NBA Playoff Bracket Prediction Heading Into The Final Week Of The Regular Season

With the 2024-25 NBA regular season set to end Sunday, April 13th, I thought I would give one last prediction heading into the final week of the season of what our final seeding will look like after each team finishes their 82-game schedule.

Projected Eastern Conference Playoff Standings

1. Cleveland Cavaliers

2. Boston Celtics

3. New York Knicks

4. Indiana Pacers

5. Milwaukee Bucks

6. Detroit Pistons

7. Orlando Magic (pi)

8. Atlanta Hawks (pi)

9. Chicago Bulls (pi)

10. Miami Heat (pi)

Projected Western Conference Playoff Standings

1. Oklahoma City Thunder

2. Houston Rockets

3. Los Angeles Lakers

4. Minnesota Timberwolves

5. Golden State Warriors

6. Denver Nuggets

7. Los Angeles Clippers (pi)

8. Memphis Grizzlies (pi)

9. Sacramento Kings (pi)

10. Dallas Mavericks (pi)

Eastern Conference First Round Series I'd Be Most Excited For: Pistons vs. Knicks

The one-year turnaround by the Detroit Pistons has been one of, if not the best story in the NBA this season. Personally, this team has a lot of similarities to that 2021 Knicks squad that also seemingly came out of nowhere to make the playoffs after being one of the laughingstocks of the NBA for years. If we were to get a New York versus Detroit playoff series, it would be the first time these franchises will have faced off in the postseason since 2000, and I think it would be awesome. The atmosphere in both buildings would be your typical intense and fiery Eastern Conference fan bases, and we get to see two of the best guards in basketball battle it out in Cade Cunningham and Jalen Brunson. The Knicks' veteran roster meeting a hungry Pistons team eager to prove itself should give us a gritty, physical series full of drama, and I would expect a couple of scuffles between the two teams.

Eastern Conference First Round Series I'd Be Most Excited For: Warriors vs. Timberwolves

Honestly, you could get me excited for any of the Western Conference playoff matchups if my bracket were to hold. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander against Ja Morant, the young Rockets facing off against their franchise legend in James Harden and the Clippers, and LeBron James and Luka Doncic going up against Nikola Jokic in a third straight playoff matchup between the Lakers and Nuggets.

However, the one that would intetrest me the most, would be seeing the Golden State Warriors take on the Minnesota Timberwolves. These two teams have been two of the hottest in the league since the trade deadline, with the Warriors looking like a true title contender since bringing in Jimmy Butler and the Timberwolves looking more and more like the team that went all the way to the Western Conference Finals just a year ago.

There are just so many storylines here: the superstar matchup of Anthony Edwards against Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler facing off against his former team, and then, of course, Draymond Green doing his best to get under Rudy Gobert's skin.

I just think this would have the potential to perhaps be one of the first-round series of the last decade.