{"id":709351,"date":"2026-04-13T03:07:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709351\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T03:07:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:07:02","slug":"nbas-play-in-field-top-six-playoff-seeds-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709351\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA&#8217;s Play-In Field, Top-Six Playoff Seeds Set"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The NBA wrapped up its 2025\/26 regular season on Sunday, locking in the top six teams in each conference and lining up the teams and seeds for this year\u2019s play-in tournament.<\/p>\n<p>While most of the top seeds had already been secured ahead of Sunday\u2019s regular season finale, there were still some meaningful outcomes in today\u2019s games. Most notably, the Raptors\u2019 win over Brooklyn secured their first playoff berth in four years and moved them up to No. 5 in the Eastern Conference standings while ensuring that the Sixers and Magic will have to book their playoff tickets via the play-in tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Over in the West, the Trail Blazers\u2019 victory over Sacramento locked up the No. 8 seed for Portland. That means the Blazers will get two opportunities to win a play-in game and make the playoffs, while the Clippers, bumped down to No. 9, will have to win a pair of play-in contests to advance to the first round.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the play-in matchups:<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Conference<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday, April 14<\/p>\n<p>Game 1:\u00a0Miami Heat (10) at Charlotte Hornets (9), 7:30 pm ET<\/p>\n<p>Winner plays on Friday; loser is eliminated.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday, April 15<\/p>\n<p>Game 2:\u00a0Orlando Magic (8) at Philadelphia 76ers (7), 7:30 pm ET<\/p>\n<p>Winner secures No. 7 seed; loser plays on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Friday, April 17<\/p>\n<p>Winner of Game 1\u00a0at\u00a0Loser of Game 2, 7:30 pm ET<\/p>\n<p>Winner secures No. 8 seed; loser is eliminated.<\/p>\n<p>Western Conference<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday, April 14<\/p>\n<p>Game 1:\u00a0Portland Trail Blazers\u00a0(8) at Phoenix Suns (7), 10:00 pm ET<\/p>\n<p>Winner secures No. 7 seed; loser plays on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday, April 15<\/p>\n<p>Game 2:\u00a0Golden State Warriors (10) at Los Angeles Clippers\u00a0(9), 10:00 pm ET<\/p>\n<p>Winner plays on Friday; loser is eliminated.<\/p>\n<p>Friday, April 17<\/p>\n<p>Winner of Game 2\u00a0at\u00a0Loser of Game 1, 10:00 pm ET<\/p>\n<p>Winner secures No. 8 seed; loser is eliminated.<\/p>\n<p>Once the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds in each conference are set later this week, the eight first-round matchups will be finalized. Those first-round series will tip off on April 18 and 19.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the top six seeds in each conference, along with the matchups that are set so far (and Game 1 info, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NBAPR\/status\/2043523642349256986\" rel=\"nofollow\">per the NBA<\/a>):<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Conference<\/p>\n<p>Detroit Pistons\u00a0(1) vs.\u00a0No. 8 seed\u00a0(play-in) ^<br \/>\nBoston Celtics (2) vs. No. 7 seed (play-in) ^<br \/>\nNew York Knicks (3) vs. Atlanta Hawks (6) *<br \/>\nCleveland Cavaliers\u00a0(4) vs.\u00a0Toronto Raptors\u00a0(5) *<\/p>\n<p>* Series begins on April 18.<br \/>^ Series begins on April 19.<\/p>\n<p>Western Conference<\/p>\n<p>Oklahoma City Thunder\u00a0(1) vs.\u00a0No. 8 seed\u00a0(play-in) ^<br \/>\nSan Antonio Spurs\u00a0(2) vs.\u00a0No. 7 seed (play-in) ^<br \/>\nDenver Nuggets\u00a0(3) vs.\u00a0Minnesota Timberwolves\u00a0(6) *<br \/>\nLos Angeles Lakers\u00a0(4) vs.\u00a0Houston Rockets\u00a0(5) *<\/p>\n<p>* Series begins on April 18.<br \/>^ Series begins on April 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA wrapped up its 2025\/26 regular season on Sunday, locking in the top six teams in each&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,6,678,207,3817],"class_list":{"0":"post-709351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","13":"tag-philadelphia76ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116395195947404359","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709351","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=709351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}