NBA News NBA News, Match Reports and Updates
It feels like the difference between the NBA’s regular season and playoffs becomes more stark every year. While high-scoring games and tanking talk dominated the national discourse over the league’s 82-game slog, there was quietly a fascinating championship race bubbling beneath the surface. There are several viable contenders in both conferences this season, and if the play-in tournament is any indication, the product is going to be so much more competitive and engaging than the regular season ever was.
The Oklahoma City Thunder enter the playoffs as the favorites to win it all, and they’re fighting against the recent history of the league to do it. No team has won back-to-back championships since Kevin Durant was on the Golden State Warriors back in 2017 and 2018. OKC has the likely MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander along with the league’s best defense, but occasional outside shooting woes and lingering injuries to co-star Jalen Williams make the Thunder vulnerable.
Advertisement
The San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets are both dreaming of winning it all behindx their superstar big men Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokic. The race in the East is even more wide open with the top four teams in the playoff bracket all believing they have what it takes to reach the 2026 NBA Finals.
With the playoffs about to get underway, let’s rank every team in the field by their championship chances. We’ll update this story with the two No. 8 seeds once those are decided in the final round of the play-in tournament.
The Blazers are back in the playoffs for the first time in five years, and they have a strong foundation to continue growing for the future. Portland has a burgeoning star creator in Deni Avdija and a defense that ranked No. 3 in the league since the All-Star break. Avdija’s ability to take bumps on his drives to the rim and consistently get to the foul line gives this team a chance to generate consistent offense when everything else fails. Donovan Clingan feels like a star in the making for his rebounding and rim protection, but he’s about to have his hands full against Victor Wembanyama in the first…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/nba-playoffs-teams-ranked-2026-120000315.html
Author :
Publish date : 2026-04-17 12:00:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
