{"id":686663,"date":"2026-03-29T20:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T20:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/686663\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T20:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T20:39:19","slug":"2026-nba-playoffs-clinching-scenarios-and-standings-on-march-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/686663\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA Playoffs: Clinching scenarios and standings on March 29"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With two weeks left to play in the 2025-26 regular season, teams are in the midst of heated battles in the standings ahead of the start of the NBA playoffs on April 18.<\/p>\n<p>The top six teams in each conference will earn an outright playoff berth at the conclusion of the regular season. The next four teams will compete in the play-in tournament on April 14-17 for the last two seeds in each conference, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>After 10 teams were eliminated from postseason contention, 20 remain alive for either a playoff berth or a spot in the play-in tournament. The action is set to heat up as teams battle for positioning in the standings down the stretch.<\/p>\n<p>Nine games are scheduled for Sunday, with several key matchups and a couple of clinching scenarios to monitor throughout the evening around the league.<\/p>\n<p>What are the matchups on Sunday?Playoff PictureWhich teams have clinched a playoff berth?<\/p>\n<p>Western Conference:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Oklahoma City Thunder (58-16)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">San Antonio Spurs (56-18)<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Which teams have been eliminated from postseason contention?<\/p>\n<p>Western Conference:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Memphis Grizzlies (25-49)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">New Orleans Pelicans (25-50)<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Washington Wizards (17-56)<\/p>\n<p>Western Conference Scenarios<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Warriors are locked into the play-in tournament with a loss or a win by the Rockets<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Trail Blazers are locked into the play-in tournament with a loss or a win by the Rockets<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Conference Scenarios<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Celtics can clinch a playoff berth with a win or a loss by the Raptors or a win by the Knicks<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Knicks can clinch a playoff berth with a win<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Rookie Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/therookiewire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rookie\/2026\/03\/29\/2026-nba-playoffs-clinching-scenarios-standings-march-29\/89376903007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:2026 NBA Playoffs: Clinching scenarios and standings on March 29;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;2026 NBA Playoffs&quot;}\" class=\"link \">2026 NBA Playoffs: Clinching scenarios and standings on March 29<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With two weeks left to play in the 2025-26 regular season, teams are in the midst of heated&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,247,46,329,149,188,1409,996,126,304,177,121,6,11,2550,470,179,2551,2552,681,211,477,474,427,468,574],"class_list":["post-686663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-playoffs","tag-basketball","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-celtics","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-eastern-conference","tag-gsw","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-knicks","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-standings","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-playoff-berth","tag-postseason-contention","tag-raptors","tag-rockets","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-utah-jazz","tag-washington-wizards","tag-western-conference"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116314397994297998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686663","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=686663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}