The 2025–26 NBA season is coming to a close, with the final day of the regular season set for Apr. 12.
It’s been a fun year filled with plenty of great (even historic) performances and enjoyable highlights aplenty. But this is the time of year where fans, teams and players all look forward to the intensity getting kicked up a notch in the playoffs. The NBA postseason will unofficially begin on Apr. 14 starting with the play-in tournament. Then, on Apr. 18, the playoffs tip off in full as every contending team goes to war for the right to raise the Larry O’Brien Trophy in June.
However, there are a few steps to take before we reach those exciting dates. The playoff picture is not yet fully formed. These last few weeks of the year will consist of every postseason hopeful fighting hard to clinch their playoff spot and avoid elimination. With how narrow the margins are in the standings, we should be in for some incredible basketball as the season winds down.
Here we’ll keep track of every NBA team’s playoff status, from the teams that are officially eliminated with eyes on the loaded 2026 draft to the championship contenders who get to punch their playoff tickets early thanks to a season full of winning.
Which NBA teams have clinched a playoff spot?
On Tuesday night, the Thunder became the first team in the NBA to clinch a playoff berth this season. OKC beat the Magic 113–108 to win their ninth game in a row and seal a spot in the postseason.
The reigning champs haven’t been quite as dominant as last year’s 68-win juggernaut but still figure to finish at the top of the league. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is putting forth another strong MVP case and his reputation as one of the NBA’s true superstars is well-earned. With the playoff spot secured, OKC just has to maintain its current pace to earn the top seed in the West and best position the team to go back-to-back as NBA champions.
Which team could be next to clinch a spot?
The Spurs and Pistons both figure to be in the mix as the next team to clinch a playoff spot. Detroit owns a comfortable 3-1/2 game lead over the Celtics for the No. 1 seed in the East; at 48 wins on the year so far Cade Cunningham’s squad should be the next team to hit 50 victories and a postseason spot is likely to follow. San Antonio, meanwhile, has suffered only two losses since Feb. 1 and hit the 50-win mark already after beating the Hornets over the weekend. The Spurs own a seven-game lead for the second seed in the West so it’s only a matter of time before the franchise’s return to postseason basketball becomes official.
Which NBA teams have been eliminated from the playoffs?
As of Mar. 17, four teams have been eliminated from the 2026 NBA playoffs.
In the East, the Pacers, Nets and Wizards are all eliminated. None of those teams come as a surprise. Indiana knew it was entering a gap year after Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles in last year’s NBA Finals. Brooklyn and Washington are in the midst of multi-year rebuilding efforts that have featured plenty of losing. The Nets last appeared in the playoffs in 2023, while the Wizards haven’t been back since 2021.
Out West, the Kings are the only team eliminated. Unlike the above franchises Sacramento did not come into this season planning on a bad year. But the wheels fell off rather quickly and there hasn’t been much beam-lighting for the Kings’ faithful this year; Sacramento has been one of the worst teams in the NBA from the get-go.
| TEAM | DATE ELIMINATED | LAST YEAR’S FINISH |
|---|---|---|
| Indiana Pacers | Mar. 10 | 4th in East |
| Sacramento Kings | Mar. 11 | 9th in West |
| Washington Wizards | Mar. 12 | 15th in East |
| Brooklyn Nets | Mar. 12 | 12th in East |
How many teams make the NBA playoffs?
In total, 16 teams will be left standing when the playoffs officially kick off on Apr. 18. Eight teams from the West will battle through a bracket of best-of-seven series to reach the NBA Finals, while eight teams from the East will do the same.
But thanks to the play-in tournament, a total of 20 teams will play past the end of the season. Six teams from each conference will clinch a playoff berth over the next few weeks, and the remaining four from each conference must win in the play-in tournament to qualify for the official postseason bracket.
How NBA playoff tiebreakers work
The NBA has several tiebreaking rules to be used if two teams finish the regular season with the same record. These tiebreakers are most often used to determine seeding among playoff teams but, in rare instances, can be used to decide if a team will clinch a playoff spot or suffer elimination.
Those tiebreakers, in order of priority, are:
- Division leader wins tie over team not leading a division
- Head-to-head won-lost percentage
- Division won-lost percentage for teams in the same division
- Conference won-lost percentage
- Won-lost percentage vs. playoff-eligible teams, own conference
- Won-lost percentage vs. playoff-eligible teams, other conference
- Net points, all games
There are even more detailed scenarios that the NBA is prepared for but those are the basic and most oft-used tiebreakers for the playoffs.
More NBA from Sports Illustrated
Listen to SI’s NBA podcast, Open Floor, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NBA Playoff Tracker: Thunder Become First Team to Punch Their Ticket to Postseason.
