{"id":562567,"date":"2026-04-03T17:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/562567\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T17:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:34:10","slug":"2026-nba-playoffs-clinching-scenarios-and-standings-on-april-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/562567\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA Playoffs: Clinching scenarios and standings on April 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With less than two weeks left to play in the 2025-26 regular season, teams are in the midst of heated battles in the standings ahead of the start of the NBA playoffs on April 18.<\/p>\n<p>The top six teams in each conference will earn an outright playoff berth at the conclusion of the regular season. The next four teams will compete in the play-in tournament on April 14-17 for the last two seeds in each conference, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>After 10 teams were eliminated from contention, the 20 bound for the postseason are locked in, either via a playoff berth or a spot in the play-in tournament. The action is set to heat up as teams battle for positioning in the standings down the stretch.<\/p>\n<p>Nine games are scheduled for Friday, with several key matchups and an Eastern Conference clinching scenario to monitor throughout the evening.<\/p>\n<p>What are the matchups on Friday?Playoff PictureWhich teams have clinched a playoff berth?<\/p>\n<p>Western Conference:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Oklahoma City Thunder (61-16)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">San Antonio Spurs (59-18)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Los Angeles Lakers (50-27)<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Cleveland Cavaliers (48-29)<\/p>\n<p>Which teams have been eliminated from postseason contention?<\/p>\n<p>Western Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Memphis Grizzlies (25-51)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">New Orleans Pelicans (25-52)<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Washington Wizards (17-59)<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Conference Scenarios<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Pistons can clinch the No. 1 seed with a loss by the Celtics<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Rookie Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/therookiewire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rookie\/2026\/04\/03\/2026-nba-playoffs-clinching-scenarios-standings-april-3\/89451881007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:2026 NBA Playoffs: Clinching scenarios and standings on April 3;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;2026 NBA Playoffs&quot;}\" class=\"link \">2026 NBA Playoffs: Clinching scenarios and standings on April 3<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With less than two weeks left to play in the 2025-26 regular season, teams are in the midst&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[249135,2242,671,7329,8174,760,1753,4576,32707,5050,3441,1055,7741,360,355,13331,190067,6932,361,12204,85718,36315,6404,2116,99,249134,4219,11948,17814],"class_list":{"0":"post-562567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-april-18","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","13":"tag-dallas-mavericks","14":"tag-denver-nuggets","15":"tag-detroit-pistons","16":"tag-eastern-conference","17":"tag-houston-rockets","18":"tag-indiana-pacers","19":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","20":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","21":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-nba-playoffs","24":"tag-nba-standings","25":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","26":"tag-new-york-knicks","27":"tag-okc","28":"tag-playoff-berth","29":"tag-regular-season","30":"tag-sacramento-kings","31":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-teams-battle","34":"tag-utah-jazz","35":"tag-washington-wizards","36":"tag-western-conference"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}