{"id":706927,"date":"2026-04-09T22:45:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/706927\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T22:45:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:45:21","slug":"the-thunder-spurs-could-manipulate-1-nba-team-out-of-their-playoff-bracket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/706927\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thunder, Spurs could manipulate 1 NBA team out of their playoff bracket"},"content":{"rendered":"

The end of an NBA regular season can be finicky. Half the league is no longer trying to stack wins, if not outright tanking<\/a>. General mid-tier contenders are trying to steal rest for the upcoming postseason without losing too much ground in the standings. It’s a delicate balance to strike and some falter.<\/p>\n

Everyone is just kind of in a weird holding pattern until the playoffs actually tip off in late April.<\/p>\n

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This year is a little different. It’s not often you see not one but two NBA title-caliber heavyweights in a position to manipulate their playoff bracket at the very end of the season<\/a>. That’s the position the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> and the upstart San Antonio Spurs<\/a> find themselves in at the top of the Western Conference standings.<\/p>\n

You see, the Thunder have already clinched the top seed in the West. The Spurs, meanwhile, are the solidified No. 2 seed. No matter what happens between now and Sunday, that will not change. What could change, however, is where the Denver Nuggets<\/a>, who control their own destiny for the No. 3 seed, will finish. Both the Thunder and Spurs are in a unique position of influence to potentially position the Nuggets where they want in the West playoff bracket.<\/p>\n

Here’s the skinny.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City visits the Nuggets in Denver on Friday night. The Nuggets will then finish the regular season in San Antonio on Sunday. If the Thunder, who have nothing to play for until the postseason begins, really want the Nuggets out of their bracket in the No. 4 or No. 5 slot, they could punt Friday night’s game (assuming their elite B squad doesn’t pull out the victory anyway). They could try to ensure that a red-hot Denver squad, a team many rightfully fear as a dark horse for the 2026 NBA title, would have to play the Surs in a potential No. 2 vs. No. 3 second-round matchup.<\/p>\n

The idea is that this would soften the Thunder’s theoretical path to the Western Conference Finals, where one of the bruised-and-battered Nuggets or Spurs could be waiting for them. The same sentiment holds true for the Spurs, but in trying to beat the Nuggets on Sunday, so they wouldn’t have to see them in the second round.<\/p>\n

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To be clear, neither the Thunder nor the Spurs should necessarily fear the Nuggets. Both have proven they have the chops to go all the way. Especially the Thunder and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander because, you know, they’ve actually done it. But, in essence, why play against a Serbian Kaiju like perennial MVP candidate Nikola Joki\u0107 and an All-NBA level Jamal Murray if you don’t have to? Why make your playoff run harder by squaring off against another title contender less than halfway through the playoffs?<\/p>\n

The NBA postseason is not just about who has the best team on paper. It often becomes a question of who can survive an extended two-month battle of attrition. Health and energy matter just as much, if not more, than the talent you have. Playing the fellow heavyweight Nuggets in the second round would qualify as an unnecessary toll on both the Thunder and Spurs. That is, if they can and want to actively avoid such a matchup.<\/p>\n

The Thunder and Spurs have a fascinating playoff bracket question ahead of them. How they answer it may likely dictate the trajectory of the entire Western Conference postseason.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Thunder, Spurs can manipulate Nuggets out of 2026 NBA playoff brackets<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The end of an NBA regular season can be finicky. Half the league is no longer trying to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,187,762,6,253,475,179,20692,969,474,209,2594,4683,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-706927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-denver-nuggets","10":"tag-jamal-murray","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nikola-jokic","13":"tag-oklahoma-city","14":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","15":"tag-playoff-bracket","16":"tag-san-antonio","17":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","18":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","19":"tag-the-spurs","20":"tag-the-thunder","21":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116377178855970490","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706927","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=706927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}