The NBA Play-In Tournament bracket has officially been set for the Eastern Conference. The West will be decided on the final day of the season.
The NBA postseason officially begins with the start of the NBA Play-In Tournament Tuesday, April 11. On that day, it will feature a pair of games between the 7th and 8th seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference. The following day, the 9th and 10th seeds will square off, culminating in a final qualifying game that will take place between the loser of the 7-8 game and the winner of the 9-10 matchup on Friday, April 14.
And it’s official, one side of the bracket is set.
With two days remaining in the regular season, the East side of the Play-In Tournament bracket is locked in. The Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat are the 7th and 8th seeds, respectively. And the Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors snuck in as the 9th and 10th seeds.
The West side of the Play-In Tournament is still not locked in. Though, we have a good sense of who will most likely have to play their way into the NBA Playoffs.
Predicting what the West Play-In bracket will look like
Assuming there are no big hiccups over the next two days, which would be somewhat surprising considering most of the non-Play-In Tournament teams are resting players at this point in the season, it appears that the Los Angeles Lakers are going to settle in as the 7th seed, the New Orleans Pelicans will grab the 8th seed, the Minnesota Timberwolves will be the 9th seed, and the Oklahoma City Thunder are going to nab the final spot in the Tournament as the 10th seed.
Again, there could be some movement depending on how the final two games of the regular season shake out, but with most teams resting players, it would seem that it’s safe to say that’s how the final standings are going to end heading into the postseason.
With a couple of big-name teams featured in the Play-In Tournament, it should provide some interesting storylines before even the start of the NBA Playoffs. Could the Lakers be knocked out before they even have a shot of making a playoff run? Could the Thunder complete their miracle of a season and qualify as the 8th seed?
Could we see another Heat-Celtics playoff series?
The Play-In Tournament has been a welcomed addition to the NBA Postseason and there’s not a loss of intrigue this year either.