2026 NBA playoffs

The 2026 NBA playoffs is the upcoming postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 2025–26 season. The playoffs will begin on April 18 and will end with the conclusion of the 2026 NBA Finals.

• The Oklahoma City Thunder will make the playoffs for the third consecutive season. They also won the Maurice Podoloff Trophy for clinching the best record in the NBA for the second straight year.

• The Boston Celtics will make the playoffs for the twelfth consecutive season, the longest such streak in the NBA.

• The Denver Nuggets will make the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season.

• The Minnesota Timberwolves will make the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season.

• The New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, and Cleveland Cavaliers will make the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.

• The Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets will make the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

• The San Antonio Spurs will make the playoffs for the first time since 2019.

• The Atlanta Hawks will make the playoffs for the first time since 2023.

• The Toronto Raptors will make the playoffs for the first time since 2022.

• The Indiana Pacers will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2023. They were the defending Eastern Conference champions from 2025.

• The Memphis Grizzlies will miss the playoffs after making the postseason the previous year.

• The Milwaukee Bucks will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

• The New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks will miss the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

• The Brooklyn Nets and Sacramento Kings will miss the playoffs for the third consecutive season.

• The Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls will miss the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.

• The Washington Wizards will miss the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season.

• The Miami Heat will take part in the play-in tournament for the fourth consecutive season.

• The Golden State Warriors will take part in the play-in tournament for the third consecutive season.

• The Orlando Magic will take part in the play-in tournament for the second consecutive season.

• The Philadelphia 76ers will take part in the play-in tournament for the first time since 2024.

• The Los Angeles Clippers and Charlotte Hornets will take part in the play-in tournament for the first time since 2022.

• The Portland Trail Blazers will take part in the play-in tournament for the first time since 2020.

• The Phoenix Suns will take part in the play-in tournament for the first time in franchise history.

Eight teams from each conference participated in the playoffs. The top six teams in each conference, based on winning percentage, directly qualified for the playoffs; the seeding order of those teams was also based on winning percentage. If two or more teams had the same record, standard NBA tiebreaker rules were used.

The NBA Board of Governors adopted a format starting in 2021 to have a play-in tournament involving the teams ranked 7th through 10th in each conference. The 7th place team and 8th place team participated in a "double-chance" game, with the winner advancing to the playoffs as the 7-seed. The loser then played the winner of the elimination game between the 9th place and 10th place teams to determine the playoff's 8-seed. The NBA's regular playoff format then proceeded as normal. Furthermore, the winner of the match between the loser of the 7/8 game and the winner of the 9/10 game always plays on day 2 of the NBA playoffs to allow that team at least a day of rest.

Each conference's bracket was fixed with no reseeding. All rounds were a best-of-seven series; a series ended when one team won four games, and that team advanced to the next round. All rounds, including the NBA Finals, were in a 2–2–1–1–1 format with regards to hosting. In the conference playoffs, home-court advantage went to the higher-seeded team (number one being the highest). For the NBA Finals, home-court advantage went to the team with the better regular season record, and, if needed, ties were broken based on head-to-head record, followed by intra-conference record.

On March 17, 2026, the Oklahoma City Thunder became the first team to clinch a playoff spot. While noted in the below tables, division titles have no bearing on seeding.

The below tables reflect current playoff positioning and are subject to change through the end of the regular season (April 12). Seeds 7 and 8 in each conference are not finalized until the play-in tournament is completed.

† Teams ranked 7 through 10 will participate in the play-in tournament to determine seeds 7 and 8.

† Teams ranked 7 through 10 will participate in the play-in tournament to determine seeds 7 and 8.

Bold Game winner

Italic Team with home-court advantage

Bold Game winner

Italic Team with home-court advantage

Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its conference, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. The division champions are marked by an asterisk. Teams with home court advantage, the higher seeded team, are shown in italics.

Note: Times are EDT (UTC−4) as listed by NBA. If the venue is located in a different time zone, the local time is also given.

This will be the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams and the first since 2021, with the Knicks winning two of the first three meetings.

This will be the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams and the first since 2018, with the Cavaliers winning the first three meetings.

This will be the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams and the first since 2024, with the Timberwolves winning two of the first three meetings.

This will be the tenth playoff meeting between these two teams and the first since 2020, with the Lakers winning six of the first nine meetings.

This is the first postseason of new 11-year deals with the ESPN family of networks, NBC Sports and Amazon Prime Video. All first-round playoff games in the United States will now be exclusive national games, and there will no longer be regional broadcasts.

Amazon Prime Video will stream between nine and 17 first-round playoff games, and between five and nine second-round playoff games. ESPN and ABC will have approximately 18 games in the first two rounds. NBC Sports will produce between 22 and 34 games in the first two rounds, with at least half of them airing on NBC. For the opening weekend, Amazon Prime Video will stream a Saturday tripleheader, ABC will air a Saturday primetime game and a Sunday afternoon doubleheader, and NBC will air a Sunday primetime doubleheader.

As per the alternating rotation, NBC will have the Western Conference Finals this season, while ESPN/ABC will have the Eastern Conference Finals. ABC has exclusive coverage of the NBA Finals for the 24th straight year.

Peacock and ESPN DTC will also stream all NBC and ESPN/ABC games, respectively.

For the fifth straight year, the playoffs is officially known as the "2026 NBA Playoffs presented by Google." During the expanded sponsorship agreement with Google where it expanded the sponsorship from the "Google Pixel" brand in favor of the general Google branding, this sponsorship provides the logo branding inside the venues and in official digital properties on-court, as well as commercial inventory during ESPN, ABC, NBC and Amazon Prime Video telecasts of the playoff games.

• Basketball – Reference.com's 2026 Playoffs section