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Final Win-Loss Predictions for Every NBA Team
The 2025-26 NBA marathon has reached the final sprint.
But there's still just enough ground left to cover that no one knows exactly how things will shake out. The handful of games every team has left offers almost all of them a chance to change their fate yet.
Very little has been cemented so far. There are playoff seeds to secure, division crowns to capture and a tank race to stumble across the finish line.
There is enough unsettled to propel us into a final win-loss prediction of the season. From title contenders to unabashed tankers and everyone in between, let's project the final win-loss tallies for every team.
Atlanta Hawks: 47-35
1 of 30
Atlanta being in possession of the Association's third-highest net rating since the All-Star break (plus-10.5) has been most easily attributed to a feather-soft schedule. But a double-digit defeat of the Boston Celtics on Monday night speaks to the fact that the Hawks have played a ton of good basketball of late—regardless of competition.
As long as that maintains, Atlanta can make good on this prediction, which calls for a 4-2 finish. With a home-and-away set remaining against the Cleveland Cavaliers and an upcoming visit from the New York Knicks, the Hawks will have to do more than just win the games they should to pull this off.
Boston Celtics: 56-26
2 of 30
It's been mostly smooth sailing for the Shamrocks since Jayson Tatum's speedy return from his torn Achilles. Even with him shaking off some rust from his jumper, they've gone 9-2 with him on the court.
As long as he keeps making regular appearances—he (understandably) has needed an occasional rest—Boston should retain its status as Eastern Conference juggernauts. Add a middle-of-the-pack schedule to the mix, and a 6-1 finish feels achievable, even if it's a touch optimistic with Tatum's availability.
Brooklyn Nets: 19-63
3 of 30
The Nets have three more wins (and way more losses) than you or I since the All-Star break (assuming, of course, you're not an NBA player). With primary building blocks Egor Dёmin and Michael Porter Jr. on the shelf, it's certainly possible Brooklyn goes winless the rest of the way.
This prediction doesn't call for quite such a tankerrific finish. But still, with home games remaining against the Milwaukee Bucks, Washington Wizards and Indiana Pacers—plus a road stop in Milwaukee—losing five of the final six would be (in tanking terms) pretty impressive.
Charlotte Hornets: 43-39
4 of 30
Charlotte, 2026's most efficient team, would be downshifting quite a bit to split its final six contests. Its schedule might demand that level of deceleration, though. The only remaining game that looks like a gimme is a visit from the Pacers, and even that could be iffy considering the Circle City crew has a 2-1 edge in the season series so far.
The Hornets have to visit the Celtics, Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves and host the Phoenix Suns and Detroit Pistons. If you can find more than three wins in this schedule, there's a decent chance you're a Hornets' season ticket-holder.
Chicago Bulls: 31-51
5 of 30
Chicago's early identity crisis could prove costly at the draft lottery. The Bulls were obvious tankers who didn't immediately know they should be tanking. So, once they made their "meaningful shift" toward the rebuilding road, they were left playing catchup behind folks who'd been future-focused all season.
The Bulls can tank as hard as they want; they probably aren't slipping past anyone behind them on the standings. All they can do is hope they have enough losses left to not jump ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks, too. The always trusty crystal ball thinks they should, especially if their two remaining road meetings with the Washington Wizards don't amount to more than one win.
Cleveland Cavaliers: 52-30
6 of 30
The Cavaliers are in a bit of a tricky spot. On one hand, the gap between them and the third-seeded Knicks is only a game, so it must be tempting to try sprinting through the stretch run. On the other, this club's biggest test—the one that could decide the fate of this core—won't arrive until the playoffs, so they could be cautious about not wearing themselves out.
Luckily, the schedule should allow them to stockpile wins without slamming down the gas pedal. Even if they can't sweep the two games they have left with the Hawks, splitting those contests should allow for a 5-1 finish.
Dallas Mavericks: 25-57
7 of 30
When the Mavericks entered this season with Cooper Flagg, Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving all on the roster—Irving was rehabbing a torn ACL, but an in-season return felt possible then—this can't be how they envisioned things playing out. But even with the losses piling up, Davis traded away and Irving still sidelined, this is far from a lost season.
The Mavericks, whom I have winning only one more game, should get good value out of the final first-round pick they'll control until 2031. And Flagg, at worst a runner-up in an epic Rookie of the Year race, has looked every bit the part of a franchise face.
"You can see it all changing each game for him, there was a point in this season where it slowed down for him, for sure," Bucks coach Doc Rivers recently raved. "And you can visually see the difference in the way he plays and the way he attacks the game."
