Inside the Numbers: Some notes going into the NBA playoffs

A winning season usually gets you to the NBA playoffs. Not this year.

There were a record-tying three teams — Charlotte at 44-38, Miami at 43-39 and the Los Angeles Clippers at 42-40 — that finished over .500 this season but failed to qualify for the playoffs.

The only other years when that happened were 1971 and 2022.

In NBA history, teams with records over the .500 mark have gone to the playoffs just over 95% of the time. For teams going at least 43-39 (or the equivalent in shorter seasons), that in-the-playoffs rate was 97.3%, until this season.

Miami now has finished over .500 in 25 of its 38 seasons. Of the first 24 Heat teams with winning records, 100% wound up going to the playoffs.

“My first year as a head coach, we won 43 games and we were the fifth seed,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We were the 10th seed this year with 43.”

If the playoff teams were their own 16-team league, counting only their games against one another in the standings, the top overall seed in these playoffs would be Detroit.

The Pistons went 30-12 against the other playoff clubs, just ahead of Oklahoma City (31-14) and San Antonio (29-14).

The Thunder had the biggest point differential in games against other playoff teams (8.4 per game), while the Thunder and the Spurs both had the most double-digit wins (18 apiece).

The playoff pool for this season is the most in NBA history, with $35,740,226 to be divided up among the 16 teams.

As the team with the NBA’s best record, the Oklahoma City Thunder are already assured $2,161,408 from that pool. If the Thunder win the NBA title, they will claim more than one-third of the pool — $12,805,503.

Teams get shares for finishing with a top-six record in their conference, plus for making the playoffs and the size of the shares increase for advancing to later rounds. There’s about a $5 million difference between winning and losing the NBA Finals.

Atlanta is in the playoffs for the 50th time, the Hawks becoming the fourth franchise to hit that total.

The other three? The Los Angeles Lakers (66), Boston (63) and Philadelphia (55).

It’ll be at least four more years before the 50-playoff-appearance club grows. New York has made 46 appearances, including this year’s.

James Harden has yet to win an NBA championship. But at least he gets into the playoffs — every single year.

That's right: 17 years in the league, 17 playoff trips for Harden.

He and the Cleveland Cavaliers will take on the Toronto Raptors in Round 1 of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Cavs will be the sixth team that Harden appears with in the postseason, after stints with Oklahoma City, Houston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, the Los Angeles Clippers and now Cleveland.

Harden enters the series with the Raptors 14th on the league's career playoff scoring list, two points behind No. 13 Larry Bird. He's 59 points behind No. 12 Dwyane Wade, and if the Cavs make any sort of deep run would figure to have a chance to reach the top 10 in playoff scoring sometime this spring.

Houston had three players (Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant and Jabari Smith Jr.) finish among the top five in minutes played during the regular season. Thompson was first, Durant second, Smith fifth.

— It was the first time that a team had three of the top five in minutes played.

— It was the fourth time in the last decade that teammates finished first and second on that list. New York’s Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart finished in those spots last year, the Knicks’ Julius Randle and RJ Barrett did in 2020-21 and Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns did in 2016-17.

— Durant played more minutes this season than he has in any season since 2013-14.

Some stat milestones that could await in these playoffs:

— Houston's Kevin Durant is 15 points shy of 5,000 for his playoff career. He'll be the seventh player to hit that number.

— The Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James — who already holds league records for playoff games, games won, games lost, points scored, field goals made, field goals attempted and steals, among other things — needs seven more steals to get to 500. Nobody else even has 400.

— If New York gets to the Eastern Conference finals, Mike Brown (who has 50 playoff wins) would pass Tyronn Lue (57) and move into the top 20 all-time for coaching playoff victories.

When the Denver Nuggets play, you're going to see a lot of points.

How many points? Well, probably more than what oddsmakers tell you to expect.

Denver's games went over the Vegas over-under total — the number of total points expected in the game from both teams — 63.4% of the time this season. That's the second-highest rate in the last 12 seasons, topped only by Indiana's games going over the total 65.3% of the time in the 2020-21 season.

Other betting nuggets from this season:

— Among the 16 playoff teams, Boston (59.8%) covered more often than any other team, followed by San Antonio (57.3%). Charlotte covered in 61% of its games but missed the playoffs.

— Speaking of the Celtics, only 36.6% of their games went over the total. That's the lowest rate in the NBA in at least 12 years.

— Oklahoma City was favored in 78 of its 82 games, as would probably be expected.

It's been a long time since Pistons fans can say this: Game 1 is at home.

The opener of the Detroit-Orlando series on Sunday will be the first time the Pistons open any playoff series on their home floor since 2008 — an Eastern Conference semifinal matchup, also against the Magic.

Detroit wound up winning in five games before falling to Boston in that season's East finals.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Portland Trail Blazers center Donovan Clingan dunks during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner, center, shoots as he gets caught between Minnesota Timberwolves guard Terrence Shannon Jr., left, and guard Jaylen Clark during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Indiana Pacers center Micah Potter (11) goes over the back of Detroit Pistons forward Paul Reed (7) during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) gets fouled by Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija (8) during the second half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

The NBA playoff field is set. And now, let the series begin.

