Playoff bracket set
The NBA regular season finished on April 12 and the playoff field is now locked — the Denver Nuggets secured the No. 3 seed in the West and the Los Angeles Lakers took No. 4. (usatoday.com) The Toronto Raptors grabbed the final guaranteed Eastern playoff spot and the Play‑In Tournament is scheduled to start Tuesday, April 14. (sports.yahoo.com)
The National Basketball Association postseason field is set after the regular season ended Sunday, with 12 teams locked into the first round and eight more headed to the Play-In Tournament. (nba.com) In the Western Conference, the Denver Nuggets finished No. 3 and will face the No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves, while the Los Angeles Lakers took No. 4 and drew the No. 5 Houston Rockets. The Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs claimed the top two seeds and will wait for Play-In winners. (nba.com) In the Eastern Conference, the Toronto Raptors avoided the Play-In and landed the No. 5 seed, setting up a first-round series against the No. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers. The Detroit Pistons earned the top seed, Boston Celtics took No. 2, New York Knicks took No. 3, and the Atlanta Hawks finished No. 6. (nba.com) The Play-In is the National Basketball Association’s four-day qualifier for the last two playoff spots in each conference. Teams seeded seventh through 10th play April 14 through April 17, with the seventh-place and eighth-place teams getting two chances to win one game. (nba.com) This year’s Western Play-In opens with the No. 7 Phoenix Suns hosting the No. 8 Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday, April 14, and the No. 9 Los Angeles Clippers hosting the No. 10 Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, April 15. In the East, the No. 9 Charlotte Hornets host the No. 10 Miami Heat on Tuesday, and the No. 7 Philadelphia 76ers host the No. 8 Orlando Magic on Wednesday. (nba.com) The winners of the 7-versus-8 games become the No. 7 seeds and move straight into the bracket. The losers get one more home game on Friday, April 17, against the winners of the 9-versus-10 elimination games for the No. 8 seeds. (nba.com) The first round starts Saturday, April 18, with Toronto at Cleveland at 1 p.m. Eastern, Atlanta at New York at 6 p.m. Eastern, and two Western Conference series still awaiting Play-In opponents. The Detroit-Boston-Oklahoma City-San Antonio side of the bracket opens Sunday, April 19. (nba.com) All four playoff rounds are best-of-seven series, and the league does not reseed teams after each round. Game 1 of the National Basketball Association Finals is scheduled for June 3. (espn.com) By late Friday night, the Play-In will fill the last four empty lines on the bracket. By Saturday afternoon, the postseason that started with 30 teams will be down to 16. (nba.com)
