NBA
Head-to-Head Postseason Hub
Updated Apr 17
2026 NBA Playoffs Head-to-Head
Bracket, series history, and every all-time head-to-head record across the 16 participating franchises. Built on verified balldontlie and basketball-reference data.
14/16
Teams locked
15
Series across 4 rounds
1,799
Cumulative meetings
Play-In
ActiveApril 14 to 17
Seeds 7 and 8 determined
Round 1
Starts Apr 18
8 series, best of 7
Conference Finals
Late May
East and West champions decided
NBA Finals
Early June
Best of 7 for the championship
At a Glance
Play-In TournamentThe 2026 NBA Playoffs open April 18 with 8 first-round series spanning 1,799 cumulative all-time meetings. 6 of the 8 pairs have met in the postseason before; 2 are first-ever playoff encounters.
Bracket at a glance
East above, West below
First Round
6 of 8 matchups locked
Eastern Conference
Eastern Conference
No. 1 vs No. 8
1Detroit Pistons
8Eastern Conference #8 seed
Pending Play-In result
Eastern Conference
No. 4 vs No. 5
4Cleveland Cavaliers
5Toronto Raptors
Playoff seriesCLE leads 12-2
Last postseason2018
All-time meetings128
Game 1: Apr 18, 1 PM ETHead-to-head
Eastern Conference
No. 3 vs No. 6
3New York Knicks
6Atlanta Hawks
Playoff seriesNYK leads 9-4
Last postseason2021
All-time meetings413
Game 1: Apr 18, 6 PM ETHead-to-head
Eastern Conference
No. 2 vs No. 7
2Boston Celtics
7Philadelphia 76ers
Playoff seriesBOS leads 62-51
Last postseason2023
All-time meetings591
Game 1: Apr 19, 1 PM ETHead-to-head
Western Conference
Western Conference
No. 1 vs No. 8
1Oklahoma City Thunder
8Western Conference #8 seed
Pending Play-In result
Western Conference
No. 4 vs No. 5
4Los Angeles Lakers
5Houston Rockets
Playoff seriesLAL leads 21-16
Last postseason2020
All-time meetings283
Game 1: Apr 18, 8:30 PM ETHead-to-head
Western Conference
No. 3 vs No. 6
3Denver Nuggets
6Minnesota Timberwolves
Playoff seriesMIN leads 9-8
Last postseason2024
All-time meetings170
Game 1: Apr 18, 3:30 PM ETHead-to-head
Western Conference
No. 2 vs No. 7
2San Antonio Spurs
7Portland Trail Blazers
Playoff seriesSAS leads 13-3
Last postseason2014
All-time meetings214
Game 1: Apr 19, 9 PM ETHead-to-head
Historical Context
The NBA has used its current 16-team bracket since 1984. These benchmarks show what typically happens once the seeds are locked.
How the bracket works
Seeding
Regular-season record sets seeds 1 through 6 in each conference. Seeds 7 and 8 come from the Play-In Tournament.First round
Four matchups per conference: 1 vs 8, 4 vs 5, 3 vs 6, 2 vs 7. Higher seed hosts Games 1, 2, 5, and 7.Format
Every round is best of seven. Winners advance; losers are eliminated. No reseeding between rounds.Path to the title
Conference champions meet in the NBA Finals. One team wins four series in a row to lift the trophy.Round 1 higher seed
~72%
Higher seeds win their first-round series 72 percent of the time since the 16-team bracket was introduced in 1984 (per basketball-reference.com).
Most frequent Finals
12
Celtics vs Lakers is the most frequent NBA Finals matchup, with 12 meetings between 1959 and 2010 (per basketball-reference.com).
Last 8 over 1 upset
2023
The Miami Heat (8) defeated the Milwaukee Bucks (1) in the 2023 first round, the most recent 8-over-1 upset in NBA history (per basketball-reference.com).
Home court wins
~63%
Home teams win about 63 percent of all NBA playoff games, giving top seeds a meaningful but hardly decisive edge (per basketball-reference.com).
Advanced Stats (1996-present)
Once the bracket locks, the cards below fill with data aggregated across the 15 first-round head-to-head records: top career playoff scorers, biggest blowouts, overtime history, and attendance records.
Career playoff scorers in this bracket
The 10 highest career scorers from any pair in this year's first round, ranked by total points scored against their current playoff opponent.
Biggest playoff blowouts
The 5 largest single-game playoff margins of victory across any head-to-head record in this year's bracket.
Additional overtime, attendance, and per-game advanced stats are available on each head-to-head matchup page.
