Play‑in looms in NBA
The regular season is finishing tight: teams in positions 1–6 would be safe from the play‑in if the season ended now, but seeding is still fluid and the play‑in tournament begins next week. The first playoff round is scheduled to start Saturday, April 18, and the Finals are set to begin June 3 (potentially running through June 17 depending on series length). (sportingnews.com)(usatoday.com)(northjersey.com)
With three days left in the regular season, the line between a guaranteed playoff spot and a sudden-death detour is still moving in both conferences. The National Basketball Association’s play-in tournament starts Tuesday, April 14, and runs through Friday, April 17. (nba.com) The cutoff is simple but brutal: teams that finish first through sixth in each conference go straight to the first round, while teams that finish seventh through tenth have to survive the play-in for the last two spots. The first round then opens Saturday, April 18. (nba.com) The play-in works like a step ladder with a trap door. The seventh-place team hosts the eighth-place team for the No. 7 seed, and the ninth-place team hosts the tenth-place team in an elimination game; the loser of 7-versus-8 then gets one more chance against the winner of 9-versus-10 for the No. 8 seed. (usatoday.com) That makes sixth place the safest address in basketball this week. Finish sixth and you get a full best-of-seven series; finish seventh and one bad night can turn an 82-game season into a scramble. (nba.com) In the Eastern Conference, the top four are already set on the board shown by ESPN: Detroit is first at 58-22, Boston is second at 54-25, New York is third at 51-28, and Cleveland is fourth at 51-29. The real squeeze is below them, where Atlanta at 45-35 and Toronto at 44-35 are holding the last two safe spots, with Orlando at 44-36, Philadelphia at 43-36, Charlotte at 43-37, and Miami at 41-38 still packed close behind. (espn.com) The Western Conference is even messier around the line. Oklahoma City is first at 64-16 and San Antonio is second at 61-19, but the gap from third-place Denver at 52-28 to seventh-place Phoenix at 44-36 runs through four teams, with the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston both 50-29, Minnesota 47-33, and Phoenix still trying to climb out of the play-in. (espn.com) The teams under Phoenix are close enough to turn one weekend into chaos. The Los Angeles Clippers are 41-39 in eighth, Portland is 40-40 in ninth, and Golden State is 37-42 in tenth, which means every win or loss on Friday, April 10, and through the Sunday finish can redraw who gets home court in the play-in and who gets knocked out of it. (espn.com) (usatoday.com) If teams finish tied, the National Basketball Association does not flip a coin first. It starts with head-to-head record, then checks division-winner status, then division record if the tied teams share a division, and then conference record, which is why one April game against a direct rival can quietly decide a seed days later. (nba.com) The calendar after that is already locked in. The regular season ends Sunday, April 12, the National Basketball Association Finals begin Wednesday, June 3, and if the series goes the distance, Game 7 is scheduled for Wednesday, June 17. (nba.com)
