{"id":693339,"date":"2026-04-02T05:45:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T05:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/693339\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T05:45:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T05:45:51","slug":"clinching-scenarios-and-standings-on-april-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/693339\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinching scenarios and standings on April 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April 1, 2026, 1:19 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">With less than 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 class=\"gnt_ar_b_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 class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">After 10 teams were eliminated from contention, the 20 bound for the postseason are locked in, either via 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 class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Nine games are scheduled for Wednesday, with several key matchups and an Eastern Conference clinching scenario to monitor throughout the evening.<\/p>\n<p>What are the matchups on Wednesday?Playoff PictureWhich teams have clinched a playoff berth?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Western Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:12|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a>Oklahoma City Thunder (60-16)San Antonio Spurs (57-18)Los Angeles Lakers (50-26)Denver Nuggets (48-28)<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Detroit Pistons (55-21)Boston Celtics (50-25)New York Knicks (48-28)Which teams have been eliminated from postseason contention?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Western Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Memphis Grizzlies (25-50)New Orleans Pelicans (25-51)Dallas Mavericks (24-52)Utah Jazz (21-55)Sacramento Kings (19-57)<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Milwaukee Bucks (30-45)Chicago Bulls (29-46)Brooklyn Nets (18-58)Washington Wizards (17-58)Indiana Pacers (17-58)Eastern Conference ScenariosThe Cavaliers can clinch a playoff berth with a loss by the Sixers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 1, 2026, 1:19 p.m. ET With less than two weeks left to play in the 2025-26 regular&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[72400,7,6,11,72761,72762,72404,73014,72444,72422,72445,72483,72526,72439,72406,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-693339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-playoffs","12":"tag-sstssportsnbarookie","13":"tag-sstsnrookie","14":"tag-tagbasketball","15":"tag-tagexclude-from-home-front","16":"tag-tagnational-sports","17":"tag-tagnba","18":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","19":"tag-tagsmg-listicle","20":"tag-tagsmg-timely","21":"tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","22":"tag-tagsports-news","23":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116333537473483189","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693339","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=693339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}