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Biggest Winners and Losers From Wild 2026 NBA Play-In Tournament So Far
Four games into the 2026 NBA play-in tournament, one thing has become unquestionably clear: This rules.
Just about every single matchup has come down to the wire. With playoff spots on the line, the quality of basketball is, generally, living up to the higher-stakes moment.
New postseason stars are emerging. More familiar (read: older ones) are reminding us they're still here. Instagram-story screenshots are going viral like it's 2018. The Orlando Magic will not be denied the opportunity to crap the bed.
The list goes on. And as this catalog of revelations good, bad, ugly, awesome and wonderfully weird continues to grow, something else becomes abundantly clear: We need to fire up the winners-and-losers machine to properly sort through the beautiful bedlam.
Winner: LaMelo Ball
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After shooting a ghastly 2-of-16 on threes against the Miami Heat, being retroactively assessed a Flagrant 2 for tripping Bam Adebayo and committing a late-game foul that damn near ended the Charlotte Hornets' season, LaMelo Ball should theoretically be hosting a party in the Loser's Lounge.
He's among the biggest winners instead.
Not only did he reiterate his value to the Hornets with his dribble penetration, his passing and a couple of big shots down the stretch, but he avoided suspension for the incident with Bam that has Takesmiths everywhere wading into The Discourse. Because play-in stats are lost to the ether, his retroactively assessed flagrant won't even count towards his total tally if Charlotte scraps its way into a first-round matchup with the Detroit Pistons.
Of course, LaMelo isn't exiting this completely unscathed. The league is fining him $35,000 for what he did to Bam and $25,000 for having a potty mouth. So, $60,000 total. Or, almost an entire weekend's worth of traffic tickets.
Winner: Coby White and the Charlotte Hornets
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LaMelo Ball isn't the only winner in Buzz City. The Hornets have been the NBA's most feel-good story since approximately Thanksgiving and extended these immaculate vibes at least one more game with a thrilling overtime victory against the Heat.
Picking up that W while LaMelo and Kon Knueppel combined to shoot 2-of-22 from long distance and despite Grant Williams forgetting he's Grant Williams is pretty incredible. Bam Adebayo leaving the game with a lower back injury helped. Coby White's 19 points off the bench, 14 of which came in the third quarter, helped even more.
No moment was bigger than his game-tying three to keep Charlotte's hopes at overtime alive:
It takes uniquely, gloriously unhinged self-confidence to fire up a heavily contested triple while falling away toward the sideline with over 12 seconds left on the clock. White's absence of fear is aspirational.
As it turns out, trading Collin Sexton, Ousmane Dieng and second-round equity to get him at the deadline was a fantastic move by the Hornets. Their season would probably be over without him.
Loser: Bam Adebayo
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Leaving a win-or-go home game early with a lower-back injury is never a good time. It is even worse when the situation was entirely avoidable, the direct result of someone else's decision (or complete absence of thinking). It is worse still when your team is trailing by just two points and then goes on to lose.
Bam Adebayo's exit against the Hornets arguably ended the Heat's season. That possibility alone should be punishment enough.
The league disagrees.
Adding further insult to Bam's injury, LaMelo Ball escaped the incident without being ejected, disciplined in real time whatsoever or getting suspended after the fact. In what amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist, he was fined $35,000 (plus $25,000 for cussing postgame) and retroactively assessed a Flagrant 2.
Even if you believe LaMelo wasn't acting out of malice (which, fair!). Bam and the Heat have to be feeling scorned. Their season is over, their best player was injured enough to be held out of the most important game of the year, and LaMelo's postseason rolls on, essentially unscathed.
Winner: Chicago Bulls Fans
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Missing the play-in almost assuredly cemented the Chicago Bulls' decision to fire executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley. Fans were ecstatic. They're still elated.
The Portland Trail Blazers just made them even happier.
Back in 2021, the Bulls signed-and-traded Lauri Markkanen to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a three-team deal that saw them receive Derrick Jones Jr. and Portland's 2022 first-round pick. Here's the catch: That Blazers selection was lottery protected through 2028.
For a while, it looked as if it would never convey. Or that when it did, the Blazers would be so good they'd send the Bulls a pick in the late 20s.
On the heels of Portland's win over the Phoenix Suns, though, Chicago will now receive No. 15—a borderline lottery selection.
Bagging this pick doesn't change what Markkanen has gone on to become (in Utah, not Cleveland). Or that fans must still put their faith in an organization ruled by the Reinsdorfs. But when coupled with a long-overdue front office overhaul that might be the direct result of not making the play-in, this qualifies as a major break in the clouds.
