Playoff clinching/seeding scenarios for the final day of the season

- Hawks clinch the 5th seed with a win, or an Orlando win. Hawks win the H2H tiebreaker with the Magic, and a 3-way tie with Hawks, Raptors and Magic would go to the Hawks due to being the leader in their division

- Hawks will be the 6th seed with a loss AND Raptors win + Magic loss

- Raptors clinch the 5 seed with a win AND a Hawks loss + Magic loss. This is due to them beating the Hawks H2H, but a 3-way tie would result in the Hawks in the 5 seed as laid out above.

- Raptors clinch the 6 seed with a win AND a Hawks win, or a Magic loss. Raptors owns the H2H tiebreaker with the 76ers so them winning would not matter in a direct tie

- Magic clinch the 6 seed with a win and a Raptors loss

- 76ers clinch the 6 seed with a win AND losses from both Raptors and Magic. The 76ers need a 3-way tie, as the tiebreakers are as follows: Division leader (none lead their division), better winning percentage among tied teams (76ers 4-3, Raptors 4-3, Magic 2-4), Division W-L if in same division (76ers 9-7, Raptors 4-13)

- Raptors will be the 7th seed with a loss AND Magic win + 76ers loss

- Magic will be the 7th seed with a Raptors win OR a 76ers loss. They do not have tiebreakers over either team and need to finish ahead of the 76ers

- 76ers will be the 7th seed with a win AND a Magic loss + Raptors win, or a win AND Raptors loss + Magic win. They essentially need to tie in the 7th/8th position to be the 7th seed.

- Raptors will be the 8th seed with a loss AND Magic win + 76ers win

- Magic will be the 8th seed with a loss and 76ers win. 76ers own the H2H, and a 3-way tie with the Raptors as explained above would result in the Magic being bumped down to 8th, meaning the Raptors win or lose would not matter

- 76ers will be the 8th seed with a loss, or Raptors + Magic wins

- Hornets will clinch the 9th seed with a win

- Heat clinch the 9th seed with a win and a Hornets loss. Heat own the H2H

- Nuggets clinch the 3 seed with a win

- Lakers clinch the 3 seed with a win and a Nuggets loss. Lakers own the H2H

- Trail Blazers clinch the 8 seed with a win or a Clippers loss. Trail Blazers own the tiebreaker due to conference record

- Clippers clinch the 8 seed with a win AND a Trail Blazers loss

According-Dig-4667 | Thunder

19 | 6 hours ago

Wow that’s in depth

I never take for granted that I don’t have to worry about this this year

Objective-Product361

15 | 6 hours ago

You aren’t worried that denver might lose the spurs game and end up the 4th seed? Which will make you run through both denver and spurs?

lethalizered | Thunder

9 | 6 hours ago

I mean that’s something we can’t control in the end, so for me personally, nah not really.

The regular season effectively ended for me after the Clippers win, got the first seed secured.

AkrisM | Nuggets

3 | 5 hours ago

Yeah playing Den -> Spurs/Wolves -> Bos/Det is definitely not an easy road to championship. If Den ends up 3rd they will at least dog walk to WCF.

CurrentRoster

-1 | 6 hours ago

i would be shocked if denver gets 2 games off okc

NewConcentrate9682 | Washington Bullets

6 | 5 hours ago

So if the Nuggets take them to 7, that’s an accomplishment in your eyes?

CurrentRoster

4 | 4 hours ago

the accomplishment would be BEATING them

NewConcentrate9682 | Washington Bullets

3 | 4 hours ago

Why is that? You just said the Thunder are so stacked that the Nuggets winning 2 games would be shocking. Taking them to 7 would be an accomplishment in of itself then.

You don’t seem to think very logically.

CurrentRoster

-1 | 4 hours ago

i didn’t say because they’re stacked, it’s mainly cuz they’re simply the better team and proved that the whole year

Then-Response8324 | NBA

1 | 5 hours ago

they’re beating OKC this year lol

CurrentRoster

13 | 5 hours ago

thai sub will tell you that spurs 4-1 record vs okc means they’ll eliminate them and that okc’s 3-1 record vs nuggets means they’ll get eliminated BY them — makes sense

ScheduleExcellent380 | Wizards

-1 | 5 hours ago

Nuggets might not win 2 games against OKC in the playoffs. 2 percent chance they win unless OKC is hurt

