The NBA’s East Play-in Field Is Set: Miami Goes To Philadelphia While Atlanta Goes To Chicago – News18

Orlando blew out Milwaukee, Indiana blew out Atlanta, Philadelphia blew out Brooklyn and Miami blew out Toronto.

And all that meant this: Nothing on the bottom half of the Eastern Conference’s playoff chase changed on the final day of the regular season.

It will be eighth-seeded Miami visiting seventh-seeded Philadelphia in an East play-in game on Wednesday, followed by 10th-seeded Atlanta visiting ninth-seeded Chicago in an elimination game later that night. The Heat-76ers winner will face the No. 2 seed — either New York or Milwaukee — in Round 1 of the playoffs, and the Heat-76ers loser will play host to the Hawks-Bulls winner on Friday night.

The winner of that game will play No. 1 seed Boston in Round 1, starting April 21 at TD Garden.

“Look, this is the best time of year,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, whose team started in the play-in last season and wound up in the NBA Finals. “These kind of environments, the games, the context … you can’t expect to be easy.”

The East result set the game schedule for the Western Conference as well, with both of those play-in games set for Tuesday. Those matchups — Sacramento, the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State will be joined by either Phoenix or New Orleans — will be set later Sunday afternoon.

Cleveland is the No. 4 seed in the East for the second consecutive year. The Cavaliers had a chance to move to No. 2 or No. 3 in the East with a win on Sunday and led lottery-bound Charlotte by 13 with 10 minutes remaining.

And they didn’t seem to want to move up much, getting outscored 30-7 the rest of the way. Charlotte won 120-110.

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

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)