NBA playoff seeds finalized during massive 15-game finale

The NBA’s regular season ends Sunday, April 12, 2026, with a full 15-game slate that will lock in the remaining postseason picture across both conferences. Officials said ten of the league’s twenty available playoff berths are still to be decided on the final day. With only half of the spots already secured, results across the schedule will determine who advances directly and who is routed into the Play-In Tournament.

In the Eastern Conference, four teams have already clinched top-four seeds: the Detroit Pistons (59-22), Boston Celtics (55-26), New York Knicks (53-28), and Cleveland Cavaliers (51-30). The remaining Eastern outcomes are concentrated among six teams fighting for four playoff positions and two Play-In places: Atlanta (46-35), Toronto (45-36), Orlando (45-36), Philadelphia (44-37), Charlotte (43-38), and Miami (42-39).

The final order among those clubs will be shaped by their own games and the results posted by direct competitors on the same day.

The Western Conference has a different mix of certainty and open questions. Several teams have already secured a postseason presence: the Oklahoma City Thunder (64-17), San Antonio Spurs (62-19), Houston Rockets (51-30), Minnesota Timberwolves (48-33), Phoenix Suns (44-37), and Golden State Warriors (37-44). At the top end of the bracket, a head-to-head race remains for the No. 3 and No.

4 seeds between the Denver Nuggets (53-28) and the Los Angeles Lakers (52-29), with Sunday’s results set to decide their final positioning.

Lower in the West, Portland (41-40) and the LA Clippers (41-40) are locked together in a contest for the No. 8 and No. 9 slots. That specific placement matters because it determines home-court advantage in the Play-In Tournament, where a single game can swing a season. With both teams entering the finale level in the standings, the final day’s outcomes will decide which side hosts and which travels.

What remains uncertain is the exact seeding order for the teams still in contention, because it depends not only on each club’s own result but also on how rivals finish on the same schedule. With 15 games running on the final day, multiple matchups can influence the same seed line, creating a tightly linked set of outcomes across both conferences.