{"id":1863327,"date":"2026-04-03T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T06:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1863327"},"modified":"2026-04-03T09:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T06:00:26","slug":"ranking-the-10-best-nba-first-round-playoff-matchups-that-are-still-realistically-in-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1863327","title":{"rendered":"Ranking the 10 best NBA first-round playoff matchups that are still realistically in play"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The NBA regular season is coming to an end, and we already know that 10 teams are booked for vacations in various locales. The other 20 teams are still in contention for the 2026 NBA championship. Sure, there will be a Play-In Tournament to eliminate four more teams. But this year\u2019s potential field for the first round is looking quite delightful.<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ll learn about the actual quarterfinals matchups in the next two weeks. For now, let\u2019s discuss what would be the best matchups to see this month. As much as the single-game Play-In Tournament matchups would be intriguing, those are not the same. We\u2019re focusing on a potential seven-game series here, where clear disdain can be built organically over time and travel.<\/p>\n

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Honorable mention: Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder<\/h2>\n

This is probably more about nostalgia, but that\u2019s enough to slide this matchup onto the list. Stephen Curry hasn\u2019t played since the end of January, but he\u2019s trying to get back on the floor before the regular season ends. The Warriors are locked into the Play-In, and they\u2019ll likely need multiple wins to survive it and get the eighth seed. At that point, we could see the \u201cWe Believe\u201d Warriors once again! (Or whatever they called last year\u2019s No. 7 seed when Jimmy Butler III got his joy back.) Also, this spring marks the 10th anniversary of one of the best Western Conference finals of all time, when the Thunder had a 3-1 lead over the 73-win Warriors and showed them how to blow it, with Kevin Durant transferring from the Thunder to the Warriors not long after. It is worth noting that the Thunder beat the Warriors in all four meetings this season, including the only one in which Curry was on the floor.<\/p>\n

No. 10: Charlotte Hornets vs. Detroit Pistons<\/h2>\n

The last time the Pistons won a playoff series was in 2008. The last time the Hornets were even in the playoffs was 2016, with the last series win coming in 2002, before Charlotte temporarily lost its team. Not only would this matchup end a long postseason success drought, but it would pit two teams that already don\u2019t like each other against each other. Arguably, the most notorious altercation of the season<\/a> took place at Spectrum Center in February, resulting in the suspensions of Detroit\u2019s Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren and Charlotte\u2019s Moussa Diabat\u00e9 and Miles Bridges. There\u2019s also this small detail of the Eastern Conference\u2019s best team all season going up against the East\u2019s best team since the season\u2019s midpoint in January. It would be an eye-opening 1-8 series.<\/p>\n

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No. 9: Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics<\/h2>\n

The Celtics are likely going to be the second seed, while the Sixers are going to need help to stay out of the Play-In. But they\u2019ve done well to get their roster mostly healthy and in shape going into the spring. A team with Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and Paul George is probably better than a conventional seventh seed. Boston has a reason to feel like it has a ceiling to explore as well now that Jayson Tatum is back. And these two teams offered a memorable seven-game semifinal series in 2023. The Sixers and Celtics split the regular-season series as well. It would be a fantastic opening-round series for a 2-7 matchup.<\/p>\n

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No. 8: Atlanta Hawks vs. Cleveland Cavaliers<\/h2>\n

In 2022, the Hawks swiped the eighth seed from the Cavaliers, a disappointing and premature end to Cleveland\u2019s first winning regular season of the century without LeBron James. The principals of those Hawks and Cavaliers teams have mostly moved on, save for bigs Onyeka Okongwu of Atlanta and Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen of Cleveland. So this matchup is just about two teams that made big in-season trades and have every reason to think they can exceed expectations this spring. The Hawks and Cavaliers also have to play each other twice to end the regular season. The Quin Snyder connections are also intriguing, as Snyder and Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson were Hawks assistants in 2013-14 under Mike Budenholzer before Snyder took the Utah Jazz head coaching job, where Snyder eventually would coach Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell.<\/p>\n

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No. 7: Phoenix Suns vs. San Antonio Spurs<\/h2>\n

The Spurs have been nothing short of dominant, especially since February. The Suns know this because they lost twice to them after the All-Star break. But the Suns are a rare West team that was able to split the regular-season series against San Antonio this season, and the last meeting saw the Spurs hold on by a single point. This would also be the first time that the Suns and Spurs, blood rivals from the 2000s, would both make the playoffs since 2010.<\/p>\n

