The NBA's stretch run has arrived. Here's a look at what's happening
Home-court advantage mattered big-time to Oklahoma City last season, when the Thunder won a Game 7 at home to secure the NBA title.
And every Game 1 the Thunder play this season — along with every Game 7, if necessary — will be on their home floor once again.
The defending NBA champion Thunder will be the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs for the second consecutive year — and the No. 1 seed on the Western Conference bracket for the third straight season. The Thunder wrapped up the top spot with a 128-110 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.
OKC clinching the No. 1 seed in the West locked the San Antonio Spurs into the No. 2 seed. The Spurs would have home-court advantage in any playoff series except a Western Conference finals against Oklahoma City.
Other seeds now wrapped up:
— 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.
Boston could join the group of seed-clinched clubs on Thursday. The Celtics would wrap up No. 2 in the East with a win over New York.
— Cade Cunningham returns to Pistons' lineup
— NBC says more 'On The Bench’ game coverage likely
— Doc Rivers hints at retirement
— The playoffs, thankfully, are coming
— Miami returning to the play-in tournament
— Jayson Tatum set for return to New York
— The Bulls want to keep Billy Donovan
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 Thursday, 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.
— Cavaliers 122, Hawks 116: If Cavs-Hawks will be a first-round series, some fun awaits.
— Magic 132, Timberwolves 120: Orlando surges back into the East No. 7 spot, for now.
— Pistons 137, Bucks 111: Cade Cunningham, back from collapsed lung, played 26 minutes.
— Nuggets 136, Grizzlies 119: Denver has won 10 straight for 1st time in Nikola Jokic’s career.
— Spurs 112, Trail Blazers 101: San Antonio had a game-defining 48-10 edge in bench scoring.
— Thunder 128, Clippers 110: Clippers played well — and still trailed by as many as 25 points.
— Suns 112, Mavericks 107: 37 for Devin Booker, 28 for Dillon Brooks and Suns dug deep late.
— Miami at Toronto: Raptors looking to sweep teams' four-game season series.
— Chicago at Washington: Bulls led the Wizards by as many as 37 on Tuesday.
— Indiana at Brooklyn: Pacers' Rick Carlisle (family reasons) out next two games.
— Boston at New York: Jayson Tatum returns to MSG, where he got hurt last spring.
— Philadelphia at Houston: Rockets charging toward home-court edge for Round 1.
— LA Lakers at Golden State: Injuries crushing Lakers, who have lost three straight.
— 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: The teams could wind up meeting nine times in like 3-1/2 weeks.
— New Orleans at Boston: Celtics won’t be on road again until Game 3 of Round 1.
— Philadelphia at Indiana: 76ers still trying to get out of the play-in tournament.
— Toronto at New York: Major implications likely for Raptors.
— Orlando at Chicago: Magic could still get out of the play-in.
— Brooklyn at Milwaukee: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s home finale with Bucks? (And will he play?)
— 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 just need to get healthy, Suns know they’ll host play-in games.
Thursday on Prime Video: Boston-New York (7:30 p.m. Eastern) and LA Lakers-Golden State (10 p.m.)
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 (+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 +2200. 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).
— 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 284,300; the record total for a season is 282,137, set in 2022-23.
— Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn't make a free throw for the first time all season in the Thunder win over the LA Clippers on Thursday night. He was 0 for 1.
— Denver has scored at least 136 points in three consecutive games. Only three other teams (Phoenix in February 2009, Dallas in November 2019 and Atlanta in November 2023) have done that in the last 25 years.
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