The NBA playoffs have arrived.
After every team played 82 games over the course of the 2025–26 regular season, it all comes down to this. A total of 16 teams will qualify for the final playoff picture and the games will begin in earnest starting on April 18; the last team standing will be raising this year’s Larry O’Brien Trophy as NBA champions. It figures to be an extremely exciting postseason featuring one strong favorite in the Thunder but a number of other teams with the talent to make a deep playoff run.
It’s going to be a lot of fun. As the postseason gets underway, here’s a look at the playoff bracket as it stands entering the play-in tournament.
NBA playoff picture for 2026 postseason
Here’s what the NBA playoff picture looks like as the playoffs officially begin.
Western Conference playoff standings:
1. Oklahoma City Thunder (64–18)
2. San Antonio Spurs (62–20)
3. Denver Nuggets (54–28)
4. Los Angeles Lakers (53–29)
5. Houston Rockets (52–30)
6. Minnesota Timberwolves (49–33)
7. Phoenix Suns (45–37)
8. Portland Trail Blazers (42–40)
9. Los Angeles Clippers (42–40)
10. Golden State Warriors (37–45)
Eastern Conference playoff standings:
1. Detroit Pistons (60–22)
2. Boston Celtics (56–26)
3. New York Knicks (53–29)
4. Cleveland Cavaliers (52–30)
5. Toronto Raptors (46–36)
6. Atlanta Hawks (46–36)
7. Philadelphia 76ers (45–37)
8. Orlando Magic (45–37)
9. Charlotte Hornets (44–38)
10. Miami Heat (43–39)
NBA playoffs 2026 bracket
With the regular season wrapping up on April 12, all playoff seeding is official. Below you’ll find the full bracket via the NBA as the postseason begins. Once the play-in tournament results unfold the bracket will shrink to the traditional 16-team format, at which point the best-of-seven series commence.
As a reminder: the play-in tournament features the 7 through 10 seeds in the East and West. The first set of games pits the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds against each other; the winner will play the No. 2 seed in their respective conference. Meanwhile, the No. 9 and No. 10 seeds will play each other and the winner of that game plays the loser of the 7-8 game to determine who will take on the No. 1 seed in each conference.
This year, the East’s play-in teams are the Magic, 76ers, Hornets and Heat. The West’s are the Suns, Clippers, Trail Blazers and Warriors.
NBA playoff schedule
The final day of the NBA’s regular season took place on April 12.
From April 12–17, the play-in tournament will take place. After the last game is played on Friday, April 17 the 16-team playoff field will be set.
On April 18, the first round begins in earnest. All eight series will play Game 1 on April 18 or April 19. Over the next several weeks those series will lead to one team moving on and one team being eliminated.
From there the NBA will roll out official dates for the semifinals and conference finals, which usually take place over the month of May. That’ll lead into this season’s big finale—the NBA Finals, which are scheduled to begin on June 3 no matter what and will run no later than June 19.
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