{"id":621661,"date":"2026-02-24T10:20:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T10:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/621661\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T10:20:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T10:20:47","slug":"2026-nba-playoff-picture-who-would-be-in-bracket-if-season-ended-today-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/621661\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA playoff picture: Who would be in bracket if season ended today?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA’s postseason isn’t far away, and perhaps getting close enough to take attention away from the various league issues that took attention away from the court<\/a> in the lead-up and throughout All-Star weekend festivities.<\/p>\n

Less than two months and 30 regular-season games remain for most NBA teams, and the 2026 playoff picture is clear enough at this point to see it will be defined by a few key races in the Eastern and Western Conference standings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The Detroit Pistons<\/a> still have a comfortable lead over a trio of more established contenders for the No. 1 seed in the East, but how the Boston Celtics<\/a>, New York Knicks<\/a> and Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> shake out among the top six will be a subplot in the weeks ahead. The Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> must hold off the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> for the top seed in the West, while the Denver Nuggets<\/a>, Houston Rockets<\/a>, Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> and Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> jockey for position beneath them.<\/p>\n

There’s also a fascinating chase for the NBA’s play-in tournament<\/a>, now entering its seventh season as an addition to the league’s postseason schedule and sixth year in this current four-team format. Given how many franchises are in tank mode already this season, there aren’t many teams outside the top 10 at the moment actively trying to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Here’s a breakdown of the current NBA playoff picture, including what teams would make the postseason if the regular season ended today:<\/p>\n

1 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Washington Wizards’ Cam Whitmore dunks the ball against the Charlotte Hornets at Capital One Arena.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

3 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Brooklyn Nets’ Michael Porter Jr. dunks in front of the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama at Frost Bank Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

4 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 25: The Denver Nuggets’ Christian Braun dunks the ball against the Phoenix Suns’ Grayson Allen at Ball Arena.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

5 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 24: The Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. dunks against the Miami Heat at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

6 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 24: The Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo dunks over the Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

7 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 22: The New York Knicks’ OG Anunoby goes up for a reverse dunk against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

8 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 22: The Utah Jazz’s Lauri Markkanen dunks against the Los Angeles Clippers at Delta Center.<\/p>\n

OPINION: Cade Cunningham has MVP moment at Madison Square Garden in domination of Knicks<\/a><\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

NBA playoff bracket<\/p>\n

Records and standings through games played on Sunday, Feb. 22:<\/p>\n

Eastern ConferenceWestern Conference<\/p>\n

Golden State Warriors (30-27)<\/p>\n

Portland Trail Blazers (28-30)<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Clippers (27-30)<\/p>\n

When does NBA regular season end?<\/p>\n

The final day of the regular season is Sunday, April 12.<\/p>\n

When is NBA play-in tournament?<\/p>\n

The NBA play-in tournament will begin Tuesday, April 14 and conclude Friday, April 17.<\/p>\n

How does NBA play-in tournament work?<\/p>\n

The tournament is divided into two rounds for each conference:<\/p>\n

Round 1<\/p>\n

Game 1: No. 7 seed vs. No. 8 seed<\/p>\n

Game 2: No. 9 seed vs. No. 10 seed<\/p>\n

The No. 7 and No. 9 seeds play at home in the first round. The winner of Game 1 secures the No. 7 seed in their respective conference playoff bracket. The loser of Game 1 continues to the second round and hosts the winner of Game 2. The loser of Game 2 is eliminated from playoff contention.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Round 2<\/p>\n

Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 winner<\/p>\n

The winner of this game secures the No. 8 and final seed in the playoffs. The loser is eliminated from playoff contention.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2026 NBA playoffs bracket if the season ended today<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA’s postseason isn’t far away, and perhaps getting close enough to take attention away from the various…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[208,7,75,909,473,193,187,188,164,194,135,150,189,152,6,11,1408,191,179,76,207,472,471,474,476,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-621661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-cade-cunningham","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","14":"tag-denver-nuggets","15":"tag-detroit-pistons","16":"tag-golden-state-warriors","17":"tag-houston-rockets","18":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","19":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","20":"tag-miami-heat","21":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-nba-playoffs","24":"tag-nba-teams","25":"tag-new-york-knicks","26":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","27":"tag-orlando-magic","28":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","29":"tag-phoenix-suns","30":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","31":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","32":"tag-toronto-raptors","33":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}