There are four games on Saturday to get things started: Toronto-Cleveland, Minnesota-Denver, Atlanta-New York and Houston-Los Angeles Lakers.

The final two spots in the field were grabbed Friday night when Orlando beat Charlotte for the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference and Phoenix topped Golden State for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.

Golden State's loss to Phoenix in the play-in finale was followed by news that many Warriors fans probably didn't want to hear.

Steve Kerr might not be back.

“These jobs all have an expiration date,” Kerr said as his 12th season as coach came to an end. “There’s a run that happens, and when the run ends, sometimes it’s time for new blood and new ideas and all that.”

Kerr indicated he'll collect his thoughts over the next week or two, then he and the Warriors' front office will figure out what's best.

— Some news and notes going into the postseason

— Playoff preview: Thunder seeking another title

— Victor Wembanyama set for his postseason debut

— Heat equipment manager needs organ transplants

— Natalie Sago the 3rd female ref picked for playoffs

— The view from Vegas says the West is the best

Turns out, Minnesota's Anthony Edwards was on at least one awards ballot — even though his appeal to get on the ballot for MVP, All-NBA and more was denied.

Edwards was eligible for the NBA's clutch player of the year award. The reason: Finalists for that trophy were not determined by games played but rather by a polling of NBA coaches.

There were 14 players eligible for that award, the others being Boston's Jaylen Brown, New York's Jalen Brunson, Detroit's Cade Cunningham, the Los Angeles Lakers' Luka Doncic, Houston's Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cleveland's James Harden, Atlanta's Jalen Johnson, Denver teammates Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, the Los Angeles Clippers' Kawhi Leonard, Philadelphia's Tyrese Maxey and San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama.

NBA awards voters had to turn their ballots in by Friday.

1 p.m. EDT — Game 1, Toronto at Cleveland (Prime Video)

3:30 p.m. EDT — Game 1, Minnesota at Denver (Prime Video)

6 p.m. — Game 1, Atlanta at New York (Prime Video)

8:30 p.m. — Game 1, Houston at LA Lakers (ABC)

1 p.m. EDT — Game 1, Philadelphia at Boston (ABC)

3:30 p.m. EDT — Game 1, Phoenix at Oklahoma City (ABC)

6:30 p.m. EDT — Game 1, Orlando at Detroit (NBC/Peacock)

9 p.m. EDT — Game 1, Portland at San Antonio (NBC/Peacock)

7 p.m. EDT — Game 2, Toronto at Cleveland (Peacock/NBCSN)

8 p.m. EDT — Game 2, Atlanta at New York (NBC/Peacock)

10:30 p.m. EDT — Game 2, Minnesota at Denver (NBC/Peacock)

The National Basketball Coaches Association said Friday that Detroit's J.B. Bickerstaff won its coach of the year award for this season.

That is not the official, NBA-issued award. The NBCA award — named for Michael H. Goldberg, the first executive director of the association — is voted on by the other head coaches in the league.

Other coaches who got votes from their peers for this year's award: Mark Daigneault of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Mitch Johnson of the San Antonio Spurs, Charles Lee of the Charlotte Hornets, Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics, Quin Snyder of the Atlanta Hawks and Tiago Splitter of the Portland Trail Blazers.

“I’m extremely honored to receive this recognition from my coaching peers,” Bickerstaff said.

Defending champion Oklahoma City (+115) is favored to win the NBA title, according to oddsmakers.

The Thunder are followed by San Antonio (+450), Boston (+550), Denver (+1000) and Cleveland (+1600). Detroit, the No. 1 seed in the East but now the third betting choice on that side of the bracket, is +1800, just ahead of New York (+2000). After that, nobody has better odds than Houston (+6600).

The Los Angeles Lakers were +2500 before Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves got hurt; they’re +20000 now. The longest shot in the playoff field is Orlando (+75000).

— Saturday and Sunday: 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).

— June 23: Round 1, NBA draft

— June 24: Round 2, NBA draft

— Orlando's 31-point lead at halftime over Charlotte on Friday was the biggest at intermission in play-in tournament history.

— Golden State's Stephen Curry (187) passed Miami's Tyler Herro (178) for the all-time play-in tournament scoring lead with a 17-point effort in the Warriors' season-ending loss at Phoenix. Herro held the record for three days.

— There have been four instances of a team trailing by at least 30 points in the play-in tournament. Charlotte has been on the wrong end in three of them: a 39-point deficit to Indiana in 2021, a 33-point deficit against Atlanta in 2022 and a 35-point deficit on Friday in Orlando. (The other team to get into a 30-point hole in the play-in was Indiana, which trailed Washington by 38 in 2021.)

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry celebrates after scoring during the second half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game against the against the Los Angeles Clippers, Wednesday, April 15, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) lies on the court during the first half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game against the Charlotte Hornets in Charlotte, N.C., Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer watches in the closing minutes of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game between the Clippers and the Golden State Warriors Wednesday, April 15, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James looks to make a pass during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) shoots against the Los Angeles Clippers during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)