ScheduleExcellent380 | Wizards

-1 | 5 hours ago

Only way Denver wins more than a game is injuries

Rhys_Henry

18 | 6 hours ago

So nuggets have an intersting potential road to the finals

If they get 3rd seed: Wolves –> Spurs —> OKC

If they get 4th seed: Rockets —> OKC —> Spurs/Wolves

Of course an upset can happen and one of the lower seeds somehow advance but highly doubt it

Either way they will probbably have one of the hardest road to the finals. It will be intersting what seed theyll choose

VirtuousFool | NYK

10 | 6 hours ago

They’ve had a hard time with Minnesota over the years so they may genuinely want to dip down

[deleted]

1 | 5 hours ago

[deleted]

Lmnhedz | Thunder

5 | 5 hours ago

Nah Spurs want to win to put Denver on OKCs side of the bracket.

blahrendsen | Thunder

1 | 5 hours ago

Spurs would have to win to make that happen.

xtiaaaan_ | Spurs

7 | 6 hours ago

Unironically the hardest road.

jeebhai | Hawks

7 | 6 hours ago

“Raptors clinch the 5 seed with a win and a Hawks loss. This is due to them beating the Hawks H2H.” Don’t think this is correct. They need magic loss too.

I think the only scenario of the three teams where the hawks are not the fifth seed is:

Raptors W, Hawks L, Magic L.

All other seven combinations result is Hawks 5th seed.

CarBallAlex | Celtics

5 | 6 hours ago

Thanks, I missed that one. Fixed it and clarified.

WishyWashedup | Timberwolves

6 | 6 hours ago

You are doing the lords work! I was wondering if the wolves still had a chance to play the lakers in round 1

DrinaPix

5 | 6 hours ago

This is extremely detailed, thanks

nbaistheworst

5 | 6 hours ago

Lots of factors for the last day of the season this year. I’m kinda interested in seeing how many players rest in the Nuggets-Spurs game, after last night’s BS game, with OKC playing Dort plus 7th option Wiggins and the bottom of the bench and the Nuggs resting all 5 starters.

People have talked about the strategy of the Nuggets dropping to 4th being “better” than fighting for 3rd and playing the Wolves while risking injuries in the last game. Since the Nuggets will have HCA in the 1st rd either way, it’s realistically a choice between the OKC or Spurs side of the bracket.

Plane-Gur2798 | Thunder

4 | 5 hours ago

The resting in the DEN/SA game is interesting too because it’s a national TV game so the NBA is a little more strict with sitting healthy guys. Considering Victor doesn’t have to play (and is also legitimately recovering from an injury) but Jokic does for at least 15 minutes, who knows what’s going to happen lol it’ll be interesting to see when the injury report comes out today but the majority of both teams starters are going to be GTD/Questionable.

EarthWarping | NBA

3 | 4 hours ago

I wonder if Jokic plays only the first half and Denver tries to tank the heck of the 2nd half. (Scoreboard watching will come into play I think too especially if LA is ahead by a ton early).

traebucketsfor3 | Hawks

4 | 6 hours ago

Did you figure all this out yourself? Or chat? Bc damn that’s impressive

CarBallAlex | Celtics

15 | 6 hours ago

I did this. I’ve been keeping track of these for a bit. I had a post yesterday about clinching scenarios last night as well. I find this stuff interesting. I don’t use AI for any of my posts, it always gets stuff wrong. Someone did an AI post a few hours ago and it had stuff wrong which convinced me to make an accurate post because people just run with misinformation all the time (the Celtics 3-14 or whatever it was against contenders leaked onto other platforms and was just peddled as a narrative)

I THINK I got it all right but anyone is more than welcome to double check my work if I typo’d or missed something.

Calm-Hearing-2296 | Thunder

2 | 5 hours ago

You dropped this: 👑

EarthWarping | NBA

3 | 4 hours ago

There are two games in which both teams have something to care on.

DEN/SAS and Hawks/Heat.

AllOutRaptors | Raptors

1 | 5 hours ago

If we lose against the Nets and then fall to the play in i will kms

TheGargageMan | Rockets

1 | 3 hours ago

It doesn’t matter if it is the Lakers or Nuggets, Rockets are going to win 3 quarters of nearly every game.

ScheduleExcellent380 | Wizards

-1 | 5 hours ago

Getting a lower seed for better matchups doesn’t work. Avoiding teams is a loser mentality. If you the best you beat who in front of you. Plus historically only top 3 seeds win the finals.

One of the top 3 seeds in either conference will win the finals like they do every season. More than likely a top 2 seed but being 3rd you at least have a chance.

Dropping to 4th almost guarantees you won’t win the finals.