Denver Nuggets: 53-29
8 of 30
March was an absolute grind for the Nuggets. Their schedule was stuffed like a junk drawer with five different back-to-back sets. And they played a big chunk of it without key defensive stoppers Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson.
Their point-prevention pair is back now, though, and Denver's days of back-to-back bouts are finished. There's reason to believe, then, the Nuggets can still run through the tape in impressive fashion—even if they have two games remaining against the San Antonio Spurs and another with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Detroit Pistons: 60-22
9 of 30
Detroit's No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference felt in real peril when MVP candidate Cade Cunningham was lost to a collapsed lung midway through March. So much for that worry. The Pistons have won six of eight since, and their lone stumbles were overtime losses against Atlanta (by one point) and Oklahoma City (by four).
In other words, the Pistons are every bit the powerhouse their .724 winning percentage says they are. And while they're obviously strongest when Cunningham is leading the charge, they're far from punchless without him. They have a non-zero chance of running the table, but they face some good teams (Charlotte, Minnesota, Philadelphia) and might be able to rest their regulars late, so let's call for a 5-1 finish instead.
Golden State Warriors: 39-43
10 of 30
As much as the why looms as the most fascinating aspect of hoops talks, sometimes the what is all that matters. Regardless how you or I might feel about whether Stephen Curry should come back from the nagging knee injury that's sidelined him for two months, it sure looks like all arrows are pointing toward it happening.
"I don't think Steph is getting shut down for the season," Draymond Green said on a recent episode of The Draymond Green Show. "I do know that Steph is doing all that he can to get back. I do know that he's progressing well on the court. And I do know that he's very, very eager to get back out there. ... He's been doing all that he can and things are really looking up."
If Curry returns, he isn't morphing the Warriors into title contenders. Or maybe not even pesky first-round opponents. What he might do, though, is help them win three of their last seven. Sweep their two games with the Sacramento Kings, and they'll have five tries against good-to-great teams for one win to hit this prediction.
Houston Rockets: 50-32
11 of 30
For only the second time since early February, the Rockets, winners of three straight, are on a streak spanning at least three games. Predicting anything with this team is probably asking for trouble given its unpredictable nature, but that's what this exercise demands.
Houston's schedule should allow for a soft landing, but this team has a tendency to play to its level of competition. In March alone, the Rockets fell to the Stephen Curry-less Warriors and the Collin Sexton-led Bulls, but they also thrashed the Hawks and Knicks. They'll probably lose a game they shouldn't and win a game they're not expected to get, ultimately tallying a 4-3 mark the rest of the way.
Indiana Pacers: 19-63
12 of 30
If the Pacers can pause their win total at 17, they'll finish with a bottom-three record. But they've lacked incentive to win for a while—essentially since Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, when Tyrese Haliburton tore his ACL—and they just split their last four games, downing the Orlando Magic on the road and the Miami Heat at home.
Unless they shut down Pascal Siakam, they'll have at least one player capable of taking over games and leading them to victories. That should give them a leg up (or down?) on the other bottom-feeders and push them toward a 2-5 final month.
Los Angeles Clippers: 42-40
13 of 30
The Clippers are great at convincing you the sky is falling, then laughing in your face the second they realize you believe it. They just sandwiched winning streaks of four and five games around a four-game losing streak that featured flops against the Sacramento Kings and New Orleans Pelicans (twice). Then they came home and got thumped by the Portland Trail Blazers, rallying in the fourth quarter to "only" lose by 10.
They're the NBA's equivalent of the shrug emoji. They can look great when Kawhi Leonard and Darius Garland are playing, but that's not a guarantee—that they'll play or perform particularly well. Splitting their remaining six games feels like a sensible call, then.
Los Angeles Lakers: 54-28
14 of 30
Want to know how well the Lakers are grooving right now? Because calling for a 4-2 finish feels like an undersell, even though L.A. has two games left with Oklahoma City and another with Phoenix. Still, a .667 winning percentage in April would be a pretty sizable skid from its March win rate (.882). It might also require some rare moments of mortality from Luka Dončić, who was simply unstoppable this last month.
"I think Luka has had as good of a month as anybody that I can remember in the modern NBA, at least since I've been part of it," Lakers coach JJ Redick told reporters after his team's 14-point takedown of Cleveland on Tuesday.
