{"id":707005,"date":"2026-04-05T17:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T17:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/707005\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T17:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T17:58:14","slug":"2026-nba-playoffs-clinching-scenarios-and-standings-on-april-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/707005\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA Playoffs: Clinching scenarios and standings on April 5"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With one week remaining 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>Eleven games are scheduled for Sunday in the NBA, with several key matchups and a couple of Western Conference clinching scenarios to monitor throughout the evening.<\/p>\n<p>What are the matchups on Sunday?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 (59-19)<\/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 (25-52)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\">New Orleans Pelicans (25-53)<\/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 (17-60)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Western Conference Scenarios<\/p>\n<ul class=\"content-list\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"\">The Timberwolves can clinch a playoff berth with a win and a loss by the Suns<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\">The Suns are locked into the play-in tournament with a loss and a win by the Timberwolves<\/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\/05\/2026-nba-playoffs-clinching-scenarios-standings-april-5\/89476435007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:2026 NBA Playoffs: Clinching scenarios and standings on April 5;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 5<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With one week remaining in the 2025-26 regular season, teams are in the midst of heated battles in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":707006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[3125,3124,3127,3128,3139,3134,3129,1518,172859,3136,1267,3141,3135,3130,1260,174991,3137,3122,7859,121513,3143,3138,62,7231,293268,6273,67,132,68,3132,3117,7184],"class_list":["post-707005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","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-gsw","tag-houston-rockets","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-nba-standings","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-okc","tag-playoff-berth","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-suns","tag-teams-battle","tag-timberwolves","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\/707005","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=707005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}