NBA Eastern Conference playoff matchups set: What to expect from each series

By James Edwards III, Eric Nehm, Hunter Patterson, Josh Robbins and Jenna West

The Eastern Conference postseason matchups were locked in Friday night with key wins from the Milwaukee Bucks and the Chicago Bulls, two days before the NBA’s regular season ends.

Milwaukee secured the No. 5 seed with a 125-119 win over the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 32 points, 11 rebounds and 15 assists. Detroit will be the No. 6 seed.

The Bulls will go to the Play-In Tournament as the No. 9 seed after beating the Washington Wizards 119-89. Chicago will face the Miami Heat (No. 10) in the tournament for one of the East’s final two spots. The Orlando Magic and the Atlanta Hawks earned the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds, respectively, in the other Play-In Tournament matchup.

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics enter the playoffs as the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively. On March 5, Cleveland became the first team in the NBA to clinch a playoff berth while on a 12-game win streak. Despite losing to the Cavaliers, the Knicks locked up the No. 3 seed after the Pacers lost to the Magic. Indiana will be the No. 4 seed.

Eastern Conference playoff seeding:

No. 1 Cavaliers
No. 2 Celtics

No. 3 Knicks versus No. 6 Pistons
No. 4 Pacers versus No. 5 Bucks

Play-In Tournament

No. 7 Magic at No. 8 Hawks (winner to face Celtics)
No. 9 Bulls at No. 10 Heat (loser eliminated)

Bulls-Heat winner at Magic-Hawks loser (winner to face Cavaliers)

Knicks limp into the playoffs

Despite a 50-win season, the Knicks go into the playoffs unable to find their stride to end the season. New York wanted to end the regular season playing its best basketball, and the team got nowhere near it.

Now, New York goes into a series against the young, feisty Pistons, who defeated the Knicks three times during the regular season. The Knicks have the experience, and that should, in the end, allow them to prevail. But New York has struggled all season with teams that play fast and defend at a high level, which is what Detroit has done all season.

Ultimately, New York’s star power and experience should win out, likely setting up a second-round matchup with the Celtics. — James Edwards III, Knicks beat writer

Pistons entering playoffs with confidence

Simply put, this was the most impressive Pistons season in nearly two decades. After struggling to notch 14 wins last year, the sixth-seeded Pistons (44-37) have tripled their win total. This is Detroit’s first time securing a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference since 2008, the last time the Pistons reached the conference finals.

Detroit has had the Knicks’ number all season long, winning the season series 3-1 after Thursday’s victory. The Pistons’ franchise cornerstone, Cade Cunningham, was particularly comfortable against New York this season, averaging 30.8 points, 8.3 assists and 5.0 rebounds while shooting 56.3 percent and 52 percent from distance in four games against the Knicks. The playoffs are a different beast altogether, but the Pistons will enter this matchup confident in their chances. — Hunter Patterson, Pistons beat writer

Bucks won’t underestimate the Pacers

While this is not what the Bucks imagined at the start of the season, this is where they had to set their sights at the start of April. After Damian Lillard went to the injured list with right calf deep vein thrombosis, the Bucks dropped four straight games to end March. They needed to salvage something from this regular season and get themselves a winnable matchup in the first round of the playoffs with Lillard’s status for the postseason still in question. The Bucks went 0-10 against the top 3 teams in the Eastern Conference, but they put together a 3-1 record against the Indiana Pacers.

While they’ve had success against the Pacers in the regular season, the Bucks will not underestimate Indiana in the postseason. As the sixth seed last season, the Pacers upset the Bucks in the first round as Antetokounmpo missed the whole series and Lillard missed Games 4 and 5.

After beating the Bucks last season, the Pacers also beat the Knicks and made a surprise run to the Eastern Conference finals. They will not be able to surprise anyone this season, though, with home-court advantage against the Bucks. — Eric Nehm, Bucks beat writer

Pacers will be a tough out

For the first time since 2020, the Pacers will host a first-round playoff series. No matter what happens in the regular-season finale Sunday, the Pacers will have more wins than they did last season while finishing higher position in the standings. Following a run to the Eastern Conference finals last season, Indiana knows it has the postseason mettle to do it again this year.

After a slow start, the Pacers have been one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams in 2025. Since Jan. 1, only the Celtics (36-12) and Cavaliers (35-13) have compiled a better record than the Pacers’ 33-13 mark. They are playing great at the moment and will be a tough out for any team in the postseason. — Nehm

No. 8 Hawks at No. 7 Magic

Orlando leads the regular-season series against Atlanta 2-1 heading into the teams’ now-meaningless matchup in Sunday’s regular-season finale. Of note: On Feb. 10, the Hawks defeated the Magic 112-106 on Orlando’s home floor despite 68 combined points by Magic forwards Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner and a horrendous game from Atlanta’s Trae Young, when he made only six of 17 shots and turned the ball over nine times.

On Tuesday, the Magic defeated the Hawks 119-112 in a hard-fought, entertaining game in which the Magic’s normally weak 3-point shooting went 14-of-34 (41 percent) from beyond the arc.

Will any of Atlanta’s perimeter players other than Young provide enough supplemental scoring to loosen Orlando’s elite defense? And can Orlando get at least average 3-point shooting to complement Banchero and Wagner? — Josh Robbins, senior NBA writer

No. 10 Heat at No. 9 Bulls

Chicago seems to have the edge here. The relatively new-look Bulls — and we say “new look” because of the team’s trade-deadline decision to part with Zach LaVine — have won nine of their last 12 games. Were most of those games against bottom-feeding teams? Yes. But positive momentum is still positive, and it seems like the young nucleus of Coby White, Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis is jelling with more experienced teammates Nikola Vučević and Kevin Huerter.

In addition, the Bulls won all three of their previous matchups against the Heat this season. In those three games, Giddey averaged 26.0 points, 10.3 rebounds and 10.0 assists.

Josh Giddey’s triple-double boosts the Bulls to No. 9 in the East!

🔥 28 PTS
🔥 16 REB
🔥 11 AST
🔥 3 BLK
🔥 2 STL
🔥 57.9 FG%

The @chicagobulls are now JUST 0.5 GB of No. 8 ATL. pic.twitter.com/JtiJ2EYTay

— NBA (@NBA) April 10, 2025

Miami has won eight of its last 11 games, a stretch that includes Wednesday night’s 119-111 loss to the Bulls.

Will the Heat’s more extensive postseason experience, with Bam Adebayo having played in 74 playoff games and Tyler Herro having played in 46, carry the day over the less experienced Bulls? — Robbins

(Photo: Stacy Revere / Getty Images

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