{"id":693793,"date":"2026-04-02T11:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/693793\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:59:08","slug":"nba-playoff-bracket-where-teams-stand-if-postseason-started-today-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/693793\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA playoff bracket: Where teams stand if postseason started today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: Standings and playoff matchups have been updated below.<\/p>\n

The 2026 NBA Playoffs<\/a> are less than two weeks away, with the SoFi Play-In Tournament tipping off on April 14 and the first round officially underway on April 18. The playoff picture is rapidly taking shape, with 20 teams already locked in and the remaining seeds still up for grabs as the regular season winds down.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

With just nine games remaining, every contest carries playoff implications as teams battle for position in the standings. The Atlanta Hawks<\/a> face a pivotal matchup Wednesday, April 1, against the Orlando Magic<\/a>, a must-win if they want to hold onto a top-six spot in the Eastern Conference and avoid the Play-In Tournament altogether.<\/p>\n

The San Antonio Spurs<\/a> travel to Golden State for their fourth meeting of the season, riding the momentum of Victor Wembanyama<\/a>\u2019s historic performance, a season-high 41 points and 16 rebounds in a win against the Chicago Bulls that marked the third-fastest double-double recorded since 1997-98. San Antonio is firmly in the hunt for the top seed in the Western Conference, and with the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> sitting atop the standings, every win from here on out could prove decisive heading into the postseason.<\/p>\n

Here is the current brackets for the playoffs and the Play-In Tournament, and the NBA standings as of April 1:<\/p>\n

NBA power rankings: Thunder, Spurs stay hot, but who took the No. 1 spot?<\/a><\/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

NBA playoffs bracket<\/p>\n

(After games played on April 1)<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Western Conference<\/p>\n

(1) Oklahoma City Thunder vs. (8) Play-In Winner<\/p>\n

(2) San Antonio Spurs vs. (7) Play-In Winner<\/p>\n

(3) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (6) Minnesota Timberwolves<\/p>\n

(4) Denver Nuggets vs. (5) Houston Rockets<\/p>\n

Eastern Conference<\/p>\n

(1) Detroit Pistons vs. (8) Play-In Winner<\/p>\n

(2) Boston Celtics vs. (7) Play-In Winner<\/p>\n

(3) New York Knicks vs. (6) Philadelphia 76ers<\/p>\n

(4) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (5) Atlanta Hawks<\/p>\n

NBA Play-In Tournament<\/p>\n

(After games played on April 1)<\/p>\n

Western Conference<\/p>\n

(7) Phoenix Suns vs. (8) LA Clippers<\/p>\n

(9) Portland Trail Blazers vs. (10) Golden State Warriors<\/p>\n

Eastern Conference<\/p>\n

(7) Toronto Raptors vs. (8) Charlotte Hornets<\/p>\n

(9) Orlando Magic vs. (10) Miami Heat<\/p>\n

NBA standings<\/p>\n

All 20 teams \u2013 10 in each conference \u2013 that will participate in the postseason have been determined. Here are their records as of Wednesday, April 1, and what each of those teams have clinched so far:<\/p>\n

Western Conference<\/p>\n

(1) Oklahoma City Thunder: 60-16<\/p>\n

(2) San Antonio Spurs: 58-18<\/p>\n

(3) Los Angeles Lakers: 50-26<\/p>\n

(4) Denver Nuggets: 49-28<\/p>\n

(5) Houston Rockets: 47-29<\/p>\n

(6) Minnesota Timberwolves: 46-29<\/p>\n

Eastern Conference<\/p>\n

(1) Detroit Pistons: 55-21<\/p>\n

(2) Boston Celtics: 51-25<\/p>\n

(3) New York Knicks: 49-28<\/p>\n

(4) Cleveland Cavaliers: 47-29<\/p>\n

(6) Philadelphia 76ers: 42-34<\/p>\n

When do the NBA playoffs begin?<\/p>\n

The NBA Play-In Tournament begins on Tuesday, April 14 and runs through Friday, April 17.<\/p>\n

The NBA playoffs start Saturday, April 18 and feature eight teams in each conference after teams are eliminated in the Play-In Tournament.<\/p>\n

Game 1 of the NBA Finals scheduled for Wednesday, June 3.<\/p>\n

Which NBA teams have been eliminated from the playoffs?Eastern ConferenceWestern Conference<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA playoff bracket: Where teams stand in final stretch of season<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor’s note: Standings and playoff matchups have been updated below. The 2026 NBA Playoffs are less than two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[208,7,75,247,473,329,193,149,187,188,1409,479,194,126,192,150,177,189,121,152,6,11,2550,470,191,179,76,207,472,471,477,969,474,476,427,693,468,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-693793","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-brooklyn-nets","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-chicago-bulls","14":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","15":"tag-dallas-mavericks","16":"tag-denver-nuggets","17":"tag-detroit-pistons","18":"tag-eastern-conference","19":"tag-golden-state","20":"tag-houston-rockets","21":"tag-indiana-pacers","22":"tag-la-clippers","23":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","24":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","25":"tag-miami-heat","26":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","27":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","28":"tag-nba","29":"tag-nba-playoffs","30":"tag-nba-standings","31":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","32":"tag-new-york-knicks","33":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","34":"tag-orlando-magic","35":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","36":"tag-phoenix-suns","37":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","38":"tag-sacramento-kings","39":"tag-san-antonio","40":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","41":"tag-toronto-raptors","42":"tag-utah-jazz","43":"tag-victor-wembanyama","44":"tag-washington-wizards","45":"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\/693793","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=693793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}