NBA: Play‑In Is Imminent
With the regular season winding down, the NBA’s play‑in tournament is less than a week away — teams finishing 7th through 10th in each conference meet beginning Tuesday for the last two playoff berths. (sports.yahoo.com) (sportingnews.com). The first round of the playoffs is set to begin Saturday, April 18, and the Finals are scheduled to start June 3 (with the series able to run through June 17), so every remaining seeding game now matters. (northjersey.com).
The National Basketball Association regular season ends on Sunday, April 12, and the play-in starts two days later on Tuesday, April 14, so teams on the edge of the bracket have almost no room left for mistakes. The first round follows immediately on Saturday, April 18. (nba.com) The play-in is a four-team scramble in each conference for the last two playoff spots. Teams that finish seventh and eighth get two chances to qualify, while teams that finish ninth and tenth have to survive sudden-death games. (nba.com) Here is the bracket in plain English: the seventh-place team hosts the eighth-place team, and the winner becomes the No. 7 seed. The ninth-place team hosts the tenth-place team, and the loser is eliminated that night. (nba.com) Then the loser of the 7-versus-8 game gets one more home game against the winner of the 9-versus-10 game. The winner of that final play-in game becomes the No. 8 seed, and the loser goes home. (nba.com) As of Friday, April 10, the Eastern Conference play-in line shows Orlando seventh at 44-36, Philadelphia eighth at 43-37, Charlotte ninth at 43-37, and Miami tenth at 41-39. That leaves Orlando and Philadelphia fighting for the safer side of the bracket, because seventh or eighth means you can lose once and still stay alive. (nba.com) The Western Conference is just as tight: Phoenix is seventh at 44-36, the Los Angeles Clippers are eighth at 41-39, Portland is ninth at 40-40, and Golden State is tenth at 37-43. Phoenix and the Clippers currently hold the two spots with a safety net, while Portland and Golden State would enter with no margin for error. (nba.com) The teams above them are not settled either, which is why the last weekend matters even for clubs already in the postseason picture. On the West side, the Lakers and Rockets are both 51-29 for fourth and fifth, and Denver is 52-28 in third, so home-court matchups are still moving. (nba.com) The East has movement higher up too, with Boston at 54-26 in second, New York at 52-28 in third, Cleveland at 51-29 in fourth, Toronto at 45-35 in fifth, and Atlanta at 45-35 in sixth. A one-game swing on Friday or Sunday can still change who gets a direct playoff berth and who opens on the road. (nba.com) Friday’s schedule is packed with games that hit the play-in race directly, including Miami at Washington, Orlando at Chicago, Philadelphia at Indiana, Golden State at Sacramento, the Clippers at Portland, and Phoenix at the Lakers. Sunday, April 12 closes the regular season with all 30 teams in action. (nba.com) Once the bracket is set, the calendar speeds up fast: the play-in runs April 14 through April 17, the playoffs open April 18, and the Finals begin on June 3 on American Broadcasting Company television. If the championship goes the distance, Game 7 is scheduled for June 19. (nba.com)
