So… your favorite team missed the NBA playoffs this year. Now what?
Starting Saturday, 16 teams will begin battling for the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Fourteen teams are already looking ahead to the offseason. Plenty more will join them in the coming weeks.
If you aren’t interested hardcore NBA draft prep for the next two months, the playoffs should provide plenty of entertainment even if your favorite team isn’t involved. The first four games of the play-in tournament were hard-fought, back-and-forth battles, and that was just to get into the playoffs.
From notable postseason debuts to one more clash of legends and the dawn of a potential dynasty, these are five of the most notable storylines to root for heading into the playoffs.
1. Wemby’s playoff debut
In his third NBA season, San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama averaged a career-high 25.0 points, 11.5 rebounds and a league-leading 3.1 blocks per game.
He did that in only 29.2 minutes per game. What happens if (when?) the Spurs increase his minutes in the playoffs?
The thought of Wemby racking up 30-20 games should be enough on its own. But the style of play in the playoffs also might lend itself to monster performances from him. He’s even more of a dominant defensive presence and shot-blocking menace in half-court settings.
If Wemby lays waste to the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the playoffs, that’ll be a good way for him to get his playoff feet wet before a matchup against either Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets or Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the conference semifinals. If the Spurs advance again, the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder are likely to be waiting in the Western Conference Finals.
If the Spurs survive that gauntlet, Wemby likely will have established himself as a playoff legend ahead of his first trip to the NBA Finals.
2. Playoff newcomers
Wembanyama isn’t the only notable playoff debutant to root for this year.
Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson has technically been to the playoffs twice before this season, but he averaged 3.3 points in 8.1 minutes across his eight appearances. He averaged a career-high 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 7.9 assists in a breakout season this year that convinced the Hawks to rid themselves of Trae Young at the trade deadline.
Johnson isn’t the only young forward who had a breakout season. Deni Avdija of the Portland Trail Blazers averaged a career-high 24.2 points, 6.9 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game this year en route to his first All-Star nod. On Tuesday, he became the first player ever to put up at least 40 points and 10 assists in a play-in tournament game. He’ll face Wemby and the Spurs in the first round.
The Philadelphia 76ers likely will be lambs to the slaughter against the Boston Celtics without Joel Embiid, but at least VJ Edgecombe will get a few games’ worth of playoff experience. After the Sixers’ play-in win Wednesday, Edgecombe admitted he was “tweaking a little bit tonight,” but he added, “If I gotta play wild for us to win, I’ll play wild.”
The Charlotte Hornets still have to earn their way into the playoffs by mercy-killing the Orlando Magic on Friday night. If they do, they’ll face the top-seeded Detroit Pistons—whose resurgence this season is also worth celebrating—in the first round of the playoffs.
Except the Hornets aren’t any typical No. 8 seed. They’ve been one of the NBA’s hottest teams since the calendar flipped to 2026. If they snap a decade-long playoff drought, they’ll be one of the easiest bandwagons to hop on to (Miles Bridges notwithstanding).
3. A Knicks-Celtics rematch?
Last year, the Celtics and New York Knicks met in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Knicks won the first two games on the road, the Celtics punched back in Game 3, but Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles in Game 4 and the series was effectively over after that. One year later, Tatum and the Celtics might have a chance to get their revenge.
The Celtics should breeze against the Embiid-less Sixers in the first round of the playoffs. The Knicks face a far stiffer test against Johnson and the Hawks. Both the Celtics and Knicks are favored to win their respective series, but it isn’t guaranteed. If they do, though, they’ll once again face one another with a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals on the line.
The Knicks won the season series 3-1, although Tatum missed the first three and Jaylen Brown missed the last one. The “gap-year Celtics” would enter this series under far less pressure than the Knicks, whose owner has made his Finals expectations clear. No matter what happens in this potential series, either Celtics haters or Knicks haters will win. That’s a victory for us all.
4. The last KD-LeBron clash?
Kevin Durant and LeBron James have faced one another in three NBA Finals matchups, but they’ve never clashed earlier than that in the playoffs. This year, they’re meeting up in the first round.
LeBron’s Los Angeles Lakers are coming in short-handed with both Luka Dončić (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique) sidelined for at least the start of the playoffs. Durant’s Houston Rockets are the clear favorites with those injuries factored in. But had Luka and Reaves not been injured, this matchup might have swung the other way.
Even if the Zombie Lakers can’t take down the Rockets, seeing LeBron still somehow dominate in his age-41 season for a few games in the playoffs will be awe-inspiring. Durant, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason all figure to take turns defending James, but he’s still going to get his.
The same goes for Durant, who has a clear matchup advantage over the Lakers. No one on their roster has the right combination of size, foot speed and defensive acumen to keep up with him. (In fairness to the Lakers, few teams do.)
LeBron turned 41 this past December, while Durant is turning 38 (!) in September. At best, LeBron seems like he has one more year left in his NBA career. This could very well be the last time that LeBron and Durant play against one another in a game with actual stakes.
5. The real NBA Finals?
With all due respect to the Celtics, Knicks, Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers, the two best teams in the NBA this year might both reside in the West.
And if the Spurs and Thunder clash in the Western Conference Finals this year, it might wind up being the actual NBA Finals. Whichever team wins that series would likely be favored over the team that wins the East, regardless of whether it’s the Celtics, Pistons, Cavaliers, Knicks or a surprise team.
The Spurs repeatedly spanked the Thunder during the regular season this year. They were one of the few roadblocks in the defending champions’ march to the West’s No. 1 seed for the third straight season. And Wembanyama appears to particularly savor beating them.
Given the recent trajectory of both teams, Thunder-Spurs could be the NBA’s next great rivalry. To become a great rivalry, though, they needed to face one another in the playoffs—repeatedly.
Regular-season games are one thing. Preventing one another from winning a championship? That lends itself to a whole different level of enmity.
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