With their win over the New Orleans Pelicans last night and the Los Angeles Clippers losing, the Portland Trail Blazers have now jumped ahead of the Clippers for the eighth seed in the Western Conference as the 2026 postseason looms.
With just four games remaining in their season, Portland (40-38) now holds a slim 0.5 game lead over the Clippers (39-38) who have five contests to go.
Blazers’ Remaining Games:
Clippers’ Remaining Games:
This matters a lot as under the NBA’s play-in rules, the 7th- and 8th-seeded teams can lose their first play-in game and still make the playoffs by winning their second game (or simply win their first), while the 9th- and 10th-seeded teams need to win both of their games to make it (and cannot afford a loss).
The conference seeding implications of the Blazers and Clippers ending the season with identical records is also kind of fun to think through:
All of this means IF the Blazers beat the Clippers on Fri. April 10 and IF both teams end the season tied, the Blazers get the 8th spot.
If the Blazers LOSE that game and both teams end the season tied, the Clippers get the 8th spot, and Portland falls to 9th.
All of this assumes the Golden State Warriors (36-41 and 3.5 games behind Portland) don’t win out and the Blazers don’t lose out, because – while exceedingly unlikely – it’s still mathematically possible for Portland to finish lower than 9th