{"id":700085,"date":"2026-04-05T19:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700085\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T19:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:24:15","slug":"clinching-scenarios-and-standings-on-april-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700085\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinching scenarios and standings on April 5"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April 5, 2026, 1:27 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">With one week remaining 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\">Eleven games are scheduled for Sunday in the NBA, with several key matchups and a couple of Western Conference clinching scenarios to monitor throughout the evening.<\/p>\n<p>What are the matchups on Sunday?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 (61-16)San Antonio Spurs (59-19)Los Angeles Lakers (50-27)Denver Nuggets (50-28)Houston Rockets (48-29)<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Detroit Pistons (57-21)Boston Celtics (52-25)New York Knicks (50-28)Cleveland Cavaliers (48-29)Which teams have been eliminated from postseason contention?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Western Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Memphis Grizzlies (25-52)New Orleans Pelicans (25-53)Dallas Mavericks (24-53)Sacramento Kings (21-57)Utah Jazz (21-57)<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Milwaukee Bucks (30-47)Chicago Bulls (29-48)Indiana Pacers (18-59)Brooklyn Nets (18-59)Washington Wizards (17-60)Western Conference ScenariosThe Timberwolves can clinch a playoff berth with a win and a loss by the SunsThe Suns are locked into the play-in tournament with a loss and a win by the Timberwolves<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 5, 2026, 1:27 p.m. ET With one week remaining in the 2025-26 regular season, teams are in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700086,"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-700085","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\/116353739711278833","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700085","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=700085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}