NBA Play-In Tournament: Predicting the 8 teams that will compete in the East and West

Eastern Conference Play-In candidates

Looking at the landscape of the Eastern Conference, it’s pretty easy to land on the candidates that could qualify for the Play-In Tournament. Clearly, the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, and Philadelphia 76ers are safe. And with less than 20 games remaining in the regular season, the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks are probably safe too (short of an epic collapse).

That leaves the Brooklyn Nets, Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors, and Washington Wizards as the five teams battling for four spots. The Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers still have some life in potentially sneaking in at the 10th spot.

Of those teams, the Hawks have the toughest schedule with the Pacers and Nets having the “easier” schedule remaining. That said, there isn’t plenty of room for error for the Bulls and Pacers. I find it hard to believe that they’ll be able to make up the games they have to with just a handful of games remaining. But if one of them can, it’s probably the Bulls who have been playing much better as of late.

At the same rate, while the Nets did lose Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, I don’t really trust the Heat or Hawks enough to catch them in the standings over the course of the final few weeks of the regular season. Even less so considering the Nets have a three-game cushion in the loss column.

This is how I will predict the Play-In Tournament to set up in the East:

7. Atlanta Hawks 

8. Miami Heat 

9. Toronto Raptors 

10. Washington Wizards/Chicago Bulls