Conference Finals Watch
Two conference champions meet in the NBA Finals. The tiles below show every team that can still reach each conference final.
Eastern Conference Finals
After Round 2
From the 1 vs 8 / 4 vs 5 side
Detroit PistonsCleveland CavaliersToronto Raptors
meets winner of
From the 3 vs 6 / 2 vs 7 side
New York KnicksAtlanta HawksBoston CelticsPhiladelphia 76ers
Best-of-seven. Winner advances to the NBA Finals.
Western Conference Finals
After Round 2
From the 1 vs 8 / 4 vs 5 side
Oklahoma City ThunderLos Angeles LakersHouston Rockets
meets winner of
From the 3 vs 6 / 2 vs 7 side
Denver NuggetsMinnesota TimberwolvesSan Antonio SpursPortland Trail Blazers
Best-of-seven. Winner advances to the NBA Finals.
Frequently Asked Questions
When do the 2026 NBA Playoffs start?
The 2026 NBA Playoffs open on April 18, 2026, immediately after the Play-In Tournament concluded on April 17. The bracket features four first-round series in each conference, seeded 1 versus 8, 4 versus 5, 3 versus 6, and 2 versus 7. Each series is best-of-seven with home-court advantage going to the higher seed.
How are the 2026 NBA Playoff seeds determined?
Seeds one through six in each conference are set by regular-season record, with tiebreakers using head-to-head result, division record, and conference record. Seeds seven and eight come from the Play-In Tournament: the seven and eight seeds from regular-season standings face off for the seventh seed, while losers face winners of the nine-versus-ten matchup for eighth seed.
What is the historical win rate for higher seeds in Round 1?
Number-one seeds have won over 90 percent of first-round series since 1984. Number-two seeds win approximately 80 percent, number-three seeds about 75 percent, and number-four seeds around 60 percent. The closest matchup historically is four versus five, which has split near 50-50 across 80-plus series, making it the most volatile line on the bracket.
How does home-court advantage work in the 2026 playoffs?
The higher-seeded team hosts games one, two, five, and seven; the lower seed hosts games three, four, and six. If a series ends before game five or seven, those games are not played. Home teams win approximately 63 percent of all playoff games, and 78 percent of series in which they hold home-court advantage. Seeding matters for both scheduling and probability.
What are the potential Conference Finals matchups in 2026?
Conference Finals matchups depend on which teams advance through Rounds 1 and 2. Under standard bracket structure, the Eastern Conference Finals pairs the winner of the 1 vs 8 / 4 vs 5 side against the winner of the 3 vs 6 / 2 vs 7 side. The same structure applies in the West. The Conference Finals section updates after Round 2 completes in each conference.
How often does the NBA Finals include a first-time matchup?
Most NBA Finals pair two teams that have met in the Finals before; only a handful of modern Finals matchups have been first-ever pairings. Historical rivalries concentrate the title rounds: Celtics-Lakers, Spurs-Pistons, Bulls-Jazz, Heat-Spurs. The bracket page for each potential Finals matchup carries the complete all-time series history.
Where can I find each 2026 playoff matchup broken down in detail?
Every first-round series card on this hub links directly to the dedicated head-to-head page for that pair. Each head-to-head page carries the complete all-time game log, season-by-season breakdown, decade summaries, advanced stats from 1996 onward, playoff history separated from regular-season results, and top career scorers in the matchup.
Methodology and Data Sources
Last updated
Regular-season and playoff game logs are pulled from the balldontlie API (public NBA records from 1946 onward). Playoff series results, arena capacity, and historical context are cross-checked against basketball-reference.com. Player-level top-scorer tables and largest-lead figures use the play-by-play dataset, which has complete coverage only from the 1996-97 season onward; pages that pre-date 1996 are clearly marked.
Historical benchmarks on this page (higher-seed win rate, most frequent Finals matchup, home-court win percentage, most recent 8-over-1 upset) are drawn from basketball-reference.com postseason archives from 1984 onward, when the current 16-team bracket was adopted. The bracket JSON is updated daily during the playoffs. After the 2026 Finals, the bracket is frozen as a permanent record and is not modified retroactively.
Edited by Fredrik Sørlie, lead NBA H2H data editor at SharkBetting, with support from the SharkBetting analytics desk. If you spot an error, visit our contact page with the game date and we will verify against the source feeds.
Pre-1996 game scores partially derived from the nbadb dataset by Wyatt Walsh, distributed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Last updated 2026-04-17. Verified by SharkBetting research team. Sources: balldontlie, basketball-reference.com.