{"id":716523,"date":"2026-04-23T11:48:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716523\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:48:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:48:23","slug":"nba-playoffs-power-rankings-for-the-remaining-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716523\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Playoffs Power Rankings for the remaining teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA Playoffs<\/a> are underway. The early story was the Orlando Magic<\/a> giving the Detroit Pistons<\/a> issues. Orlando entered the playoffs confidently, and it has shown through two games. The biggest story is the health of San Antonio<\/a>\u2019s Victor Wembanyama<\/a>. The 2025-2026 Defensive Player of the Year suffered a concussion on Tuesday night. He is questionable for Friday\u2019s game against Portland<\/a>. Here are the top 8 teams positioned to win the NBA Finals:<\/p>\n

MORE: NBA legend Paul Pierce makes major admission in paternity case<\/a><\/p>\n

8. Detroit Pistons<\/p>\n

There was early panic after Detroit\u2019s loss in game one. However, the series continues. The Pistons will right the ship and move past Orlando.<\/p>\n

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New York was aware that Atlanta<\/a> would be a tough matchup. The Knicks enter Thursday tied at one game apiece. The team must get a win on Thursday night and carry the momentum for the rest of the series.<\/p>\n

Boston enters Friday\u2019s game three tied with Philadelphia<\/a> at one game apiece. The Celtics cannot give the 76ers<\/a> any glimpse of hope. The team is light-years ahead of Philadelphia and needs to win out. It won\u2019t be easy, but Boston is the superior team.<\/p>\n

The series with Minnesota<\/a> is tied 1-1. Denver knew this would be a tough matchup and is prepared for a fight. Anthony Edwards<\/a> is going to get his, but the Nuggets must mitigate the damage done by the rest of the Timberwolves<\/a> roster. This series will go down to the wire.<\/p>\n

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Cleveland is up 2-0 and firing on all cylinders. The Raptors haven\u2019t found a way to get Brandon Ingram<\/a> going, and time is running out. The Cavaliers will enjoy the extra days of rest should they sweep the series.<\/p>\n

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The Lakers have a comfortable two-game lead heading into Friday\u2019s game three with Houston. The team has gotten a boost from Luke Kennard<\/a>, and he\u2019s single-handedly relieved any burden of Luka Doncic<\/a>\u2019s absence from the lineup. If Los Angeles goes up 3-0, the series will likely end in four games.<\/p>\n

After game one, San Antonio seemed to have control of the series. Unfortunately, the Spurs dropped game two and saw Victor Wembanyama suffer a concussion. His availability for Friday\u2019s game three is uncertain, and this could not be a worse time for the Spurs to be without their big man. San Antonio is still favored to win the series, and they need to get Wembanyama healthy for the remainder of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

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The top-ranked team is cruising. The Thunder\u2019s defense has been too much for the Suns<\/a> to handle. Phoenix\u2019s issues, during the regular season, were consistent offense, and that does not bode well against the league\u2019s top-ranked defensive team. Oklahoma City<\/a> is the team to beat and is the favorite to win a second consecutive championship.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Enjoy free coverage of the top news & trending stories on The Big Lead\u00a0<\/a>\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA Playoffs are underway. The early story was the Orlando Magic giving the Detroit Pistons issues. Orlando…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[679,375,676,7,75,4441,193,187,188,194,288,563,185,251,150,368,1171,307,6,1220,11,191,475,179,76,2078,678,687,969,474,604,308,693],"class_list":{"0":"post-716523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-anthony-edwards","10":"tag-atlanta","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-boston-celtics","13":"tag-brandon-ingram","14":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","15":"tag-denver-nuggets","16":"tag-detroit-pistons","17":"tag-houston-rockets","18":"tag-jalen-brunson","19":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","20":"tag-lebron-james","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","23":"tag-luka-doncic","24":"tag-luke-kennard","25":"tag-minnesota","26":"tag-nba","27":"tag-nba-finals","28":"tag-nba-playoffs","29":"tag-new-york-knicks","30":"tag-oklahoma-city","31":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","32":"tag-orlando-magic","33":"tag-paul-pierce","34":"tag-philadelphia","35":"tag-portland","36":"tag-san-antonio","37":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","38":"tag-suns","39":"tag-timberwolves","40":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"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\/716523","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=716523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}