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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Tyler Lauletta & Liam McKeone

NBA Playoff Power Ranking: Where Every Team Stands Heading Into the First Round

It’s time for playoff basketball. After the play-in tournament officially cut the field down to the final 16 teams competing for a championship, the bracket has now been set with Game 1s scheduled all weekend long.

How do those 16 teams stack up against each other? We break it down below, along with one reason to believe and one reason to doubt each team in the 2026 NBA playoff field.

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