{"id":702346,"date":"2026-04-03T16:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/702346\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T16:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:28:15","slug":"2026-nba-playoffs-clinching-scenarios-and-standings-on-april-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/702346\/","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<ol class=\"content-list\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"\">Oklahoma City Thunder (61-16)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\">San Antonio Spurs (59-18)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\">Los Angeles Lakers (50-27)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li\/>\n<li\/><\/ol>\n<p>Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"content-list\">\n<li\/>\n<li\/>\n<li\/>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\">Cleveland Cavaliers (48-29)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Which teams have been eliminated from postseason contention?<\/p>\n<p>Western Conference:<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<ul class=\"content-list\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"\">Memphis Grizzlies (25-51)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\">New Orleans Pelicans (25-52)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li\/>\n<li\/>\n<li\/><\/ul>\n<p>Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"content-list\">\n<li\/>\n<li\/>\n<li\/>\n<li\/>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\">Washington Wizards (17-59)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Eastern Conference Scenarios<\/p>\n<ul class=\"content-list\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"\">The Pistons can clinch the No. 1 seed with a loss by the Celtics<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\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":3,"featured_media":702347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[293269,3125,3124,3127,3128,3139,3134,3129,1518,3136,1267,3141,3135,3130,1260,3579,174991,3137,3122,7859,121513,11578,3143,3138,62,293268,67,132,68,3132,3117,7184],"class_list":["post-702346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-april-18","tag-boston-celtics","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-eastern-conference","tag-houston-rockets","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-standings","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-okc","tag-playoff-berth","tag-regular-season","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-teams-battle","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-utah-jazz","tag-washington-wizards","tag-western-conference"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}