NBA Playoff Scenarios: Seeding For Knicks, Heat, Hawks, East Play-In Tournament Standings

There is plenty of NBA intrigue as the regular season comes to a close.

The Eastern Conference playoff picture is still very much undecided with only four games left. Even though six postseason spots have been clinched and the play-in tournament teams are all but locked in, important seeding questions remain.

The Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks are the East’s top three seeds. The Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat and New York Knicks will finish with seeds No. 4-6, in some order, as they fight for home-court advantage in a first-round playoff series.

Atlanta owns the No. 4 seed with a half-game lead over No. 5 seed Miami and No. 6 seed New York. If all three teams finish with the same record, the standings will remain unchanged.

In a two-way tie between the Hawks and Knicks, New York would finish with the higher seed. The Heat own the two-way tiebreaker over the Knicks. Atlanta has the two-way tiebreaker over Miami.

When the Boston Celtics were defeated Wednesday night, it guaranteed that they would be in the league’s new play-in tournament. The Celtics, Charlotte Hornets, Indiana Pacers and Washington Wizards are seeded No. 7-10 and likely to compete for the conference’s final two playoff berths when the regular season concludes.

Boston is 1.5 games ahead of the No. 8 seed. Charlotte and Indiana share the same record, though the Hornets own the tiebreaker. Washington is a half-game behind the Hornets and Pacers and likely to secure the No. 10 seed soon.

The Chicago Bulls are 2.5 games behind Washington and virtually out of contention.