No. 6: Philadelphia 76ers vs. Cleveland Cavaliers<\/h2>\n

This would be the James Harden series. When the Sixers marked their trade deadline by trading 2024 first-round pick Jared McCain, Sixers basketball president Daryl Morey noted that he sold high on McCain. In the same news conference, Morey did not see any \u201cneedle movers\u201d in terms of East moves. Well, the Cavaliers made the biggest move in the East at the trade deadline, adding Harden, Morey\u2019s former Rockets star. There\u2019s no love lost<\/a> between Harden and Morey, given how Harden exited Philadelphia. That tension seemed to affect Harden\u2019s relationship with Embiid as well, who approached Harden in the final meeting between the two teams to seemingly attempt to bury the hatchet. Harden and Maxey, however, have a great relationship. Cleveland swept the regular-season series, but this would still be a star-studded and relatively dramatic way to begin the playoffs for both teams.<\/p>\n

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\n Kawhi Leonard looks to keep the ball moving as San Antonio\u2019s Stephon Castle defends. (Scott Wachter \/ Imagn Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

No. 5: LA Clippers vs. San Antonio Spurs<\/h2>\n

The Clippers are locked into the Play-In, which is the price that comes with losing 19 out of 22 games at one point. But if they can stay in eighth place entering the Play-In and win in (most likely) Phoenix, then they could grab the seventh seed and a ticket to The Alamo. There is no better way to reintroduce the Spurs to the postseason than to have their last NBA Finals MVP, Kawhi Leonard, be the visitor. Leonard is playing at an All-NBA level with a group of teammates that, for the most part, just got to LA this season or last season. The Clippers have had leads of 25 and 14 points against the Spurs this season, but the Spurs came back to win both times on the strength of their offensive rebounding and defensive activity.<\/p>\n

No. 4: Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Los Angeles Lakers<\/h2>\n

There aren\u2019t a lot of opportunities for rematches from the 2025 postseason to happen in this year\u2019s first round. I guess there could be Magic-Celtics, but do you trust Orlando to get itself off the mat after how it ended March? That series doesn\u2019t make the top 10, but a rematch of Timberwolves-Lakers absolutely does. There weren\u2019t many who picked Minnesota to win that series, and even fewer who expected that series to be decided in five games. As usual, the Timberwolves are sleepwalking through a regular season, but they will be treated like a team that has been to back-to-back conference finals. The Lakers spent their offseason bolstering the roster to react to the Timberwolves loss, and that certainly worked for the regular season, as the Timberwolves were the only team outside of the West\u2019s bottom five that failed to beat the Lakers at least once this season.<\/p>\n

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No. 3: Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks<\/h2>\n

Knicks fans took over the Philadelphia arena when these two teams met in the 2024 postseason, which was a very entertaining first-round series. That\u2019s the last time the Sixers were in the playoffs, as they took an unintentional gap year in 2025. This would be a playoff series between two centers who fought each other in 2019, with Paul George serving now as Embiid\u2019s teammate but one of Karl-Anthony Towns\u2019 best friends in the league<\/a>. You\u2019d get two All-Star point guards in Tyrese Maxey and Jalen Brunson. And you\u2019d have the Villanova quotient met, with Mikal Bridges getting another crack at the team that probably should have kept him in the 2018 draft. These teams split the regular season series as well.<\/p>\n

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No. 2: Houston Rockets vs. Denver Nuggets<\/h2>\n

The rest of the West would be thrilled if these two teams wound up beating up on each other to begin the playoffs. Both entered this season with reasonable hopes to be contenders. Neither consistently performed like contenders for a variety of reasons, which is why they are hurdling toward some version of a 4-5 matchup, depending on what happens with the Timberwolves. You\u2019d get two All-Star centers going up against each other in Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn and three-time MVP Nikola Joki\u0107. Advantage Denver, obviously. But the Rockets would counter with the other All-Star counterpart, as they have Kevin Durant, while the Nuggets have Jamal Murray. The Nuggets were able to beat the Rockets three out of four times during the season, but this would be an interesting clash of styles in a playoff setting.<\/p>\n

No. 1: Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Lakers<\/h2>\n

If this matchup was good enough for Christmas, then it will be good enough for the top spot on this list. It really just comes down to the brand. Durant and LeBron James haven\u2019t met in a playoff series since Durant won two NBA Finals MVPs against James\u2019 Cavaliers. James left Cleveland in 2018, Durant left Golden State injured in 2019, and the two haven\u2019t come close to meeting since. Both Durant and James have been on teams that haven\u2019t even won a playoff series since 2023, when the eventual champion Nuggets dismissed both Durant\u2019s Suns and James\u2019 Lakers. The Rockets handled the Lakers on Christmas in Los Angeles, but then Luka Don\u010di\u0107 was unstoppable in Houston in back-to-back games last month. Mix in Deandre Ayton\u2019s Clint Capela comments<\/a>, Ime Udoka\u2019s past interactions with James and two of the best non-All-Stars in Amen Thompson and Austin Reaves, and you have a blockbuster in the first round.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NBA regular season is coming to an end, and we already know that 10 teams are booked for vacations in various locales. The other 20 teams are still in contention for the 2026 NBA championship. Sure, there will be a Play-In Tournament to eliminate four more teams. But this year\u2019s potential field for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1863327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1863327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1863327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1863327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1863327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}