Nuggets finished 54-28 and the Lakers 52-29 in the official standings posted after games on April 12. Denver’s first-round matchup is set against the No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves, while Los Angeles will face the No. 5 Houston Rockets. (nba.com) Denver clinched the spot with a 128-118 win over the Spurs in San Antonio, where Nikola Jokic scored 23 first-half points and reached his 65th game, the league threshold for major award eligibility. The Nuggets ended the regular season on a 12-game winning streak. (nba.com) The Lakers’ bracket slot held at No. 4 after the regular-season finale, leaving them without home-court advantage beyond a possible first round. The top two West seeds were already locked by the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs before Sunday’s last games. (nba.com) The National Basketball Association playoff format sends the top six teams in each conference straight to the first round. Teams that finish seventh through 10th go to the SoFi Play-In Tournament for the last two playoff spots in each conference. (nba.com) That leaves four Western teams still playing for two berths: the No. 7 Phoenix Suns, No. 8 Portland Trail Blazers, No. 9 Los Angeles Clippers and No. 10 Golden State Warriors. The Suns host the Trail Blazers on Tuesday, April 14, and the Clippers host the Warriors on Wednesday, April 15. (espn.com) The Play-In Tournament works like a double-chance bracket for the seventh and eighth seeds. The 7-8 winner becomes the No. 7 seed, and the 7-8 loser gets one more game against the winner of the 9-10 matchup for the No. 8 seed. (espn.com) The first round starts Saturday, April 18, and Denver’s series with Minnesota is already on that opening-day schedule. CBS Sports listed Nuggets-Timberwolves for 3:30 p.m. Eastern on Prime Video. (cbssports.com) By Sunday night, the league had locked all 20 postseason seeds. The only pieces left are which play-in teams survive to meet the Thunder and Spurs at the top of the West bracket. (cbssports.com)
