NBA bracket locked
The NBA regular season finished April 12 and the playoff bracket is set, so seedings and first-round matchups are locked in. Denver grabbed the No. 3 seed in the West while the Lakers finished No. 4, and the East’s top six include Toronto, Detroit, Boston, New York, Cleveland and Atlanta according to post‑season rundowns. The Play‑In field is also fixed, so teams seeded 7–10 in each conference will battle for the final two playoff spots starting in two days. ( )
The National Basketball Association playoff bracket is set after the regular season ended Sunday, April 12, with Denver taking the West’s No. 3 seed and the Los Angeles Lakers finishing No. 4. (nba.com) The locked first-round series in the West are Denver Nuggets versus Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers versus Houston Rockets, while Oklahoma City and San Antonio wait for Play-In winners. The West Play-In matchups are Phoenix Suns versus Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers versus Golden State Warriors. (nba.com) In the East, Detroit finished No. 1, Boston No. 2, New York No. 3, Cleveland No. 4, Toronto No. 5 and Atlanta No. 6. That leaves New York Knicks versus Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers versus Toronto Raptors already set for the first round. (nba.com) The East Play-In field is Orlando at No. 7, Philadelphia at No. 8, Charlotte at No. 9 and Miami at No. 10. Detroit and Boston will open against the two teams that survive those games. (espn.com) The Play-In Tournament starts Tuesday, April 14, runs through April 17, and decides the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds in each conference. The full playoffs begin Saturday, April 18, and the National Basketball Association Finals are scheduled to start June 3. (nba.com) The format gives the No. 7 and No. 8 teams two chances to qualify: the winner of the 7-versus-8 game claims the No. 7 seed, and the loser gets one more game against the winner of the 9-versus-10 game for the No. 8 seed. The No. 9 and No. 10 teams must win twice to reach the bracket. (nba.com) Sunday’s final slate settled the last unresolved seed lines, including No. 3 versus No. 4 in the West and the middle of the East bracket. Before those games, the league still had open races for West Nos. 3, 8 and 9 and East Nos. 5 through 10. (nba.com) That means the postseason picture is now down to eight fixed teams in the first round, plus eight Play-In teams fighting for the last four spots. By Tuesday night, the bracket starts moving from standings math to elimination games. (nba.com)
