The final day of the NBA's regular season has arrived, with much left to decide. There are 30 teams, all of which will play Game 82 on Sunday, and all those clubs fall into one of three 10-team groups
right now.
— Fans of Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Houston, Minnesota, Phoenix, Golden State, Detroit, Boston, New York and Cleveland, go ahead and relax. Your team's seed is all set.
— Fans of Denver, the Los Angeles Lakers, Portland, the Los Angeles Clippers, Atlanta, Toronto, Orlando, Philadelphia, Charlotte and Miami, prepare yourselves. Your team still has things to play for.
— Fans of Milwaukee, Chicago, Brooklyn, Indiana, Washington, New Orleans, Memphis, Dallas, Sacramento and Utah, enjoy the season finales.
— A look at the last day of the season
— Wemby hits award-qualification standard. But will Jokic?
— A wild night in the NBA, with lots of players out with injuries
— Heat waive Terry Rozier
— SGA leads the MVP race, but there is intrigue
— 76ers' Joel Embiid has appendectomy
— NBC says more 'On The Bench’ game coverage likely
— Doc Rivers hints at retirement
— The playoffs, thankfully, are coming
— The Bulls want to keep Billy Donovan ... but does Donovan want to stay?
Here's what we know so far regarding the NBA playoff field for this season.
— Eastern Conference No. 1: Detroit.
— East No. 2: Boston.
— East No. 3: New York.
— East No. 4: Cleveland.
— East No. 5 and No. 6: Atlanta will have one of these spots. Toronto is the only other team that can reach the No. 5 seed, but it could also finish No. 6, No. 7 or No. 8 as well. There are some scenarios where Orlando and Philadelphia can sneak into the No. 6 spot. The Magic need a win over Boston, plus wins by Brooklyn (over Toronto) and Milwaukee (over Philadelphia) to reach No. 6. The 76ers need a win, plus an Orlando loss and a Brooklyn win to reach No. 6.
— East play-in: Toronto, Orlando and Philadelphia are the three teams that could finish in the No. 7 and No. 8 spots. Nos. 9 and 10 will be Charlotte and Miami, in some order. A Heat win over Atlanta and a Hornets loss to New York means Miami will be No. 9. Otherwise, Charlotte will be the 9 seed.
— East eliminated teams: Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Brooklyn and Washington.
— Western Conference No. 1: Oklahoma City.
— West No. 2: San Antonio.
— West No. 3 and No. 4: Denver and Los Angeles Lakers. Denver gets No. 3 with a win over San Antonio or a Lakers loss to Utah. If neither of those things happen, the Lakers get the No. 3 seed.
— West No. 5: Houston.
— West No. 6: Minnesota.
— West play-in: Phoenix is No. 7, Portland and the Los Angeles Clippers will be No. 8 and No. 9 in some order (the Trail Blazers control destinies there), and Golden State is No. 10.
— West eliminated teams: Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, Utah and Sacramento.
The games with seeding implications on Sunday:
— Orlando at Boston: Magic can escape play-in with a win, would be in 7-vs.-8 game with a loss.
— Atlanta at Miami: Hawks would be No. 5 seed with a win, Miami could get to No. 9 with a win.
— Charlotte at New York: Hornets would be No. 9 seed and host Miami in play-in with a victory.
— Milwaukee at Philadelphia: 76ers would be No. 8 seed with a loss, will be No. 6, 7 or 8 with win.
— Brooklyn at Toronto: Raptors go to playoffs as No. 5 or 6 seed with win, could fall to 8 with loss.
— Denver at San Antonio: Nuggets would be 3 seed with win, probably would fall to 4 with a loss.
— Utah at LA Lakers: Lakers probably would be 3 seed with win, would fall to 4 with a loss.
— Golden State at LA Clippers: This might be a preview of a Warriors-Clippers play-in 9-10 game.
— Sacramento at Portland: Trail Blazers would hold off Clippers for the No. 8 seed with a win.
And the games with no relevance on standings: Washington at Cleveland, Detroit at Indiana, Chicago at Dallas, Memphis at Houston, New Orleans at Minnesota, Phoenix at Oklahoma City.
Sunday on ESPN: Orlando-Boston (6 p.m. Eastern) and Denver-San Antonio (8:30 p.m.)
Oklahoma City (+130) is favored to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed by San Antonio (+450), Boston (+550), Denver (+1000), Cleveland (+1300) and New York (+2000). Detroit, the No. 1 seed in the East, is +2000. The Los Angeles Lakers were +2500 before Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves got hurt; they're +20000 now.
Some of the NBA's play-in tournament schedule is now known:
— Phoenix will play host to either the LA Clippers or Portland on Tuesday at 10 p.m. Eastern. (The winner of that game will play No. 2 San Antonio in Round 1, the loser will play a home game on Friday for the right to play No. 1 Oklahoma City in Round 1).
— Golden State will visit either the LA Clippers or Portland on Wednesday at 10 p.m. Eastern. (The loser of that game is eliminated, the winner moves on to Friday.)
All games in the play-in tournament will be shown on Prime Video.
— Sunday: All 30 teams play their regular-season finales.
— April 14, 15 and 17: NBA play-in tournament dates.
— April 18 and 19: NBA playoff series openers.
— May 2, 3 or 4: Conference semifinals begin.
— May 10: NBA draft lottery.
— May 10-17: NBA draft combine.
— May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.
— May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.
— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).
— At least 150 players (and probably many more) will be held out of the 30 games on Sunday. The combined salaries this season of those who were announced on Saturday's injury reports as out for Sunday's finales: just over $2.5 billion.
— The average margin of victory in the NBA this season is 13.2 points, the biggest in league history (and is certain to finish as a record). The previous mark was 12.7 points, set last season. This is the fourth time in the last five years that the point-differential-in-wins record will fall.
— The NBA remains on pace to see more points this season than ever before. The current pace is about 284,258, which would be reached on Sunday; the record total for a season is 282,137, set in 2022-23.
— There are 18 players with a chance to play in all 82 of their team's regular-season games this season. That would be the most in the 82-game club since 19 players did it in the 2018-19 season.
— Denver has a chance to become the fourth team to finish a regular season with a winning streak of 12 games or better. Philadelphia won its last 16 in 2017-18, Rochester won its final 15 games of the 1949-50 season (then lost a tiebreaker) and Milwaukee won its last 14 games in 1972-73.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