Loser: Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers
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Yes, the Clippers literally lost. But their L extends well beyond falling to a self-proclaimed fading dynasty.
L.A. now hasn't made it past the first round of the playoffs since 2021. If this is the end of the Kawhi Leonard era, the Clippers will have advanced to the semifinals just twice since his arrival. That is not what they had in mind when trading everything under the sun, including the current reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, to land Paul George and facilitate Fun Guy's arrival.
Kawhi does have another year left on his contract, so the party may not be over. Counterpoint: It's probably over.
It took a career year from Leonard, at the age of 34, just to get the Clippers to the play-in tournament. They cannot bank on him exploring new peaks of play and availability again.
The Clippers have plenty of flexibility moving forward and already started easing into the future by jettisoning Ivica Zubac and James Harden. They are not barren. But they are faced with mapping out a new direction, with or without Kawhi, for the first time in almost a decade. And they must make this decision while waiting for, or dealing with the fallout from, the NBA's investigation into whether they circumvented the salary cap.
On top of everything, they will now be sending the Oklahoma City Thunder a lottery pick (via swap rights) as their penultimate obligation from the Kawhi trade.
Leonard's immediate future is similarly opaque. There will be a market for his services if the Clippers trade him, but will he have a say in where he goes? He seems unbothered by the ongoing investigation into his deal with the now-defunct Aspiration, but could his contract be voided depending on the results?
Regardless of what happens or where Kawhi begins next season, he's entering a phase of his career in which he'll no longer be the central focus of his team's future. Getting to this point while leaving a trail of what-ifs in your wake was never going to feel peachy keen. It sucks so much more knowing the last hurrah ended before the playoffs officially began.
Winner: Oklahoma City Thunder
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The Paul George trade is the gift that keeps on giving...to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Because they have swap rights with the Clippers' first-round pick, they are now guaranteed to receive a lottery selection.
Assessing trades is easier with the benefit of hindsight, but even if you supported L.A.'s kitchen-sink play in real-time, you understood OKC was getting a haul. Nearly seven years later, this has turned into perhaps the biggest heist of all time.
Lead exec Sam Presti and friends flipped PG for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, five first-round picks (including L.A.'s 2027 selection) and two swaps. Running through what those assets have become requires encyclopedic length we don't have, but the cliff notes alone drive home the ridiculousness.
SGA turned an into MVP. One of those picks became Jalen Williams. And now the Thunder, the reigning champs and owners of the league's best record, are guaranteed a lottery pick—with a 7.2 percent chance of leaping into the top four.
Loser: Anthony Edwards
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A totally biased, not-at-all-independent arbitrator (me) has decided that rule challenges adjudicated during the play-in tournament count. Especially when they're this friggin' dumb.
Cade Cunningham and Luka Dončić will be eligible to make All-NBA teams and for the MVP ballot after the NBA and NBPA ruled in favor of their "Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge" to the league's 65-game rule. This is great news for them.
Not so much for Anthony Edwards.
He filed a similar motion, which was "advanced to an independent arbitrator" and ultimately denied. He will not be eligible for year-end rewards.
Great job, everyone (pejorative).
Let this be a reminder to us all that the 65-game rule is stupid, and that both the league and player's union deserve our ire, since this needlessly limiting threshold was collectively bargained.
Edwards logged 2,136 minutes across 61 appearances, giving him more total court time than awards-eligible players like Kawhi Leonard (2,085), Evan Mobley (2,074), Chet Holmgren (1,997) and Victor Wembanyama (1,865). Voters should be allowed to decide whether he played enough—and was good enoigh—to warrant All-NBA selection on their own.
Winner: Deni Avdija
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All-NBA ballots had not gone out prior to the Portland Trail Blazers beating the Phoenix Suns and securing their first trip to the playoffs since 2021. Deni Avdija should be thrilled.
The 25-year-old went off for 41 points and 12 assists on 15-of-22 shooting. It was a dizzying display of his shifty driving, ability for drawing contact, playmaking and, most critically, bandwidth for carrying an entire offense.
While All-NBA is a regular-season exercise, this being the last Avdija performance on voters' minds can only improve his chances. Plus, the play-in tournament exists in this weird space. The NBA doesn't count the stats from these games in any official capacity yet noted that Avdija made history by becoming the first player to log at least 40 points and 10 assists during a play-in game. This outing might be fair game.
If nothing else, the performance served as a wake-up call for those who have not followed Avdija or the Blazers very closely this season. I'm sure he'd prefer an outright All-NBA selection, but unlike play-in-game stat lines, this anecdotal affirmation counts for something.
Loser: Orlando Magic
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This isn't just about the full-strength Orlando Magic losing to a Philadelphia 76ers squad without Joel Embiid. It's about this group being an abject disaster virtually all season.
