Playoff bracket set

The 2026 National Basketball Association playoff bracket is fully set, with all 16 teams locked into eight first-round series after the play-in tournament ended Friday, April 17. (nba.com) The first round began Saturday, April 18, and every series is best-of-seven. In the East, the matchups are Detroit Pistons-Orlando Magic, Boston Celtics-Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks-Atlanta Hawks, and Cleveland Cavaliers-Toronto Raptors. (nba.com) In the West, the bracket opened with Oklahoma City Thunder-Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs-Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets-Minnesota Timberwolves, and Los Angeles Lakers-Houston Rockets. Oklahoma City finished the regular season 64-18, Detroit 60-22, and San Antonio 62-20 to claim the top three conference seeds named on the official bracket pages. (nba.com) The last two spots were decided in the SoFi play-in tournament, which ran April 14-17 and determines the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds in each conference. NBA.com’s recap said Orlando won the East’s final berth and Phoenix took the West’s last spot to complete the field. (nba.com) That left Philadelphia as the East’s No. 7 seed and Portland as the West’s No. 7 seed, with Orlando and Phoenix entering as No. 8 seeds. The setup keeps the play-in separate from the main bracket: six single games first, then four rounds of best-of-seven series. (nba.com) This postseason is also the first under the league’s new television arrangement for playoff games. First-round broadcasts are split across ESPN and ABC, NBC and Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video, replacing the old postseason pattern built around Turner Sports. (sportingnews.com) The schedule already shows that mix in practice. NBA.com listed Game 2 of Cavaliers-Raptors for Monday, April 20 on Peacock and NBC Sports Network, while ESPN’s playoff hub said the Finals are scheduled to begin June 3 on ABC. (nba.com, espn.com) The bracket now moves into the usual two-month march: first round, conference semifinals, conference finals, then the NBA Finals in June. For now, the only certainty is the field — eight series are live, and the road to the Larry O’Brien Trophy is underway. (nba.com)