The NBA stretch run has arrived.
Going into Monday, there are only 111 games left in the season — or put another way, 91% of the regular season has already been played. The postseason (not playoff) teams are set: Milwaukee, Chicago, Washington, Brooklyn and Indiana have all been eliminated from the Eastern Conference race while Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, Utah and Sacramento are out of the Western Conference race.
That means, for 20 other teams, the next two weeks are basically all about playoff positioning.
Detroit, Boston, Oklahoma City and San Antonio have playoff spots secured (and it would seem mathematically certain that New York, Cleveland, the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver will be clinching before too long, with Houston and Minnesota not far behind).
Portland and Golden State are locked into the play-in tournament.
— Philadelphia at Miami: Winner gets the head-to-head tiebreaker. It could also be former Heat guard Kyle Lowry's final appearance in Miami as a player. Heat coming off a frustrating loss in Indiana on Sunday.
— Boston at Atlanta: Rematch of a seven-point Celtics win on Friday. Boston is already at 50 wins, Hawks have won 12 in a row at home and 15 of 17 overall.
— Phoenix at Memphis: Suns face uphill climb to escape play-in, can’t lose here.
— Chicago at San Antonio: Spurs have gone 24-2 since Feb. 1, chasing No. 1 overall seed.
— Minnesota at Dallas: Wolves looking for 4-0 sweep of season series; won first three meetings by double digits.
— Cleveland at Utah: Jazz won first meeting; they’ve only swept Indiana this season.
— Detroit at Oklahoma City: A matchup of potential No. 1 seeds. Pistons could be first team to sweep Thunder in last two seasons.
— Washington at L.A. Lakers: Lakers’ Luka Doncic (16 technical foul limit) suspended for this one.
— Phoenix at Orlando: A back-to-back for Suns, start of a tough home back-to-back for Magic.
— Charlotte at Brooklyn: One of only two games left for Hornets against eliminated teams.
— Dallas at Milwaukee: Matchup of teams officially playing out the string.
— Toronto at Detroit: After this, the Pistons have only two home games left in regular season.
— New York at Houston: Rockets blew 18-point fourth-quarter lead versus Knicks on Feb. 21.
— Cleveland at L.A. Lakers: LeBron James is 35-19 against his former teams (19-6 vs. Cavs, 16-13 vs. Heat, including playoffs).
— Portland at L.A. Clippers: Major play-in seeding implications for teams looking to avoid 9 vs. 10 game.
Monday's games on Peacock and NBC Sports Network: Philadelphia-Miami and Detroit-Oklahoma City. (Chicago-San Antonio is a Peacock game as well.)
Tuesday's games on NBC and Peacock: New York-Houston and Portland-L.A. Clippers.
Oklahoma City (+140) is favored to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed by San Antonio (+550), Boston (+600), Cleveland (+900), Denver (+1100) and New York (+1500). Detroit, on its way to the No. 1 seed in the East, is +2500.
— April 10: All 30 teams play their 81st games of the season.
— April 12: All 30 teams play their regular season finales.
— April 14, 15 and 17: NBA play-in tournament dates.
— April 18 and 19: NBA playoff series openers.
— May 2, 3 or 4: Conference semifinals begin.
— May 10: NBA draft lottery.
— May 10-17: NBA draft combine.
— May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.
— May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.
— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).
After three such games on Sunday, there have been 81 games decided by at least 30 points this season. The record was 80, set last season.
Toronto beat Orlando 139-87 on Sunday. The 52-point win was the second-biggest victory in Raptors history, the biggest loss in Magic history — and included a 31-0 run that took just 7 1/2 minutes and saw Orlando go 0-for-8 with 11 turnovers.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
Toronto Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl (front) is fouled by Orlando Magic centre Goga Bitadze (back left) as Magic forward Paolo Banchero (right) looks on during first half NBA action in Toronto on Sunday, March 29, 2026. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, right, drives against Charlotte Hornets guard Kon Knueppel during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are swinging again Monday as oil prices keep climbing because of uncertainty about when the war with Iran could end.
The S&P 500 inched up by 0.1% in morning trading, coming off its worst week since the war with Iran began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 164 points, or 0.4%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.
That followed gains for stock markets in much of Europe, but caution was still prevalent throughout financial markets. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 quickly gave up nearly all its gain of 0.9% from the start of trading. Stocks in some Asian markets fell sharply, while the price for a barrel of Brent crude delivered in June rose 3.2% to $108.73.
The mixed movements followed a whirlwind of action in the war over the weekend, none of which cleared up when the fighting may end. The main issue for investors worldwide is whether oil and natural can resume their full flow from the Persian Gulf to customers and prevent a brutal blast of inflation.
Shortly before the U.S. stock market opened for trading Monday, President Donald Trump said on his social media network that “great progress has been made” with “A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran.”
But he also threatened the possibility of “blowing up and completely obliterating” Iranian power plants if a deal is not reached shortly and if the Strait of Hormuz, an integral waterway for the flow of oil, is not opened immediately.
The statement fit and condensed last week’s pattern, where Trump would tout progress being made in talks and offer some optimism for the market, only for doubts to rise quickly afterward about whether the war can end soon.
All the back and forth has some investors saying they’re giving Trump’s pronouncements less weight than before. But stock prices are nevertheless cheaper than they were before the war, which has some investors waiting for an opportune time to buy.
The S&P 500 finished last week 7.4% below its all-time high, which was set in January. The Dow and Nasdaq both were more than 10% below their records, a steep-enough fall that professional investors call it a “correction.”
Taking into account how much profits are expected to grow in the coming year for companies in the S&P 500, the index looks 17% cheaper than before the war, by one measure. That’s in a similar range as where prior growth scares for the market ended, as long as they didn’t result in a recession or the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates, according to strategists at Morgan Stanley.
That’s one of the signs that the strategists led by Michael Wilson point to as “growing evidence the S&P 500 correction is getting closer to its ending stages.”
Of course, the Federal Reserve could upset that if it decides oil prices are threatening to stay so high that it needs to raise interest rates. Higher interest rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they would also slow the economy and push down on prices for all kinds of investments.
Treasury yields have been leaping in the bond market since the war began because of such worries, but they eased somewhat on Monday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.35% from 4.44% late Friday. That’s a significant move for the bond market and offers some breathing room for Wall Street, though it remains far above its 3.97% level from before the war.
On Wall Street, Alcoa jumped 10.7% on thoughts it could get more revenue after Iranian attacks damaged rival aluminum facilities in the Middle East over the weekend.
Sysco fell 11.8% after it said it was buying Jetro Restaurant Depot for $21.6 billion in cash and enough Sysco shares to value the company at about $29.1 billion.
In stock markets abroad, the FTSE 100 in London climbed 1.1%, and the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.4%. That followed drops of 3% for Seoul’s Kospi, 2.8% for Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and 0.8% for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng.
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott and AP journalist Ayaka McGill contributed to this report.
People walk past the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, March 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A general view shows the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, March 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Workers walk in an area at a degassing station in Zubair oil field, whose operations have being reduced due to the Mideast war triggered by the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, near Basra, Iraq, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A person walks by an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index in Tokyo Monday, March 30, 2026. (Yusuke Hashizume/Kyodo News via AP)
A dealer walks near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Dealers work near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Dealers work near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
