The NBA's final weekend is here, and things can be summed up fairly succinctly:
— There are 15 games Friday.
— There are 15 more on Sunday.
— There are 14 playoff and play-in seeds left to decide.
In other words, buckle up. As far as seeding, here's what has been decided to this point:
— Oklahoma City will be No. 1 in the Western Conference, with San Antonio at No. 2.
— Detroit will be No. 1 in the Eastern Conference.
— Minnesota will be No. 6 in the West.
— Phoenix will be the No. 7 seed going into the West play-in tournament, meaning the Suns will get two chances — both at home — to win one game and earn a playoff berth.
— Golden State will be the No. 10 seed going into the West play-in tournament.
The other spots in the top half of the East bracket are undecided, but it still seems likely that the order at 2-3-4 will end up as Boston-New York-Cleveland.
Toronto and Atlanta will probably be No. 5 and No. 6 in the East, in some order. The East play-in remains a jumbled mess, and Joel Embiid's appendicitis obviously makes the path far more difficult for Philadelphia.
In the West, Denver controls its fate for No. 3 and what would be a third playoff meeting in the last four seasons with Minnesota.
If the Nuggets do get that 3 spot, then a first-round matchup pitting the Los Angeles Lakers against Houston would happen as well — which would mark the fourth time that Kevin Durant and LeBron James meet in a playoff series. James and Miami beat Durant and Oklahoma City in the 2012 NBA Finals; Durant and Golden State beat James and Cleveland in the 2017 and 2018 NBA Finals.
The Lakers, despite being without injured Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, still have the inside track at home court in Round 1.
“This current iteration of the group is all we have right now, so we have to play and make the most of it,” Lakers star LeBron James said. “But at the end of the day, in the back of our minds, front of our minds, and side, we’re still thinking about Luka and AR. I mean, that’s just human nature. Those guys mean so much to our team. We're not going to be like, ‘OK, all right, move on.’ That’s not been our team. That’s not how we built our team over this season.”
And Friday's LA Clippers-Portland game should decide the No. 8 spot in the West play-in tournament. That's important, because getting to the eighth spot would give that team two chances to win one game for a playoff berth.
— 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 playoff teams: Detroit has locked up the No. 1 seed and will open the postseason on April 19. Boston, New York, Cleveland are in. At this point, Atlanta and Toronto would get the other two guaranteed spots, but those are not clinched.
— East play-in teams: Miami is locked into the play-in for the fourth consecutive year. Entering Friday, the other three teams headed there would be Philadelphia, Orlando and Charlotte.
— East eliminated teams: Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Brooklyn and Washington.
— Western Conference playoff teams: Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver, the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston and Minnesota are in. Denver, the Lakers and Houston are still jostling to see who'll be the No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 seeds.
— West play-in teams: Phoenix, the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland and Golden State are in. The Suns will be the No. 7 seed, the Clippers and Trail Blazers are battling for No. 8, and the Warriors will be the No. 10 seed.
— West eliminated teams: Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, Utah and Sacramento.
— Raptors 128, Heat 114: 38-7-7 for Brandon Ingram, Raptors have swept nine opponents this season.
— Bulls 119, Wizards 108: Washington is 1-24 in its last 25 games, worst stretch in team history.
— Pacers 123, Nets 94: Indiana made 43 2-point shots, the most for Pacers since 2023-24 season.
— Knicks 112, Celtics 106: Another 25-10 game for Jalen Brunson, Boston didn’t have Jaylen Brown.
— Rockets 113, 76ers 102: Kevin Durant scored 29, Philly cut late 28-point deficit to five before falling.
— Lakers 119, Warriors 103: LeBron James finishes with 26 points, eight rebounds, 11 assists.
— Detroit at Charlotte: Game might mean a lot to Hornets’ play-in seed.
— Miami at Washington: Another chance to reflect on Bam Adebayo’s 83-point game.
— Cleveland at Atlanta: Rematch of Wednesday matchup in Cleveland, won by Cavs.
— New Orleans at Boston: Celtics won’t be on road again until Game 3 of Round 1.
— Philadelphia at Indiana: 76ers could finish anywhere from sixth to 10th in East.
— Toronto at New York: Knicks could go 5-0 vs. Raptors this season, then see them in playoffs.
— Orlando at Chicago: Magic could still get out of the play-in, if a lot of things go right.
— Brooklyn at Milwaukee: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s home finale with Bucks? (He's listed as out.)
— Dallas at San Antonio: Victor Wembanyama needs one more game to qualify for award ballots.
— Oklahoma City at Denver: Lots of meaning for Nuggets, not for Thunder, so advantage, Denver.
— Minnesota at Houston: Rockets could get home-court in Round 1, playing best ball of season.
— Memphis at Utah: The Jazz have worked hard to keep their top-eight protected draft pick.
— LA Clippers at Portland: Could this be a playoff to decide the No. 8 seed for the play-in?
— Golden State at Sacramento: Warriors keep building toward road play-in challenge that awaits.
— Phoenix at LA Lakers: Lakers still have real chance at home-court in Round 1, even with injuries.
Friday on Prime Video: Cleveland-Atlanta (7 p.m. Eastern) and Minnesota-Houston (9:30 p.m.)
Sunday on ESPN: Orlando-Boston (6 p.m. Eastern) and Denver-San Antonio (8:30 p.m.)
Oklahoma City (+120) 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 +30000 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.
— Friday: All 30 teams play their 81st games of the season.
— Saturday: No games.
— 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).
— The Raptors are 26-0 vs. the Hawks, Heat, Pacers, Bulls, Cavs, Jazz, Blazers, Warriors and Grizzlies this season. They're 0-20 vs. the Celtics, Rockets, Nuggets, Clippers, Lakers, Spurs, Wolves and Knicks — and play at New York on Friday, trying not to go 0-5 in that series this season.
— To that point, with a win over the Raptors, New York could go 5-0 in a season series for the first time since it went 5-0 vs. Boston in 1994-95. (The five-game season series was dormant for about a quarter-century, before the inclusion of NBA Cup made it a possibility for some clubs.)
— Denver's Nikola Jokic is going to lead the NBA in both assists per game and rebounds per game this season. He'll be the first person to win both an assist-per-game and rebound-per-game title; Wilt Chamberlain led the league in both total assists and total rebounds in 1967-68, but Oscar Robertson won the assist-per-game title that season.
— The NBA remains on pace to see more points this season than ever before. The current pace is about 284,254, which would be reached on Sunday; the record total for a season is 282,137, set in 2022-23.
— There were no games with Stephen Curry and LeBron James going head-to-head during this regular season. The last time that happened was 2019-20. Curry and James have faced off more times in playoff games (28) than regular-season contests (27).
— Indiana has now won 1,999 regular-season NBA games. The Pacers will be the 20th NBA franchise to get to 2,000.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
