What every team needs to earn the No. 1 seed, home court in the first round, a spot straight into the playoffs, or a place in the Play-In, worked out over every possible result of every remaining game.
Updated Mon, Oct. 26, 9:34 a.m. CT
Pick your conference and your team. The standings table shows the seeds if the season ended today, using the NBA's full tie-break procedure, with each team's status for a top-6 seed and for the Play-In. The team panel then gives four cards: the No. 1 seed, a top-4 seed (home court in the first round), a top-6 seed (straight into the playoffs) and a top-10 seed (at least the Play-In). Each card says in plain words how many wins guarantee it, how few could still be enough, and when a tiebreaker would decide. Open "Every possible win total" for the full ladder, from winning out to losing out. The rooting guide lists the next three days of games and which side helps your team most.
Reading a team. Each card says, in plain terms, how many wins guarantee it and how few could still be enough. "Every possible win total" lists each finish: Guaranteed no matter what else happens; Guaranteed unless tied, where a tiebreaker would decide; Still possible with help from other results; Needs a tiebreaker going their way; Can't happen.
NBA Cup. The Cup's group-stage and knockout games count in the standings; the championship game doesn't. Each team's last two games are scheduled after the group stage in December. Until then, Depends on the Cup schedule marks a win total that works only if the NBA schedules those games a certain way; every other answer holds whatever it schedules.
Rooting guide. For each game in the next three days involving a team in your conference, root against the one that's the bigger threat: a conference rival over a team from the other conference, and between two rivals, the one closer to you in the standings. It's a rule of thumb, not a simulation.
Basis. Seeding is by record; division titles don't earn a seed. "If the season ended today" applies the NBA's full tie-break procedures, so teams with the same record can appear in a different order than on NBA.com's in-season table, which lists teams by games behind. Schedules and results come from two independent feeds that must agree on every final, checked against the NBA's own schedule. The what-it-takes answers consider every possible result of every remaining game and are proven, not sampled. No odds are shown.
Seeds 1 through 6 in each conference go straight to the playoffs. Seeds 7 through 10 play for the last two spots: the 7 and 8 seeds meet and the winner becomes the No. 7 seed; the loser plays the winner of the 9-vs-10 game for the No. 8 seed.
Between two teams: head-to-head record, then division winner, division record (if they share a division), conference record, record against postseason-eligible teams in each conference, and point differential. Ties of three or more teams start with division winner, then record among the tied teams. This page applies the full published procedure.
Group-stage and knockout games are regular-season games and count. The Cup championship game does not.
That no combination of results in the remaining games can keep the team out. Every remaining game is accounted for; nothing is simulated or estimated.