Everything you've heard about this Magic team is true. Sucky offense is ingrained into the fabric of their existence. Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner aren't efficient enough scorers and could stand to hire Andre Drummond as their shooting coach. A Jalen Suggs-or-Anthony Black ultimatum is waiting. Head coach Jamahl Mosley could get fired before Friday's last-gasp effort against the Hornets.
Injuries can explain away some of the Magic's dreariness, but this team is beyond excuses. In their past two games alone, their core guys have now been daddy'd by the Embiid-less Sixers and the Boston Celtics' skeleton crew.
Beating the Hornets would almost be cruel to the fanbase. Why force them to stomach more of this? Just for a chance to get bodied by the Pistons? Best to rip off the Band-Aid now.
Either way, Orlando didn't fork over four first-round picks to get Desmond Bane and spend itself to luxury-tax territory in future seasons for early exits that double as torturous watches. Change is coming. Mosley seems good as gone. Whether a fresh voice and offensive perspective can be enough is debatable at best and laughable at worst. More nuclear scenarios could be in play.
Winner: Chris Paul
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If you're wondering whether Chris Paul holds a grudge for how things ended earlier this season with the Los Angeles Clippers, may we please direct you to the Instagram story he posted immediately after they lost to the Golden State Warriors:
Imagine not having CP3 on your All-Grudge-Holder First Team.
Trolling former squads is always encouraged, but this case is especially sweet. CP3's reunion tour with the Clippers was cut abruptly, awkwardly short this past December. Sitting at 5-16, with CP3 and head coach Ty Lue reportedly not speaking to one another, the team told its greatest player in franchise history to take his ball and unsolicited advice, and go home.
Barely two months later, after being traded to and then waived by the Toronto Raptors, Paul retired. Look at him now, though: expertly crossing over the high road like it's a big man switching onto him in space.
Granted, Paul is hardly blameless in how it all fell apart. But grating passenger-seat coaching is ingrained into the Chris Paul experience. The Clippers, of all teams, should have known who they signed.
It doesn't matter that they turned their season around after dismissing the Point God. Jokes can't disprove facts, but they often supersede them. And in the spirit of that, we leave you with what Blake Griffin said during Amazon Prime's postgame show: "Ty Lue finally has time on his hands to meet with CP."
Loser: The In-Game Viewing Experience
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Amazon Prime's in-studio NBA show is refreshing. The announcers are, by and large, doing their thing.
But the Play-In on Prime in-game experience sort of sucks.
Anyone who watched regularly throughout the season knows the audio-visual alignment has been off. Yet, it's been a special brand of ass during the play-in.
The audio is seconds, plural, ahead of the visual feed. There's nothing quite like hearing Kevin Harlan losing his mind over a Kristaps Porziņģis put-back jam a full "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" before you actually get to see it.
Bake in the use of AI graphics that have obvious flaws beyond looking exactly like AI graphics, and you've got too many moments of yuck. The basketball has been good enough to transcend it. But when you're already depriving fans of hearing their local broadcasts, the basketball being good enough isn't good enough.
Winner: The Warriors' Olds
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Between Steve Kerr calling the Golden State Warriors a fading dynasty , the knee issues Stephen Curry dealt with to close the season, Jimmy Butler's torn right ACL and the overall march of time, laboring through the play-in tournament could feel like cruel and unusual punishment.
Instead, it's fun as hell.
Golden State's victory over the Clippers was led largely by its "Most Likely to Wear Velcro Orthotics" crew. Stephen Curry, age 38, detonated for 35 points on 7-of-12 shooting from beyond the arc. Draymond Green, age 36, paired trademark defensive disruption with nine assists. Gary Payton II, age 33, was a blanketing force on the less-glamorous end himself.
Oh, and then there's Al Horford. Just when you think the 39-year-old might be done, he drops 12 fourth quarter points on a 4-of-4 clip from downtown, drilling more daggers than his fellow enlarged-phone-font user Mr. Curry.
To what end the Dubs' win over the Clippers matters remains to be seen. They have to get through the Phoenix Suns on Friday to earn a best-of-seven crack at OKC. But it's like Kerr said after the game: This is why Steph came back—to compete, and to deliver these types of precious moments. Play the "It's only the nine-versus-10 game" card all you like. Seeing this team, with this megastar, care this much is a W for us all.
Winner: The West's Final Play-In Game / Draymond Green's Ad Revenue
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Draymond Green versus Dillon Brooks? For the r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶t̶r̶u̶c̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶T̶h̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶ Western Conference's final playoff spot?
Someone is going to die.
Or podcast-content overload.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
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