NBA: season‑final stakes
All 30 NBA teams play on April 12 as the regular season ends, and 11 teams had already clinched postseason berths going into the final day. ( ) Specific seeding notes: Boston locked up the No. 2 seed, Houston is guaranteed the No. 5 seed, and clubs such as the Lakers and Raptors still face multiple possible finishing spots that will determine first‑round matchups. ( )
The National Basketball Association regular season ends Sunday, April 12, with all 30 teams playing and 10 postseason seeds still unsettled. (nba.com) Going into the day, 11 of the 12 automatic top-six playoff spots were already claimed, and the league said the final Eastern Conference top-six berth plus Western Conference positions No. 3, No. 4, No. 8 and No. 9 remained in play. (nba.com) The schedule after Sunday moves fast: the SoFi National Basketball Association Play-In Tournament runs April 14 through April 17, and the first round of the playoffs starts April 18. (nba.com) Boston has no more movement left. The Celtics clinched the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed, while New York is locked into No. 3 and Cleveland into No. 4. (nba.com) That leaves Boston waiting on the play-in bracket, not a fixed opponent. The Celtics will face the winner of the East’s No. 7-versus-No. 8 play-in game, and Boston Herald reported the possible first-round opponents had narrowed to teams including Orlando, Philadelphia and Toronto. (nba.com, bostonherald.com) Houston’s spot is fixed too, but its matchup is not. The Rockets are locked into the No. 5 seed in the West and will open on the road against either the Los Angeles Lakers or the Denver Nuggets. (nba.com, cbssports.com) The Lakers already secured a top-four seed Friday, but they could still climb to No. 3. CBS Sports reported Los Angeles would move past Denver with a win over Utah on Sunday and a Nuggets loss to San Antonio. (cbssports.com) Toronto enters the finale with the clearest stakes in the East bubble. The Raptors can guarantee a top-six finish with a win over Brooklyn, and ESPN reported they could still rise to No. 5 if Atlanta loses to Miami and Orlando loses to Boston. (nba.com, espn.com) Atlanta, Orlando and Philadelphia are tangled up in the same race. Atlanta gets the No. 5 seed with a win, while the league said Orlando reaches No. 6 with a win plus a Toronto loss, and Philadelphia gets No. 6 with a win plus losses by both Toronto and Orlando. (espn.com, nba.com) In the West, the play-in line is nearly set but not fully ordered. Phoenix is locked into No. 7, Golden State into No. 10, and Portland can hold No. 8 with a win over Sacramento or a Los Angeles Clippers loss to Golden State. (nba.com, cbssports.com) By Sunday night, the bracket will be close to complete, but not finished. The final two playoff fields will still need the play-in tournament to decide the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds before the first round opens on April 18. (nba.com, nba.com)