Could L.A. just run the table from here? Probably not. Toppling Oklahoma City twice in a month is asking a lot—for anyone who doesn't roster a 7'4" alien, at least—and the Lakers probably can (and probably should) bake in a rest game or two with the No. 3 seed seeming relatively secure.
Memphis Grizzlies: 25-57
15 of 30
For folks who aren't tracking the tank race and glued to the bottom of the standings, the Grizzlies are currently holding a 25-50 record. And for all the non-math majors in the audience, that means this prediction is calling for exactly zero Memphis wins down the stretch.
That feels a little extreme, but also...like...have you seen what's going on with the Grizzlies? Their injury report reads like a novela, they are 2-13 with a minus-201 scoring differential over their last 15 games and their offense is running through two-way and 10-day players. Oh, and they have the eighth-toughest schedule left. So, yeah, zero wins it is.
Miami Heat: 43-39
16 of 30
When the Heat recently punctuated a 1-7 stretch by losing to the lowly Pacers, you almost wondered whether their late-game shenanigans to get Bam Adebayo his 83 points had done irreparable damage to their standing with the hoop gods. Then, they just bottled up a Sixers team that had all three of Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and Paul George, so who knows what you're going to get?
Their shooters can go frigid, and their defense can be defenseless, or they can sometimes look awesome at either end (or both ends on the very best nights). They have two easy games (both at Washington) and four tricky ones left. Splitting the whole set would be fitting for this up-and-down bunch.
Milwaukee Bucks: 32-50
17 of 30
The idea of Giannis Antetokounmpo coming back at this point can be put to bed, right? The Bucks certainly hope so, and a Milwaukee mainstay just said he can't see it happening.
"I don't think he'll play another game this year, for sure," Bobby Portis said on FanDuel TV's Run It Back. "Obviously, he'll stay in the gym and keep his body tight and keep his game tight. But playing a game on court, I don't think that's in the picture at all."
Assuming the Bucks keep it moving without Antetokounmpo, they'll be the same flawed team they've been all season. The schedule doesn't set up for a winless finish, as they face Brooklyn twice and Memphis once, but two wins in seven games is the call here.
Minnesota Timberwolves: 50-32
18 of 30
As soon as Anthony Edwards made it back from his knee injury, Jaden McDaniels went down with his own. While the former holds more significance as the resident franchise face, the loss of the latter is still a real worry for a club that struggles to find consistency around its star.
The Wolves have a tendency to wobble around even at full strength, though, so it should just be more of the norm. Let's say four wins in seven games to close it out with some impressive wins (at Philadelphia and against Charlotte, maybe) and a head-scratching loss (at Indiana or home against New Orleans) mixed in.
New Orleans Pelicans: 27-55
19 of 30
The Pelicans are winding down one of the saddest races in all of sports. This is a true road-to-nowhere journey, as New Orleans has long been eliminated from playoff contention and inexplicably shipped out a potentially super valuable first-round pick last summer.
Six games stand between the Pels and the finish line, and they won't be passing go or collecting $200 to get there. They have no incentive to lose, but they also don't have the talent to tally more victories than defeats.
New York Knicks: 52-30
20 of 30
The 'Bockers recently breezed through a seven-game winning streak, but once the schedule stopped offering up lottery-bound sacrifices (and the Curry-less Warriors), those winning ways immediately halted. Suddenly, the Knicks have suffered three double-digit losses in a row and are facing a time crunch to turn it around.
"I just think we're not going in the right direction," Hart told reporters after the latest loss. "We're not trending upwards. We have to figure it out."
The schedule isn't going to save them. They have a couple of cushions upcoming, but then it's a grind down the stretch: at Atlanta, then home to face Boston, Toronto and Charlotte. Four more wins is probably optimistic, but New York has the talent to do this if it can snap out of this funk.
Oklahoma City Thunder: 64-18
21 of 30
There are other really good, arguably great teams in the NBA, but no one dominates quite like OKC. On the season, the Thunder have assembled a plus-834 scoring differential. For reference, no one else is even a plus-620, and only four other teams are north of plus-360.
Should I just call for a 6-0 closing stretch and move on? That's honestly tempting. But the Thunder still draw the Lakers twice and have road games looming against the Nuggets and Clippers. Throw in the possibility of OKC potentially exhaling in the final week, and a 4-2 mark feels more like it.
Orlando Magic: 43-39
22 of 30
At the time of writing, the Magic have single-digit wins over Sacramento and Phoenix and losses to everyone else to show for their last nine games. They're on the short list of the league's least trustworthy teams. Their offense is prone to full-scale system failures, and their defense is starting to no-show now and again.
