Fifteen different seeds were decided on the final day of the 2023-24 NBA season, and the complete postseason field is now set after a busy, 15-game day across the league. The Oklahoma City Thunder clinched the No. 1 seed in the West with a blowout win over the Dallas Mavericks. The New York Knicks moved up to the No. 2 seed in the East with an overtime win, while the Milwaukee Bucks were blown out in Orlando and fell to No. 4 in the East.
Here's a complete look at the 2024 NBA playoff picture, and the postseason will get started on Tuesday with the Play-In Tournament.
Notable Sunday NBA scores
- Magic 113, Bucks 88
- Pacers 157, Hawks 115
- 76ers 107, Nets 86
- Hornets 120, Cavaliers 110
- Knicks 120, Bulls 119 (OT)
- Heat 118, Raptors 103
- Thunder 135, Mavericks 86
- Nuggets 126, Grizzlies 111
- Lakers 124, Pelicans 108
- Suns 125, Timberwolves 106
- Kings 121, Trail Blazers 82
- Warriors 123, Jazz 116
With the bracket now set, here are the winners and losers of the regular season's final day:
Winner: Oklahoma City Thunder
Home-court advantage didn't mean all that much to the Denver Nuggets. They just went 6-3 on the road en route to their first championship last season. The Timberwolves, who had the NBA's second-best road record this season at 26-15, probably don't mind playing road games either. If any of the top three Western Conference teams should have wanted the top seed most, it was Oklahoma City.
The Thunder tied Denver for the Western Conference's best home record at 33-8, but more importantly, this group is woefully devoid of playoff experience. The Thunder's starting lineup has combined to play a total of 627 postseason minutes in their entire careers. Key reserves Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins and Jaylin Williams have never played postseason basketball either, and sixth man Isaiah Joe has played only 24 garbage-time minutes in the playoffs. By earning home-court advantage, the Thunder have not only managed to avoid Denver in the first two rounds, but ensured that if they do face the champs, Game 7 will be in their building. Teams this young need all of the help they can get in the playoffs, and the Thunder set themselves up for a real run by securing the No. 1 seed.
Loser: Minnesota Timberwolves
On Jan. 22, the Timberwolves built an 18-point second-half lead on the Charlotte Hornets at home. They frittered that lead away trying to get Karl-Anthony Towns to 70 points. He finished with 62, but the Timberwolves lost to one of the worst teams in the NBA. That one game was the difference between Minnesota finishing with the No. 1 seed and the No. 3 seed. The margins were truly that thin this year. Every game counted.
Now, the Timberwolves have to face a Suns team in the first round that they haven't beaten all year. Phoenix has weaknesses, but the Timberwolves aren't built to exploit them. Any team with proper spacing should be able to pace-and-space Jusuf Nurkic into oblivion, and perhaps the Wolves can still do so with Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reid's shooting, but this isn't a roster designed to spam high pick-and-roll as, say, the Thunder or Mavericks can. The Suns can match Minnesota's bulk inside with Nurkic and control the terms of engagement offensively by simply running their offense through the star Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards aren't guarding.
Winner: New York Knicks
There was plenty of talk during Sunday's Knicks win over the Bulls about how New York would have been better off losing and falling to No. 3. They'd then be facing the Indiana Pacers in the first round, a theoretically easier opponent than whoever emerges between the Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat in the play-in round. Tom Thibodeau doesn't play that way. The Knicks were so committed to beating Chicago that Donte DiVincenzo played more than 52 minutes in the overtime victory.
In the process, the Knicks not only locked up their first 50-win season in more than a decade, but set themselves up for a real run at the Eastern Conference Finals. They'll host whoever they face in the first two rounds, and if Giannis Antetokounmpo comes back healthy, the Knicks will need every edge they can get against a team that has beaten them three times this season. The Knicks are obviously facing an uphill battle to reach the Finals. Everyone in the East is. That's the reality a 64-win Celtics team creates. But if the Celtics suffer an injury? The Knicks have suddenly positioned themselves as the simplest replacement as the favorite in the Eastern Conference. Even if they do get knocked off by the Celtics, a run to the Eastern Conference Finals in itself, especially considering the absence of Julius Randle, would make this season an unmitigated success.
Loser: Philadelphia 76ers
The NBA's longest active winning streak belongs to the 76ers. They ended the season on an eight-game winning streak. It took them from No. 8 in the Eastern Conference all the way up to No. 7. Had Giannis Antetokounmpo not gotten injured earlier in the week, it is possible, and perhaps probable, that Orlando would have lost on Sunday and vaulted the 76ers into the top six. Instead, their winning streak buys them a date with old friend Jimmy Butler, who just loves harassing them and Tobias Harris after they infamously let him go in the summer of 2019. Win that game and they face a Knicks team with more size to throw at Joel Embiid than perhaps anyone else in the conference. Lose and your best-case scenario is a date with the 64-18 Celtics. Not a great Sunday for Philadelphia.
Winner: Los Angeles Lakers
When the Lakers lost to the Warriors on Tuesday, it looked like they were destined to fall to No. 10 in the West. The Memphis Grizzlies, missing 13 players, did everything in their power to push them back there on Friday, but the Lakers escaped with one of their hardest wins of the season. To go from those lows to the top-eight has to be treated as an enormous win for Los Angeles. The Lakers now have two chances to reach the playoffs, and they're playing against a Pelicans team they've outscored by 57 points this season. However...
Loser: Los Angeles Lakers
Guess who awaits the Lakers if they manage to beat the Pelicans on Tuesday? That's right, it's their old nemesis, the Denver Nuggets, who have beaten them eight times in a row. If the Nuggets had taken care of business against the Spurs on Friday, the Lakers wouldn't have to worry about the Nuggets. The Lakers could theoretically avoid them by making the playoffs as the No. 8 seed, but remember, they're winless against the Kings this season and Anthony Davis is winless against Domantas Sabonis for their entire careers. Amazingly, a date with Stephen Curry might actually be the preferable option. Couple that with the back spasms Davis suffered on Sunday, and the Lakers aren't in quite as strong a position as they would have hoped getting up to No. 8 would have created.
Winner: Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Clippers
The Lakers were the big losers of Denver's tumble. The Mavericks and Clippers were the big winners. We've already seen these two teams face off in the playoffs twice. Both series were evenly matched and exhausting. No matter who wins, neither would have been especially well-positioned to challenge the Nuggets if Denver had retained the No. 1 seed. That is especially true for the Clippers, who have lost 12 of the last 16 games they've played against Nikola Jokic. The Thunder aren't exactly a walk in the park, but there isn't a team in the field that wouldn't take them over the Nuggets as an opponent. The defending champs terrify the entire league. The Thunder haven't earned that respect yet.
Loser: New Orleans Pelicans
The Pelicans could have won their way into the No. 6 seed. Instead, they fall down to the play-in, where they face a Lakers team that has embarrassed them in virtually every high-profile game they've played. The Lakers waxed them by 44 in the In-Season Tournament and then dominated them again on Sunday. There was a real chance the Pelicans could have climbed as high as No. 4 as recently as a few weeks ago. Today, they're trapped in play-in purgatory against the one team they didn't want to face there.