Denver slips to No. 3
The Denver Nuggets clinched the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference while the Los Angeles Lakers finished No. 4 as the regular season wrapped up. (usatoday.com). In the East, the Toronto Raptors secured a playoff spot outright, meaning Toronto will not play in the play‑in tournament. (bleacherreport.com)
Denver closed the regular season at No. 3 in the Western Conference, while Los Angeles finished one game back at No. 4 and Toronto avoided the Eastern Conference play-in entirely. (nba.com) The final standings on April 12 put Denver at 53-28, the Lakers at 52-29, Houston at 51-30 and Minnesota at 48-33 in the West’s top six. (nba.com) In the East, Toronto finished 45-36 and took the No. 6 seed outright, tied in record with Orlando but clear of the play-in field that starts at No. 7. (nba.com) That matters because the National Basketball Association sends the top six teams in each conference straight to the playoffs, while teams seeded seventh through 10th go to the SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament. (nba.com) The play-in runs April 14 through April 17, and the first round of the playoffs opens April 18. (nba.com) Denver’s finish means it stays out of the play-in but loses any path to the West’s top two seeds, which went to Oklahoma City at 64-17 and San Antonio at 62-19. (nba.com) The Lakers also avoided the play-in, but the gap between third and fourth was one game, leaving Los Angeles behind Denver in the final order. (nba.com) Toronto’s result settled one of the last open races in the East after the league entered Sunday with multiple teams still alive for the No. 6 spot and an automatic berth. (nba.com) The league’s playoff tracker lists the confirmed first-round series that do not depend on the play-in, including Cleveland against Toronto in the East. (sports.yahoo.com) With the regular season over, the bracket is now split cleanly: Denver, the Lakers and Toronto are in the field, and the play-in teams have four days to fight for the last spots. (usatoday.com)
