{"id":693592,"date":"2026-04-02T09:43:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/693592\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T09:43:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:43:39","slug":"2026-nba-playoffs-clinching-scenarios-and-standings-on-april-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/693592\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA Playoffs: Clinching scenarios and standings on April 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<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>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 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>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>Western Conference:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Oklahoma City Thunder (60-16)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">San Antonio Spurs (57-18)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Los Angeles Lakers (50-26)<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Which teams have been eliminated from postseason contention?<\/p>\n<p>Western Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Memphis Grizzlies (25-50)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">New Orleans Pelicans (25-51)<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Washington Wizards (17-58)<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Conference Scenarios<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Cavaliers can clinch a playoff berth with a loss by the Sixers<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Rookie Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/therookiewire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rookie\/2026\/04\/01\/2026-nba-playoffs-clinching-scenarios-standings-april-1\/89420191007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:2026 NBA Playoffs: Clinching scenarios and standings on April 1;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 April 1<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With less than two weeks left to play in the 2025-26 regular season, teams are in the midst&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,75,247,329,149,188,1409,677,126,150,177,121,6,11,2550,470,191,302,179,2551,477,96,534,85470,427,468,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-693592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-dallas-mavericks","13":"tag-detroit-pistons","14":"tag-eastern-conference","15":"tag-hawks","16":"tag-indiana-pacers","17":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","18":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","19":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-nba-playoffs","22":"tag-nba-standings","23":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","24":"tag-new-york-knicks","25":"tag-nuggets","26":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","27":"tag-playoff-berth","28":"tag-sacramento-kings","29":"tag-sixers","30":"tag-spurs","31":"tag-teams-battle","32":"tag-utah-jazz","33":"tag-washington-wizards","34":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116334467714906197","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693592","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=693592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}