The 2026 NBA postseason is officially here.
With the conclusion of this year’s NBA Play-In Tournament on Friday, this season’s postseason bracket will be set. Defending champion and top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder seek the league’s first repeat since the 2017 and 2018 Golden State Warriors.
In the Eastern Conference, the No. 1 seed Detroit Pistons are aiming for their first title since 2004 as the Boston Celtics (2024), Denver Nuggets (2023), Los Angeles Lakers (2020), Cleveland Cavaliers (2016), San Antonio Spurs (2014), Houston Rockets (1995), New York Knicks (1973) and Minnesota Timberwolves (never) seek to snap title droughts (if we can truly consider the Celtics and Nuggets in a “drought”).
Here is a series-by-series snapshot of the first-round matchups for this year’s NBA playoffs with the biggest storylines for each team. Click the link at the end of each series to dive deeper, including our expert picks.
Eastern Conference
No. 1 Detroit Pistons vs. TBD: Heat/Hornets/76ers/Magic
Pistons: For the Pistons, it’ll all boil down to how well their offense can operate in the half court with teams fixated on neutralizing Cade Cunningham. Detroit’s defense has been a force all season, ranking first in the NBA in steals (10.4) and blocks (6.4) per game, and second in defensive rating (108.9).
Thankfully for the Pistons, it seems their offense is peaking at the perfect time. Over their last 10 games of the regular season, they led the association in 3-point percentage (42.3), ranking third in field-goal percentage (51.9) and fourth in assists (32.1). Detroit was forced to rely on far more movement, dribble handoffs, backdoor cuts and side-to-side actions that threw defenses off balance in 11 games with Cunningham sidelined with his collapsed left lung.
If they can replicate that approach while still allowing Cunningham and Jalen Duren to be the dynamic pick-and-roll duo they’ve blossomed into over the last two seasons, they should be able to impose their will for multiple rounds with home-court advantage throughout the East. — Hunter Patterson
No. 2 Boston Celtics vs. TBD: Philadelphia 76ers or Orlando Magic
Celtics: Can the Celtics punctuate their fairytale season? They have already turned themselves into contenders during what some expected to be a “gap year.” Just about everything has gone right this season, from Jaylen Brown’s leap to the emergence of several young contributors. Now, Jayson Tatum is back from a torn Achilles – and he has looked great since returning in early March. If the Celtics win a championship following Tatum’s injury and their offseason overhaul, it would be an enormous feat for the entire organization. — Jay King
No. 3 New York Knicks vs. No. 6 Atlanta Hawks
Knicks: Does failing to reach the East finals cause major shake-ups this summer? New York went that far last season for the first time in 25 years before losing to the Indiana Pacers. It led to the head coach being fired and internal expectations going public. Owner James Dolan said during a radio interview in January that making the finals is something the Knicks “absolutely have to do” and that “they should” win the championship. Dolan doesn’t speak much publicly and, surely, doesn’t like to be embarrassed when he does. Anything short of the conference finals might not sit well with him. Plus, the Giannis Antetokounmpo situation in Milwaukee continues to get weird, and New York has shown significant interest in the future Hall of Famer for years. Lastly, this Knicks team is expensive. Can it justify the price tag without another NBA Finals appearance? This could be a make-or-break postseason. — James Edwards III
Hawks: How much of Atlanta’s torrid close to the season reflected on its own roster, and how much it reflected on the quality of the opposition? The Hawks took advantage of a surfeit of tanking and/or extremely short-handed opponents en route to a 19-5 charge to the finish line after the All-Star break. — John Hollinger
Complete Knicks vs. Hawks preview: Karl-Anthony Towns’ impact, predictions and more
No. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. No. 5 Toronto Raptors
Raptors: Can the Raptors hold up against top-level competition? They took care of the league’s worst teams, going 22-6 against teams that didn’t qualify for the postseason. They went 19-8 against the Hawks plus the Play-In Tournament field. Against the Western Conference’s top six and the East’s top four — the teams most people would consider the best 10 in the league — the Raptors went 5-22. Three of those wins came against the Cavaliers, but those all came in the first month of the year. One of them featured Cleveland’s skeleton crew.
In particular, the Raptors offense was an issue against the league’s best teams. On paper, it will be tough for them to keep up with the dynamic Cavaliers. — Eric Koreen
Cavaliers: Where does it all end? I mean, sure, that’s the overriding question for all 16 playoff teams, but this iteration of the Cavs – with Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, have never made it past the second round. The general feeling outside of the team is Cleveland has to reach the conference finals to avoid a substantial shakeup. And, by the way, if this sounds like a familiar storyline, that’s because it is. When J.B. Bickerstaff went 0-for-3 in making it past the second round as Cavs coach, he was fired. Would the axe fall on Kenny Atkinson if they fail again? I’d rather not speculate on any specifics. The changes could be broader than that if a roster that is the most expensive in the NBA can’t win two playoff series. If Cleveland loses this series … whoa boy. The team might fire the ball boys. — Joe Vardon
Complete Cavs vs. Raptors preview: Who stops Donovan Mitchell, James Harden?
Nikola Jokić’s Nuggets and Julius Randle’s Timberwolves meet for an intriguing first-round series.
Western Conference
No. 1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs. TBD: Warriors/Clippers/Trail Blazers/Suns
Thunder: Are the Thunder still great enough to fend off the field? The answer isn’t as obvious as Oklahoma City’s league-lapping 11.1 net rating might suggest. Its defense remains historically suffocating. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who could repeat as league MVP, is as efficient and manipulative on offense as ever. The regular season, riddled with injuries and stretches of vulnerability, tested this Thunder squad more than its pair of No. 1-seeded predecessors. Ajay Mitchell, who hardly played a role in last year’s title run, is an additive stabilizer and necessary creator away from SGA.
