2026 NBA playoffs: Who will win it all? 25 takes on the East, West and Finals predictions

2026 NBA playoffs: Who will win it all? 25 takes on the East, West and Finals predictions

The 2026 NBA playoffs will feature legendary matchups, intriguing questions and all kinds of X-factors. But who has the most at stake this postseason, and who will ultimately win it all? Our writers weigh in.

What’s your take on the East? 

Tom Haberstroh: Boston’s magical run will continue to the Finals. In training camp, if Boston envisioned a best-case scenario for the regular season, the actual 2025-26 season would be it. It’s one thing for Jayson Tatum to come back healthy. It’s another thing for him to look like the Jayson Tatum of old. And he has. Bad news for the East.

Ben Rohrbach: The Celtics are the only team in the East capable of contending with the West. The Pistons lack a secondary creator. The Knicks have defensive holes. The Cavaliers rely on James Harden to get them over the hump in the second round. Not to say any of them cannot beat the Celtics. I just think none of them have a shot in the Finals. Only Boston, with a healthy Tatum, can challenge the depth of whoever emerges from a gauntlet in the other conference.

Everything to know for the NBA playoffs: Predictions, series previews, X-factors

Kelly Iko: I’m not saying there’ll be an upset, but I’m not saying there won’t be one. Over the final two months of the regular season, the Spurs and Thunder are first and second in net rating. The next two on the list? Hawks and Hornets. I say this with the assumption that red-hot Charlotte gets past Orlando (this may be a jinx), but even with how the Hornets and Hawks are set up — opposite ends of the pace spectrum — the mandates are clear: spread the floor, move the ball and have different pressure points of attack. Both look like very, very tough outs. 

Dan Devine: I think all of the favorites will make it out of Round 1, but all of them will have to sweat to do it. The Pistons have been the most buttoned-up team in the East all season, and might wind up staring down a perpetual chaos machine out of Charlotte. The Celtics look like a war machine, but there’s nothing fun about having to try to corral Tyrese Maxey for 48 minutes (or more, if Nick Nurse can bend space-time to play him even longer than that). Knicks-Hawks and Cavs-Raptors are both pace-of-play style clashes, and the favorites are going to have to work to maintain control of the wheel. Nothing in the East feels like an obvious walkover, which makes everything more compelling. Styles make fights. Weaknesses force innovation. Perfection is boring; let’s embrace being fractured and have fun getting weird.

Nekias Duncan: There’s a heightened level of the “unknown.” Take Cavs-Raptors; their regular-season matchups happened before Thanksgiving. We are getting a fresh look at these two in a high-stakes setting. We only got one “real” look at Hawks-Knicks back on April 6, and even that lacked positional cross-matching from the Hawks’ side — they didn’t stash a wing on Karl-Anthony Towns with their center (Onyeka Okongwu) roaming off of Josh Hart, a popular gambit — that I’m sure we’ll see this time around. Health permitting, you can build a reasonable case to any of these teams winning multiple playoff rounds; that feels rare.

What’s your take on the West?

Rohrbach: The Spurs are every bit as good as the Thunder, and the Nuggets are as good as both of them. Every metric imaginable suggests that San Antonio, with Victor Wembanyama, is on par with OKC, the defending NBA champions. Denver would have exceeded 60 wins, too, if it had been healthy all season. With apologies to the Timberwolves, who could beat the Nuggets in the first round, one of three teams is winning the West — and all might have an equal chance.

Iko: Outside of another Nuggets-Wolves rerun, this might be the most ho-hum first round seen in quite some time. I don’t expect either Oklahoma City or San Antonio to bat an eye at the Warriors/Suns or Blazers, and outside of a few Kevin Durant/LeBron James moments, I’m not losing sleep over Rockets-Lakers. Seems like everyone is just waiting on the Spurs and Thunder to meet once again. 

Duncan: I love the tests the top three teams will get to start their postseason run. Most would agree the Thunder, Spurs, and Nuggets — in whichever order — are the likeliest teams to represent the West in the Finals this year, but they also have to face some demons before we get there. The Thunder will either see the Stephen Curry-Draymond Green combo, or a Suns team with an annoying defense that’s had them in a headlock in different points of their regular-season matchups. The Spurs have to face a Blazers group with defensive personnel that can tap into all sorts of pressure and cross-matching looks. The Nuggets have to face the Timberwolves. Again. Bring me all of it.