They might be getting Franz Wagner back soon, though, and maybe that makes them interesting again? More likely, they'll continue to be maddeningly inconsistent. With some scary matchups still on the schedule, it's hard finding more wins than this.
Philadelphia 76ers: 46-36
23 of 30
Assuming anything in the NBA is rarely advisable, and that rings truer for the Sixers than most. Joel Embiid might fail to crack 40 games for the third consecutive campaign. Paul George won't match the 41 appearances he made last season. The injury bug has even nicked up Tyrese Maxey a couple of times.
So, you can't just write that trio—which arguably has as much star power as any in the East—into the nightly lineup with permanent marker. Everyone is healthy right now, though, and if that holds for the next two weeks, they'll make a spirited push for a top-six seed.
Phoenix Suns: 46-36
24 of 30
The Suns have Dillon Brooks back, Mark Williams on the mend and Devin Booker giving All-NBA voters plenty to think about. They can still punctuate this surprising season in impressive fashion, even though things have been rather wonky of late (10-11 since the All-Star break).
The schedule offers a tiny bit of relief, but Phoenix will lock horns with good competition more often than not. It'll take some fight to hit this mark, then, but if this group has proved anything this season, it's shown it has a clear and convincing willingness to scrap.
Portland Trail Blazers: 42-40
25 of 30
Portland's remaining slate is mercifully spaced out. The Blazers could use the longer breaks to hopefully heal up from a rash of calf injuries. Because as resilient as this group has been, there isn't a great way to mask the absences of both Shaedon Sharpe and Jerami Grant.
That said, the Blazers play hard enough to imagine they'll keep pushing until the checkered flag falls. And they only need one more triumph than defeat to ensure a winning record, which would be the franchise's first since 2020-21.
Sacramento Kings: 19-63
26 of 30
The Kings, through no intention of their own, were leading the tank race through much of this season. Then, they split 14 games from late February through late March for some reason, and now they'll need help to finish with a bottom-three record.
They haven't won since that stretch, at least, and the schedule might allow them to extend that streak through the season's final buzzer. They'll need the Pelicans and Warriors to do their part, but since New Orleans can't tank and Golden State could get Stephen Curry back, it's possible Sacramento keeps its win total right where it sits.
San Antonio Spurs: 62-20
27 of 30
Seven different teams suffered more than 20 losses over the months of February and March. San Antonio, meanwhile, lost twice—in 27 games. During this stretch, the Spurs had the NBA's best offense and its No. 2 defense. It was the kind of domination perhaps only achievable by a team with the walking cheat code that is Victor Wembanyama and a wealth of young, ascending talent around him.
Maybe 62 wins isn't aggressive enough, but San Antonio has some tricky matchups ahead. And if it figures out that chasing down Oklahoma City isn't possible, a rest game or two could be in the cards.
Toronto Raptors: 47-35
28 of 30
If the Raptors aren't alternating wins and losses, they're usually shuffling through pint-sized streaks in either direction. They had a three-game winning streak in the middle of March, but they otherwise haven't had the same result three times in a row since late January.
Consistent inconsistency should probably be the expectation, but the Raptors should still have more celebrations than pity parties. When things go south, they can look awful, but they still present unique problems on both ends with their length, athleticism and versatility. They'll pass most of their remaining tests.
Utah Jazz: 22-60
29 of 30
Utah had last season's worst record and left the lottery with the No. 5 pick. Maybe that explains why the Jazz haven't tanked quite as hard this season. They're stockpiling losses now, sure, but they waited a little while before pulling the plug, and it's very possible they'll fare even worse at this year's lottery.
Their 21 wins are already more than some of this season's biggest losers will tally, so a head-first plunge would only be so helpful. Then again, the schedule should take care of the loss column, anyway. The Jazz will spend most of this final slate away from home with stops in Houston, Oklahoma City and Los Angeles still to come.
Washington Wizards: 19-63
30 of 30
What a wild ride the 2025-26 season has been for Washington. Major moves for established stars (Trae Young, Anthony Davis), developmental progress made among several key prospects—and almost no winning basketball to speak of. The Wizards are 3-22 in their last 25 games. Even though it's by design, that's just a wild level of losing.
At this rate, Washington would have to really heat up to get to 19 wins. That said it will tussle twice with Chicago, once with Brooklyn and twice with a Miami team it might be determined to get after stomaching Bam Adebayo's 83-piece. This feels doable, even if it'd be a break from the norm in the District.
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