2026 NBA Playoff Picture, Bracket Clinching Scenarios for Lakers, More on Wednesday

With four days remaining in the 2025-26 NBA regular season, 10 of the 12 traditional playoff spots have been clinched and all four play-in teams in the Western Conference are set.

The two playoff spots still up for grabs are the No. 5 and 6 seeds in the Eastern Conference, with five teams within three games of each other in the loss column for those final slots to avoid the play-in tournament.

Seeds three through five in the West remain up for grabs and may not be decided until the final day of the regular season because the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets are all within one game of each other.

The Lakers, coming off three straight losses, are currently in the No. 4 seed. They own the head-to-head tiebreakers over Denver and Houston if those teams were to finish with identical records.

Here is the updated playoff bracket after Tuesday's games, as well as the seeding possibilities for each team still in the hunt.

There are two clinching scenarios on Wednesday's schedule:

• Oklahoma City Thunder: Clinch No. 1 seed in Western Conference and best record in the NBA with a win over the Los Angeles Clippers OR a San Antonio Spurs loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
• Atlanta Hawks: Clinch playoff spot and Southwest Division title with a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers

The two spots that are locked in entering play on Wednesday are the Detroit Pistons as the No. 1 seed in the East and Golden State Warriors as the No. 10 seed in the West.

Atlanta does have a difficult closing stretch with back-to-back games against the Cavs on Wednesday and Friday, followed by a road game against the Miami Heat on Sunday to finish out the regular season.

The Cavs still have an outside shot at the No. 3 seed, but they would need to finish with a better record than the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics since they lost the season series to both teams.

The Hawks, despite Monday's loss to the Knicks, have won 18 of their 21 games since Feb. 22. Their 45 wins are their most in a season since 2015-16 (48-34).

After a brief midseason lull, at least by their standards, the Thunder are back to being a juggernaut. They are 21-2 since the All-Star break with their last three wins by a combined 114 points, two of them against the Lakers.

The Thunder are two wins away from back-to-back 65-win seasons. The last team to accomplish that were the Golden State Warriors, who did it in three consecutive seasons from 2014-15 to 2016-17.