Devine: I think the Thunder are going to waltz to the conference finals, and I think that whoever they face coming out of the other side of the bracket will have had to basically go through “The Raid” to greet them there. That doesn’t mean they can’t get got, but they were already the favorites for a reason, and the way the seeding fell seems pretty ideal for them.

Haberstroh: Spurs-Thunder in the West Finals, please and thank you. This is The Next Great NBA Rivalry, and I really hope we see these two behemoths face off against each other. There’s lots of bad blood here between Wemby and OKC, and I pray to my lucky stars everyone stays healthy enough to make it a reality.

What’s the biggest question in these playoffs?

Devine: How are those hammies feeling, Aaron Gordon? The answer could be the difference between Denver climbing back to the top of the mountain or bowing out in Round 1.

Haberstroh: Does playoff experience matter anymore? I argued it doesn’t. Or at least not as much as it used to. More than ever, player health matters way more than playoff pedigree. For Detroit and San Antonio, two 60-win teams whose cores have never made it out of the first round, I really hope they can bust the playoff experience myth.

Rohrbach: I’m with Tom. The Spurs lack the requisiteplayoff scars to compete for a title, at least historically speaking, but will it matter? It didn’t for OKC last season. But a bigger question may be: Can Jayson Tatum be Jayson Tatum? Few players have more playoff scars than Tatum and Jaylen Brown. If Tatum can perform at an All-NBA level, and he has been close, the Celtics could absolutely win the East, and they might even have a chance against the West’s winner.

Iko: Two defensive trends have been on my mind throughout the regular season: pressure rates and putting two on the ball, forcing teams to beat you in 4-on-3 scenarios. What does that look like in the playoffs when everything allegedly slows down, rotations are shorter and every possession is the most important one? Is the NBA truly an individualistic league or is the copycat syndrome here to stay?

Duncan: Like Kelly, my mind also shifts to defense. We’ve seen an uptick in full-court pressure, more audacious cross-matching — KAT will see wings, and I’m sure Stephon Castle will see centers at some point — and a wide variety of zone looks this season. How much of those gambits will carry over, when they’ll be deployed, and how quickly offenses can find answers to them loom pretty large to me.

Who has the most at stake this postseason?

Iko: Anthony Edwards might be too harsh of an answer, but certainly the Wolves as a whole. After two straight exits at the conference final stage, both defeats coming in just five games, my eyes are glued to Edwards and Minnesota. A difficult matchup with a familiar foe could send them packing early, which would undoubtedly put pressure on the organization. Have they done enough to build a contending roster, having tried various approaches? We all saw the Edwards/Jalen Johnson interaction from All-Star weekend — do those seeds of doubt start to creep in?

Haberstroh: James Harden. He has 17 postseason runs in his NBA career, and yet he’s still looking for his first championship. With Chris Paul retiring, the focus turns to Harden as the no-doubt Hall of Famer who is still trying to bring home the elusive Larry O’Bee. The Cavs certainly have a shot, but so have all of Harden’s 17 teams.

Duncan: I think it’s the Cavs by default. When you trade away a young star talent in Darius Garland — hampered with a toe injury, but a star talent nonetheless — for a better but much older option in James Harden, you’re signaling two things: 1) What we have isn’t enough to where we want to go, and 2) We need to get this done right now. I wouldn’t rule out a Finals run for the Cavs, but they kinda need to make it there in a way the others, sans New York maybe, don’t. We’re probably having Harden, Evan Mobley and, to a lesser extent, Donovan Mitchell conversations if this team bows out in the second round, and we’re definitely having them if they lose to the Raptors.

Rohrbach: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. What’s at stake for SGA over the next two months? Back-to-back championships, back-to-back regular-season MVPs, back-to-back Finals MVPs. Here’s who has done that before: LeBron James (2012-13) and Michael Jordan (1991-92). Bill Russell would have done it three times from 1961-63 if the Finals MVP existed at the time. (The award is named for him now.) Point is: SGA could be in some GOAT conversations soon.

Devine: Well, the Knicks’ owner — after firing the head coach that brought the franchise to its first conference finals in 25 years — went on the radio and said the team should not only make the NBA Finals, but win it all … and then the Celtics beat them out for the No. 2 seed, got their best player back and seem to be raring to go for a second-round rematch. That seems like a pretty good reason to think that everyone in New York is feeling an immense amount of pressure right about now.

What’s your Finals prediction?

