Playoff calendar locked in
The NBA postseason schedule is now concrete: the first round begins Saturday, April 18, and the NBA Finals are slated to start June 3 (with a possible run through June 17). (northjersey.com)(sports.yahoo.com)
The calendar is finally fixed, and that changes how every game over the next three days feels: the National Basketball Association regular season ends on Sunday, April 12, the Play-In Tournament runs April 14 through April 17, and the first full playoff bracket starts Saturday, April 18. (nba.com) That means teams sitting between seventh and tenth are not fighting for a normal playoff spot yet. They are fighting to survive a four-day mini-tournament that decides the last two postseason berths in each conference. (nba.com) The Play-In format is simple once you strip it down: seventh plays eighth for the No. 7 seed, ninth plays tenth to stay alive, and the loser of the 7-versus-8 game gets one more chance against the winner of the 9-versus-10 game for the No. 8 seed. (nba.com) As of Friday, April 10, the National Basketball Association’s own playoff page shows the Detroit Pistons and Oklahoma City Thunder in the No. 1 spots, while the Play-In line includes the Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Charlotte Hornets, and Miami Heat in the East and the Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers, and Golden State Warriors in the West. (nba.com) Those matchups are still fluid because every team has either one or two regular-season games left before Sunday night locks the standings. The league schedule shows a full 15-game slate on Friday, April 10, and another 15 games on Sunday, April 12. (nba.com) The fixed dates also tell you how little downtime the Play-In winners get. A team can play on Friday, April 17, grab the No. 8 seed, and then open a seven-game first-round series the very next day on Saturday, April 18. (nba.com) At the other end of the bracket, the National Basketball Association has already slotted in the Finals: Game 1 is set for June 3 on ABC, with Games 2, 3, and 4 on June 5, June 8, and June 10. (nba.com) If that series goes long, the last possible finish is Friday, June 19, because Games 5, 6, and 7 are scheduled for June 13, June 16, and June 19. So the path from the last day of the regular season on April 12 to a winner holding the trophy on June 19 is now fully mapped out. (nba.com)
