NBA play-in games taking shape: Heat-Hornets, Magic-76ers are set

MIAMI (AP) — Inside the Miami Heat locker room on Sunday night, everybody's eyes were on a giant television set showing the end of the Orlando-Boston game.

With good reason. It decided a whole lot in the Eastern Conference.

The East postseason matchups — as many as can be known at this point, anyway — are now set. Miami goes to Charlotte for a play-in game on Tuesday, while Orlando goes to Philadelphia for a win-and-you're-in game on Wednesday.

The Orlando-Philadelphia winner will play No. 2 Boston in Round 1, while the Orlando-Philadelphia loser will play the Miami-Charlotte winner on Friday to decide who plays No. 1 Detroit in an East quarterfinal series.

Also now set: first-round meetings between No. 3 New York and No. 6 Atlanta, along with No. 4 Cleveland and No. 5 Toronto. Game 1s in those series will be next weekend.

“Our group understands what wins and loses for us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And that's the most important thing.”

The Celtics beat the Magic, which dropped Orlando into the No. 8 spot for the play-in. It also ensured the Miami-Charlotte game would be played Tuesday, since Philadelphia cannot host basketball games Monday or Tuesday because of arena scheduling conflicts with the NHL's Flyers.

The Western Conference matchups were to be set later Sunday.

Phoenix will play host to either the Los Angeles Clippers or Portland on Tuesday to decide the No. 7 playoff seed — and a first-round matchup with West No. 2 San Antonio — while Golden State will visit either the Clippers or Portland on Wednesday in an elimination game to see who moves a game closer to a first-round matchup with West No. 1 Oklahoma City.

Denver and the Los Angeles Lakers will be the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, in some order. The third seed will meet No. 6 Minnesota in Round 1, while the fourth seed will take on No. 5 Houston.

Points record falls

More points were scored this season than in any other in NBA history, with the previous record of 282,127 points getting passed Sunday evening — with about seven games left to be played on the schedule.

It won't be a record for points per game; that mark of 118.8 points per team, per game, has stood since 1961-62. Entering Sunday, this season's pace of 115.6 points per team was sixth-best in NBA history.

Jokic plays, will be award eligible

Denver's Nikola Jokic appeared in the Nuggets' game against San Antonio on Sunday night, which pushed his total to 65 games for the season — and therefore would get him eligibility on the NBA's award ballots that will be sent out later this week.

Jokic was second in last year’s MVP balloting behind only Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, That made Jokic just the third player in NBA history with a top-two finish in five or more consecutive seasons, joining Bill Russell and Larry Bird.

Jokic won MVP in 2021, 2023 and 2024, plus was second in 2022 and again last year.

Russell and Bird, a pair of Boston Celtics greats, each were first or second in the balloting in six consecutive seasons.

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