Duncan: Thunder over Celtics. There have been worthy challengers this year, notably the Spurs with their regular-season dominance in their matchups, but nothing has really shaken me off my belief that the Thunder are the best team in basketball. Having the Spurs and Nuggets on the other side of the bracket makes their pathway even more favorable. Ultimately, I think SGA is going to cap off one of the greatest seasons of all time with another championship. 

Haberstroh: Spurs over Celtics. I’ve long believed that Victor Wembanyama is on the GOAT path, and he has a golden chance to solidify that here. OKC barely got past Denver and Indiana last year and these Spurs are better than those squads. With a little injury luck breaking San Antonio’s way, I think Wemby and the Spurs win it.

Devine: Thunder over Knicks. I went with that before the season, and I am not a completely spineless coward devoid of morals or self-respect, so I’ll stick with it now.

Iko: Spurs over Cavs. San Antonio has the schemes, personnel and most importantly, the mental edge necessary to delay a dynasty and get past Oklahoma City. And I might be the only person in America that thinks Cleveland has a Finals-ready roster in the Eastern Conference, but if James Harden and Donovan Mitchell can’t make a deep run now, I doubt they ever will. In any case, this would be a fresh switch-up.

Rohrbach: Thunder over Celtics. I picked Nuggets over Cavaliers at the start of the season, and I haven’t seen nearly enough from either team to trust them to win four rounds. OKC, on the other hand, will be favored in every series it plays in these playoffs, even against the Spurs, Nuggets or Celtics, all of whom could beat the Thunder. This is going to be fun.

by Editor

First lesson of Oklahoma City repeat title run: Don't talk about repeat title run

First lesson of Oklahoma City repeat title run: Don't talk about repeat title run

The Oklahoma City Thunder are the defending NBA champions. They also have the fifth-youngest roster in the NBA.

That combination can spell doom for the immature. Even veteran title teams succumb to what Pat Riley termed “the disease of me” — players start thinking about themselves, their touches, their points, and how much money they make or should make. The unselfish ethos that won a team a ring starts to fade. So does the chance at another.

Oklahoma City does not give off that vibe as it gears up to defend its title, starting Sunday.

“I think that’s what makes us so good, is that we have so many unselfish guys,” Jaylin Williams told NBC Sports. “Nobody is like, when you know a guy’s out, nobody’s stepping in thinking, ‘Oh, I’m gonna get 25 shots tonight because somebody’s out.’ You’re thinking, ‘Oh, I’m gonna go in there and do whatever the team needs me to do to get the win’…

“Everybody’s just going out there and playing the game that we’re supposed to play. I think when you have a team that’s so unselfish like that, it makes you an even better team.”

Don’t talk repeat

Coach Mark Daigneault has worked to install a “focus on the little things and the big things will come” ethos, something that every coach preaches. Think day-to-day. Build good habits now, and it’s something the team can and will fall back on in the playoffs.

What’s different is that the Thunder players — from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on down — have fully bought in. With that, repeating as NBA champions is not a topic in the OKC locker room. It doesn’t really come up.

“We try not to take it like that,” Lu Dort told NBC Sports about the quest to win back-to-back rings. “I mean, obviously, just from the facts and the truth, we are the reigning champs, but we try to go in there and not even think about that. We still got to beat every team that we go against four times to advance.”
“I wouldn’t look at it as like us trying to be the defending champs going in these nights, like we’re going to these games, just as hungry to win, just like we were last season,” Williams added.

Discussions of “process” and “building good habits” can come off as boring coach speak, but it’s a mantra with the Thunder. Because of that, as a group, they can come off a little like the Tim Duncan-era Spurs — boring day-to-day, no drama, just putting in the work, focusing on the little things, and getting better. Duncan has five rings to show for it.

“I think the first thing for us is just making sure that we’re taking care of our stuff,” Daigneault said. “You know, it starts with how we’re playing, the habits we’re trying to sharpen, what we’re trying to get done. You go through the regular season, there’s different opponents every night that present different challenges, but it always starts between you and yourself.”

Boring? Maybe. Winning? Absolutely.

Continuity and experimentation

Oklahoma City may be young, but they have the kind of roster continuity that is rare in the tax apron era of the NBA. The core of the guys about to chase another ring already won one together. Even players in much larger roles now, such as reserve guard Ajay Mitchell, have been in the system, just not showcased.

