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The regular season ends on Wednesday, and the playoffs are already less than 72 hours away. Still, the postseason bracket is far from set in stone, with one spot still up for grabs back in the Eastern Conference and not a single first-round series set out West.
The Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics, and Indiana Pacers are locked into the East's top five seeds, in descending order. But only the Celtics and Pacers, playing each other, know their first-round opponent. The Brooklyn Nets and Orlando Magic have each clinched playoff berths, with their seed still to be decided based on a series of results from Wednesday's slate of games. The Nets will be slotted into the sixth or seventh slot because they own a tiebreaker over the Detroit Pistons, who will clinch a spot in the field with a win over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. The Charlotte Hornets are the only other Eastern Conference team in the East still alive, needing a Pistons loss and win over the Magic at home to get in.
The West is less complicated on the surface considering all eight playoff spots were spoken for last week, but becomes far less clear when digging into matchup scenarios. The Golden State Warriors, at first, and the Utah Jazz, in fifth, are the only teams who currently know their seed. The Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, and Portland Trail Blazers will split the two, three, and four seeds in some order, with Denver and Portland's regular-season finale still remaining. The final three slots will be decided by games the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, and Los Angeles Clippers, the latter of whom are tied in the standings, play on Wednesday night.
Finally, the playoffs are (almost) here, and we'll know much, much more about they might unfold after Wednesday night.
