{"id":600748,"date":"2026-04-11T20:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600748\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T20:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:55:09","slug":"when-is-the-nba-playoff-bracket-announced-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600748\/","title":{"rendered":"When Is the NBA Playoff Bracket Announced? What to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

In just a few days, the 2025-2026 NBA<\/a> regular season will draw to a close. The postseason is looming, and many of the league’s 30 teams already know if they’ll be headed for the playoffs or going home until the fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How to Watch<\/p>\n

Watch NBA on NBC on NBC<\/a> and streaming on Peacock<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But if you’re a new NBA<\/a> fan, or just a casual one who peeks in around playoff time, you might be wondering when the postseason officially gets underway. So, with the 2026 playoffs<\/a> headed our way, let’s take a closer look at key dates in the NBA calendar for the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Steph Curry is Back – What it Means for the Golden State Warriors’ Playoff Hopes<\/a><\/p>\n

When does the 2025\/2026 NBA regular season end?<\/p>\n

The 2025-2026 regular season ends after the last game is played on Sunday, April 12. That’s the day that all 30 NBA<\/a> teams will play their final regular season game, and by the end of the day the final league standings<\/a> will be locked, clearing the way for the postseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When is the NBA playoff bracket set?<\/p>\n

At the end of the regular season on April 12, playoff seeds will be locked in for the top six teams in each of the two <\/a>NBA<\/a> conferences<\/a>. Those are the teams granted an automatic playoff berth based on their standings throughout the season, so by April 13 they’ll have a clear view of where they stand in the bracket and what their path will be going forward. Or at least, most of their path. \\<\/p>\n

Each conference hosts a playoff field of eight teams, which means two more teams still have to be added to the bracket. For that, we go to the Play-In Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED: Which Teams Have Made the NBA Playoffs and Which Teams Have Been Eliminated<\/a><\/p>\n

When is the NBA Play-In Tournament?<\/p>\n

The Play-In Tournament is a single elimination series of games held immediately after the regular season to determined the 7 and 8 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference. Teams ranked 7-10 in each conference’s standings will participate in the Play-In, with the 7th place team and the 8th place team playing each other, and the 9th and 10th place teams playing each other.<\/p>\n

The winner of the 7 vs. 8 Play-In game automatically becomes the 7-seed in the conference playoff bracket, and will play the 2-seed in the first round. The loser of the 7 vs. 8 game goes on to play the winner of the 9 vs. 10 game, and the winner of\u00a0that\u00a0game becomes the 8-seed in the bracket, facing the 1-seed in the first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2026 NBA Play-In Tournament will take place April 14-17.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0How Do the NBA Playoffs & Play-In Tournament Work in 2026? What to Know<\/a><\/p>\n

When do the 2026 NBA Playoffs officially start?<\/p>\n

After the Play-In Tournament, each conference will officially have all eight spots in its playoff bracket filled, setting up the First Round. The Playoffs begin April 18 with First Round play, and continue throughout the rest of April and May. The NBA Finals are set to begin June 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Be sure to tune in to\u00a0NBC and Peacock<\/a>\u00a0for exclusive NBA Playoff games when the postseason is underway. Check back here for listing information as soon as it’s available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In just a few days, the 2025-2026 NBA regular season will draw to a close. The postseason is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,726,590,122627,70389,44,1833,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-600748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-on-nbc","13":"tag-nbc-sports","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-peacock","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600748","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=600748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}