The 2022 NBA Playoffs are here. Twenty teams made it into the postseason, but that number will be reduced to 16 by Friday night after the play-in tournament, and the first round of the postseason begins on Saturday, April 16th. After a season full of upsets, the title fight appears to be wide open in both conferences, and there will be plenty of tasty first-round matchups. But things start with the play-in tournament, which begins Tuesday night.
The seventh-seeded Nets defeated the Cavaliers in the east and meet the No. 2 Celtics in the first round. In the west, the Timberwolves overtook the Clippers when they landed the No. 7 seed and had a chance in a best-of -Seven Series to face off against the rising Grizzlies. The #9 vs. #10 play-in games (Hawks vs. Hornets in the east; Pelicans vs. Spurs in the west) take place on Wednesday, and the play-in tournament concludes on Friday night with the Cavaliers and Clippers ( 7-8 game losers) face 9-10 game number 8 winners in both conferences. Our expert play-in predictions can be found here.
Round one begins Saturday afternoon, and we know our first matchup: The fourth-place Mavericks will host the fifth-place Jazz at 1 p.m. ET. The series of 76ers-Raptors, Warriors-Nuggets and the Grizzlies against the West No. 7 will also begin on Saturday, before the other four series begin on Sunday.
The full 2022 NBA Playoff bracket and schedule for this week is below. Any game on NBATV, ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC can be streamed via fuboTV (try it for free).
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This week’s playoff schedule
(All times US/Eastern)
Tuesday, April 12th
Nets 115, cavaliers 108
Timberwolves 109, Clippers 104
Wednesday, April 13
Hornets vs. Hawks, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
Spurs vs. Pelicans, 9:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Friday, April 15
Hornets/Hawks vs. Cavaliers Winner, TBD (ESPN)
Spurs/Pelicans vs. Clippers Winner, TBD (TNT)
Saturday, April 16th
Game 1: Jazz vs. Mavericks, 1 p.m. (ESPN)
Game 1: Timberwolves vs. Grizzlies, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Game 1: Raptors vs. 76ers, 6 p.m. (ESPN)
Game 1: Nuggets vs. Warriors, 8:30 p.m. (ABC)
Sunday, April 17th
Game 1: East No. 8 vs Heat, 1pm (TNT)
Game 1: Nets vs Celtics, 3:30 p.m. (ABC)
Game 1: Bulls vs. Bucks, 6:30 p.m. (TNT)
Game 1: West No. 8 vs. Suns, 9 p.m. (TNT)