“It definitely helps,” Dort said of the continuity. “Just like, we have a lot of the same guys from last season. Sometimes it’s hard to adjust to new guys on the team, just the fact that we got the same core that we had last year, it helps so much, and our team chemistry is just getting better and better and better.”

Even the adversity the Thunder faced this season with key players missing time — Jaylin Williams, Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, among others — is seen as an opportunity. For Daigneault, it gave him a platform to do something he already wanted to do — experiment with different lineups. Put different combinations of players together.

“We’re actually not a team that wants to find rotational stability in the regular season,” Daigneault said. “We’re trying to constantly create variability, because that gives us some learnings and creates options for us. It also puts the guys in situations where they have to adapt to who they’re on the floor with, which we think is good for their development as players.”

“I think our coaches do a good job of keeping everybody ready for anything that could happen,” Williams said, echoing the idea. “We’re a super detailed team when it comes to different situations that we might not have encountered yet, but we’re always ready for whatever the situation is.”

“I mean, the fact that we’ve seen it before, it’s just a tool that we have in our pockets if something goes wrong,” Dort said of needing to pull out different lineups during a postseason series. “And then in the playoff teams throw a lot of different stuff, and you never know what they’re going to do. So the fact that we have a lot of different options that we can throw out there, so it’s a good thing for us.”

Thunder players also understand that continuity will not be the same in the coming years. Dort, Isaiah Hartenstein and Kenrich Williams all have player options for next season, just as massive new max contract extensions kick in for Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams ($41 million each, to start). Gilgeous-Alexandr has a new max contract starting in the 2027-28 season. The money is about to get tight in OKC, and roster changes will flow from that. The players know they don’t have many more chances with this locker room.

Ready for playoffs

The Thunder may not talk big-picture, but they are, to a man, ready to play games with real weight and meaning again.

They just wouldn’t let that get in the way of the process.

“Of course, just your competitive nature, you want to be back in those big environments, the loud playoff games, where every shot means so much,” Williams said. “But at the same time you can’t skip steps in a process. And that’s something the coaches also instilled in us, and I think our whole team understands that.”

The Thunder did not skip steps, and now they are ready to add to their collection of rings.

by Editor

NBA playoffs, not awards, drive Pistons star Cade Cunningham after last year's 1st-round exit

NBA playoffs, not awards, drive Pistons star Cade Cunningham after last year's 1st-round exit

DETROIT (AP) — The NBA playoffs, not awards, drive Detroit Pistons star Cade Cunningham to chase greatness.

A year after Cunningham had a first-round exit in his postseason debut, the point guard is motivated to lead the three-time championship franchise to success it hasn’t experienced in nearly two decades.

After falling one game short of the league’s 65-game minimum rule, he won an appeal to be part of the NBA awards voting this season

“It means a lot to me,” he said Friday.

It will mean more to him, though, to at least lift Detroit out of the first round of the playoffs.

The Pistons will host the winner of the Charlotte-Orlando game in Game 1 of the first round on Sunday night. Detroit hasn’t won a playoff series since 2008, when it reached the conference finals for a sixth straight season to end a run that included the 2004 NBA title and coming up one victory short of repeating the next season.

The Pistons were in the playoffs last year for the first time since 2019 and ended a league-record, 15-game postseason losing streak before being eliminated by the New York Knicks in Game 6.

Cunningham had chances to make winning plays in the games Detroit lost, and learned painful lessons when he didn’t come through.

“That was a chip on my shoulder to get better bodywise, skillset wise,” he said.

The 6-foot-6, 220-pound Cunningham added about 10 pounds of muscle in the offseason and said he feels strong staying at a weight that used to make him feel heavy.

Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff has seen Cunningham’s condition prepare him for the rigors of the game.

“His ability to drive the basketball and play through contact because he is so forceful, the added strength lets him do that,” Bickerstaff said. “Defensively, he can guard bigger guys. We switch them on the 4s, sometimes 5s, and he can be physical with guys. He can rebound in traffic.

“The strength helped him all around, and I think the motivation came by that experience.”

Cunningham’s offseason training couldn’t prevent an injury he had late a month ago with a collapsed lung that knocked him out of 11 games.

“I’m still trying to get back to full speed and just get my rhythm and everything back, but I’m getting close,” Cunningham said. “I’m still just knocking a little bit more of the dust off every day.”

In his first of three games following the injury earlier this month, Cunningham had his 38th double-double to lead all NBA guards.

The 24-year-old Cunningham, drafted No. 1 overall by Detroit in 2021, is in the first year of a five-year contract that will pay him more than $269 million.

