Less settled are the possible playoff previews in the West.<\/p>\n
The Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> are play-in bound and currently in ninth place. But if they surpass the LA Clippers<\/a> in the standings, the Trail Blazers would land in the 7-8 play-in game; and if the Blazers win that, their first round-series would almost certainly be against the Spurs<\/a>, Portland’s opponent Wednesday night in San Antonio (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). BPI gives those two teams a 12.9% chance of meeting in the first round.<\/p>\n The Clippers will host the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET), and BPI gives those teams a 33% chance of meeting in the first round.<\/p>\n In other action, the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> will visit the Orlando Magic<\/a> (7 p.m. ET), having clinched a playoff spot on Tuesday. And the Denver Nuggets<\/a> get a chance to put more cushion between themselves and the fourth-place Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> in hosting the 25-54 Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> (9 p.m. ET).<\/p>\n Here’s a look at the current and projected NBA playoff picture<\/a>, the most important games left in the regular season<\/a> and how the race for the No. 1 pick<\/a> in June’s draft<\/a> is shaping up:<\/p>\n Jump to a section: Eastern Conference playoffs<\/p>\n 1. Detroit Pistons<\/a> vs. 8. Play-in winner TBD Eastern Conference play-in<\/p>\n 7. Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> vs. 8. Orlando Magic<\/a> Western Conference playoffs<\/p>\n 1. Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> vs. 8. Play-in winner TBD Western Conference play-in<\/p>\n 7. Phoenix Suns<\/a> vs. 8. LA Clippers<\/a> NBA Playoff Challenge<\/p>\n Pick the winners and crown your NBA champion! Create A Bracket<\/a><\/p>\n Wednesday’s games<\/p>\n Hawks at Cavaliers, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN)<\/a> Tuesday’s scores<\/p>\n Bulls 129, Wizards 98<\/a> Most important games left The NBA uses a draft lottery to determine the order of the first four picks. All 14 teams that fail to make the playoffs are eligible to move up to the top four. After the order of the top four picks is set via the draw, the remainder of the first round is set in inverse order of the teams’ regular-season records. The three teams with the worst records each have an equal 14% chance of winning the lottery, with the odds for the non-playoff teams decreasing from there.<\/p>\n Among the projected lottery teams, there are multiple trades that could impact picks. The Atlanta Hawks<\/a> will get the better of the picks from the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> and Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>, with the lesser of the two picks going to Milwaukee. If the Indiana Pacers<\/a>‘ pick falls between five and nine, it will go to the LA Clippers<\/a>. The Clippers’ own pick will go to the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>. The Orlando Magic<\/a> will send their pick to the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Utah Jazz<\/a> will send their pick to the Thunder if it falls outside the top eight. The Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> will send their pick to the Chicago Bulls<\/a> if it falls outside the lottery (if they make the playoffs through the play-in tournament). The Washington Wizards<\/a>‘ pick is top-eight protected, and the probability of their selection ending up ninth or worse is extremely low.<\/p>\n Projected 2026 Lottery Order<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With so little settled in the battle for seeding in the NBA playoff races — plus next week’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-593270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Current playoff matchups<\/a>
Today’s schedule<\/a> | Friday’s scores<\/a>
Critical remaining games<\/a>
Projected standings<\/a> | Race for No. 1 pick<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752936309_868_greyline.png\")
Current NBA playoff matchups<\/p>\n
2. Boston Celtics<\/a> vs. 7. Play-in winner TBD
3. New York Knicks<\/a> vs. 6. Toronto Raptors<\/a>
4. Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> vs. 5. Atlanta Hawks<\/a><\/p>\n
9. Charlotte Hornets<\/a> vs. 10. Miami Heat<\/a>
Loser 7\/8 vs. Winner 9\/10<\/p>\n
2. San Antonio Spurs<\/a> vs. 7. Play-in winner TBD
3. Denver Nuggets<\/a> vs. 6. Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>
4. Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> vs. 5. Houston Rockets<\/a><\/p>\n
9. Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> vs. 10. Golden State Warriors<\/a>
Loser 7\/8 vs. Winner 9\/10<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774449732_455_25708cbb-e0d8-41e3-8e3a-3607a9e69d1a.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
Timberwolves at Magic, 7 p.m. ET<\/a>
Bucks at Pistons, 7 p.m. ET<\/a>
Grizzlies at Nuggets, 9 p.m. ET<\/a>
Trail Blazers at Spurs, 9:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)<\/a>
Thunder at Clippers, 10 p.m. ET<\/a>
Mavericks at Suns, 10 p.m. ET<\/a><\/p>\n
Timberwolves 124, Pacers 104<\/a>
Nets 96, Bucks 90<\/a>
Raptors 121, Heat 95<\/a>
Celtics 113, Hornets 102<\/a>
Pelicans 156, Jazz 137<\/a>
Warriors 110, Kings 105<\/a>
Thunder 123, Lakers 87<\/a>
Clippers 116, Mavericks 103<\/a>
Rockets 119, Suns 105<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/nbaCritGames.png\")
Projected end-of-season standingsProjected Eastern Conference StandingsProjected Western Conference StandingsRace for the No. 1 pick<\/p>\n