All signs point to OKC improving upon its title team.
Though separated by experience, the San Antonio Spurs undoubtedly seem ahead of schedule. Victor Wembanyama is as revered a defender as there is in these playoffs. San Antonio has three ball handlers capable of running offense in a postseason that begs teams to fight through muddied possessions. This isn’t to mention Denver, or any threat opposite of the West’s side of the bracket.
What might the Thunder get from its trio of feisty defenders — Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace, Lu Dort — all of whom have seen their 3-point percentages dip from a season ago? Or All-NBAer Jalen Williams, who entered the season mindful of his wrist and finishes it mindful of his hamstring? Will Ajay Mitchell rise to the occasion? Can the Thunder call on the end of its bench in matchup-dependent situations as effectively as it does in the regular season?
The field will beg the Thunder to answer these questions. — Joel Lorenzi
No. 2 San Antonio Spurs vs. TBD: Phoenix Suns or Portland Trail Blazers
Spurs: Obviously, it’s Victor Wembanyama. But the aspect of the league’s new megastar that will actually be hanging in the balance is whether he can truly withstand the rigors of an NBA title run. It’s not just that he has to play more minutes than he is used to. It’s the fact that every single defense is going to be trying to beat him down all night long.
It will be physical defense after physical defense that is spending an entire series finding every little intricate way to knock him out of his comfort zone and hope that they can wear him down over the course of a long series. We’ve seen Wembanyama do just about everything, but we haven’t seen him face that level of defense night and night out consistently yet.
He should be up for the challenge, but it is still the great unknown with the guy who could end up being the greatest player in the game. — Jared Weiss
No. 3 Denver Nuggets vs. No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves
Timberwolves: Do the Timberwolves have a switch to flip? Coming off of two straight Western Conference finals appearances and bringing back everyone but Nickeil Alexander-Walker, the Timberwolves talked in training camp about taking the final step to the NBA Finals.
I thought we would see an ultra-motivated, locked-in group in the regular season, one that was out to atone for a 4-1 wipeout at the hands of the Thunder last May. Instead, we saw a team that was largely complacent all season long, appearing to treat these 82 games as beneath them.
The question they will answer in this series is do they have a switch to flip? Or are they a team in decline?
They will need Anthony Edwards playing at his two-way best after mailing in the defense on too many nights in the regular season. He has always been a playoff riser and should enter the postseason as healthy as he’s been in weeks after getting some time to rest an aching right knee.
Julius Randle slayed a lot of his previous playoff demons last season and will be healthy and rested, as will Jaden McDaniels after missing six games with a bone bruise in his left knee.
The Wolves believe they have the talent to beat anyone. At times this season, they have probably believed in themselves too much. Now, it’s time to see what they’re made of.
Anthony Edwards will need to be at his best against Nikola Jokić and the Nuggets. — Jon Krawczynski
Nuggets: Can the Nuggets defend consistently?
The Nuggets have the NBA’s top offense, but a bottom-third defense. However, during its 12-game winning streak to close the season, Denver coach David Adelman thought the Nuggets defense defined the streak.
“We flipped defensively at some point in all these games, meaning we’ve been inconsistent all year with that,” Adelman said. “At some point, you have to sit down and guard, and that leads to what we are really good at … fast-break points.”
A factor in the Nuggets’ defensive efforts will be the availability of perhaps their best perimeter defender, wing Peyton Watson, who has battled hamstring injuries this season. Watson hasn’t played since April 1, when he aggravated his right hamstring. The same hamstring caused him to miss 19 games earlier in the season. Watson has started on court workouts, but the Nuggets have not said if, or when, they expect him to return. — Jason Quick
Complete Nuggets vs. Timberwolves preview: Why this could be the best first-round series
No. 4 Los Angeles Lakers vs. No. 5 Houston Rockets
Lakers: How will the Lakers survive without Reaves and Dončić?
The Lakers have had to undergo the worst kind of reinvention in the final five games of the regular season, figuring out how to play together without their two most important players. The good news, relatively speaking, is that option No. 3 is James. The bad news: At 41, how often can he empty the tank to keep them afloat long enough to maybe — maybe — get Dončić or Reaves back on the court.
Despite what the narratives have been, this has been a terrific season for the Lakers. They’re over 50 wins for the second straight year, went 15-2 in March with a clear hierarchy and stood down some of the best competition in the league. But they did that with Dončić and Reaves in place.
Now, they’ll enter the postseason in the embryonic stages of whatever this version of their team is, with tons of room to grow but real questions about how it’s going to turn out. — Dan Woike
Rockets: How much playoff success will Kevin Durant have in his first season with the Rockets?
Houston surprised much of the NBA last season in winning 52 games and grabbing the West’s No. 2 seed. But in the end, a lack of experience and a go-to offensive option resulted in the Rockets being bounced by Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors in a dramatic seven-game, first-round series.
Enter Kevin Durant, a player who could help them address both problems at once. Although Durant has performed at an All-NBA level this season, injuries to Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams, along with offensive struggles by the rest of the roster, have kept Houston from making the leap many expected after Durant’s arrival.
A trip to the second round of the playoffs would make the first year of the Durant experience in Houston feel like a success, even if it comes against a compromised Lakers team. And once you’re there, the playoffs tend to reward whoever can withstand the chaos.
For Houston, getting Amen Thompson, Alperen Şengün and the rest of the young core more experience in the playoffs — and possibly their first series win — would be a huge win for the present and future of the franchise. — Will Guillory
Complete Lakers vs. Rockets preview: LeBron James and Kevin Durant, again