He provided an early return on the investment as a first-time All-Star starter. He finished the season with 23.9 points, a career-high 9.9 rebounds and 5.5 rebounds a game, leading the franchise to a 60-win season and its first division title in 18 years, to likely earn another spot on an all-league team.

Cunningham was a third-team All-NBA player last season after leading one of best turnarounds in league history.

And like a player simply trying to make the team, Cunningham consistently was one of the first and last players on the court for practices all season, including on Friday.

“He’s a guy who’s in the gym every day,” said Jalen Duren, who was a first-time All-Star this season. “It’s a testament to the work he puts in. Even spending time with him in the summer, he works hard. He deserves everything that’s coming to him and more.”

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by Editor

Terry Rozier Co-Conspirator Damon Jones To Change Plea To Guilty

Terry Rozier Co-Conspirator Damon Jones To Change Plea To Guilty

InGame

Damon Jones, the former NBA player and Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach indicted with Terry Rozier and four others in November on federal charges of conspiring to rig NBA outcomes and peddle inside information, has requested a hearing with the Eastern District of New York to change his plea.

Jones pleaded not guilty in November to one count of wire fraud conspiracy and two counts of money laundering, but ESPN reported at the time that he was already in discussions for a plea deal. His plea hearing is scheduled for April 28 in Brooklyn.

Jones’ attorney, Kenneth Montgomery, however, told ABC News in New York that his client is “not cooperating” with prosecutors against his co-conspirators, who also pleaded not guilty. Jones is the first of the group to request a change of plea.

Jones accused of dealing non-public tidbit

Jones is accused of providing non-public information from his league contacts so that gamblers could make more informed bets on NBA games than the general public. Specifically, he’s accused of providing information that LeBron James would not play in a Feb. 9, 2023 game against Milwaukee. Jones is alleged to have texted to gamblers: “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out! [Player 3] is out tonight. Bet enough so Djones can eat.”

James is not named in the charging documents, but was the only rostered player not to dress against the Bucks, who won, 115-106.

Federal prosecutors will file documents by next week updating which charges will have a change of plea.

Jones is also named as a co-conspirator in the so-called “rigged poker” case in the EDNY where sports celebrities including then-Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups were allegedly used to lure in high-value players to scam. Jones pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges in that case.

Rozier, who was waived by the Miami Heat last week, has pleaded not guilty and asked for a dismissal.

by Editor

Spoelstra: No need to penalize Ball any further

Spoelstra: No need to penalize Ball any further

Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said Thursday that LaMelo Ball didn’t need to be “penalized more moving forward” in the wake of the Hornets star’s fine for tripping Miami’s Bam Adebayo.

by Editor

NBA Regular Season Viewership Hits 24-Year High At 170M U.S. Viewers

NBA Regular Season Viewership Hits 24-Year High At 170M U.S. Viewers

The NBA drew 170 million U.S. viewers during the 2025-26 regular season across its four primary broadcast platforms, which is its strongest viewership figures in 24 years and an 86 percent increase over the prior season.

The numbers mark Year 1 of the league’s 11-year, $76 billion-plus media rights agreement signed in 2024, which added Amazon Prime Video and restored NBC/Peacock to the broadcast lineup alongside returning partners ABC/ESPN and NBA TV.

Average viewership across all four platforms reached its highest point in 13 years, climbing 35 percent over last season. A total of 57 telecasts drew average audiences of at least 2 million viewers, the most since 2011-12.

Fans logged more than 920 million total viewing hours, up 25% year-over-year and also the best figure since 2011-12.

The All-Star Game on NBC averaged 8.8 million viewers, the largest midseason showcase audience in 15 years. NBA Cup group stage games posted a 90 percent viewership gain.

Off the court, the league’s social media platforms generated a record 228 billion views according to Videocites, a 13% rise over last season.

Arena attendance over the past three seasons has surpassed any comparable three-year span in league history, the NBA added.

by Editor

NBA touts near doubling of television viewership

NBA touts near doubling of television viewership

The NBA says 170 million people in the U.S. watched NBA games across the league’s four primary broadcast platforms during the regular season, a number that represents an 86% rise over last season.

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Mavericks dismiss director of health, sources say

Mavericks dismiss director of health, sources say

The Dallas Mavericks dismissed director of health and performance Johann Bilsborough on Monday, marking the fourth consecutive year the franchise has made major changes in that department.

by Editor