After a thrilling first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs — particularly in the Eastern Conference — Round 2 is set to get going Monday night.
The 16 teams we started with have been whittled down to eight, with upsets and surprises taking centre stage over what is normally a very chalky NBA Playoff landscape.
The two favourites to win the title, Oklahoma City and San Antonio, were predictably dominant in the first round, but outside of those two teams, all the remaining squads were battle-tested, needing at least six games to reach the second round.
If there were a headliner from the first round, it would almost certainly be the No. 7-seeded Philadelphia 76ers upsetting the No. 2 Boston Celtics in seven games after initially falling behind 3-1. On the other end, the No. 1 Detroit Pistons managed to avert disaster by coming back from a 3-1 hole of their own to beat the No. 8 Orlando Magic in seven.
If the first round taught us anything about how this edition of the NBA playoffs is going to go, it’s that volatility is unusually high and conventional wisdom probably isn’t as conventional as one might think.
Despite that, we’ll endeavour to rank the eight remaining teams vying for the Larry O’Brien Trophy in our NBA playoff power rankings.
So, regarding what was just said about volatility? You can go ahead and ignore all that when discussing the Thunder.
Like a metronome, Oklahoma City swept its first-round matchup for the third straight year. Reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looked every bit the award front-runner he has been all season long, averaging 33.8 points and eight assists per game on 55.1 per cent shooting over the four games, including a 42-point performance in Game 3 on a ruthless 15-for-18 from the floor.
The Thunder were the class of the regular season and looked every bit that same part as they entered the post-season. Scarier still, this is a team that has yet to fully integrate all-star wing Jalen Williams.
After playing just 33 games this season, Williams was forced to leave Game 2 against the Phoenix Suns with a hamstring injury that may linger into the second round, and that still doesn’t appear to be much of a concern for the Thunder.
Oklahoma City looks poised to be the first repeat champion since the Golden State Warriors went back-to-back in 2017 and 2018.
After a brief scare regarding a potential concussion, Victor Wembanyama erased all doubts that the Portland Trail Blazers could make their first-round series anything but a gentleman’s sweep.
In his first taste of NBA playoff action, the French superstar averaged 21 points, 8.8 rebounds and four blocks per game on 58.3/53.8/91.3 shooting splits.
So much for the narrative that the bright lights of the playoffs might overwhelm Wembanyama and the young Spurs.
Considering how New York started its series with the Atlanta Hawks trailing 2-1, being up this high in the rankings might seem bizarre. But the Knicks managed to close out in impressive fashion, winning their final three games by an average of 32 points.
That number is, of course, skewed by the 140-89 embarrassment New York used to close out Atlanta, but the Knicks showed that when they’re at their best, they can be one of the very best in the league.
There are still issues with Jalen Brunson probably shooting too much and Karl-Anthony Towns not shooting enough, but to go down 2-1 with the weight of expectation on you from a ravenous fanbase and to not panic and play your best basketball afterwards shows that some of the scars this Brunson-era team earned have toughened it up enough to push through some adversity.
Considering how the Eastern Conference ended up shaking out in the first round, the Knicks should have every reason to believe that the Finals berth they were expected to secure this season is right there for the taking.
The biggest story of the first round was that the highly vaunted Boston Celtics blew a 3-1 series lead to the upstart Philadelphia 76ers and lost in seven.
A lot has already been said — and will continue to be said — about Boston’s ice-cold shooting from three and Jayson Tatum getting hurt again, but those are just convenient excuses.
The Celtics didn’t lose the series; the Sixers won it, and did so thanks to the surprisingly feel-good story of Joel Embiid (and to a lesser extent, Paul George) turning back the clock to produce at an MVP level.
Despite Jaylen Brown’s whining about the officiating in Game 7 — a game played in Boston — the fact of the matter is that the Celtics had no answer for Embiid once he showed up in Game 4, then planted his flag with a 34-point, 12-rebound, six-assist performance in Game 7.
Injuries will always be an issue with Embiid, but when he’s right, there might not be anyone in the world who can stop him.
Philadelphia is now Tyrese Maxey’s team, and his brilliance (26.9 points per game on 41.8 per cent shooting from deep in the first round) will ultimately decide how far the 76ers go in the post-season.
But having a former MVP as an X-factor is a very nice thing to have in the back pocket.
Though it was shocking to witness Nikola Jokic get flummoxed by Rudy Gobert, seeing the Timberwolves dismantle the Denver Nuggets wasn’t much of a surprise.
This is a team that seemingly was built to be the Nuggets’ kryptonite, and they did their jobs once again despite the bad injury luck.
Now the real test begins for the two-time conference finalists as they get set to square off against Wembanyama and the Spurs.
Gobert is one of the few men on the planet who might be able to bother Wembanyama’s shot — if even just a little — but the real crux of the matter for Minnesota is Anthony Edwards’ health.
Both Edwards and Ayo Dosunmu are listed as questionable for Monday’s Game 1, and if neither of them can play — Edwards in particular — then the Timberwolves’ second round will be a very short one.
However, if Edwards can come back, there’s a good chance this could be a dogfight of a series. The 24-year-old has earned himself the reputation of being something of a giant killer over the course of his young career, knocking off the likes of Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Jokic in playoff series.
Who’s to say he can’t do the same to the rising future face of the league?
It wasn’t pretty, but the East’s top seed managed to survive and advance to the second round after a hard-fought series with the Magic.
All the misgivings anyone had with the Pistons coming into the playoffs proved to be true. This is a team that struggles to find any secondary scoring or creation outside of Cade Cunningham — who was awesome, averaging 32.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game over the seven-game series — and the team’s inexperience showed throughout, especially with how ineffective Jalen Duren looked at times.
None of that matters now, however, because Detroit survived.
Yes, it was incredibly lucky that Orlando only scored 19 points in the second half of Game 6, and the Pistons were aided, in general, by an anemic Magic offence, but all that matters is that they advanced.
Lining up against the Pistons will be a Cavaliers team that also didn’t look all that hot in the first round, and is also coming off a seven-game war.
So, while things weren’t great for the Pistons to start the playoffs, they could be a lot worse.
LeBron James will, seemingly, never cease to amaze.
At age 41, he managed to lead an undermanned Lakers team past a Houston Rockets squad that, on paper, was much younger and more talented.
That Rockets collapse was likely a long time coming, but to see James still showcase world-class athleticism at over 40 has been mind-boggling.
The Lakers likely won’t have much of a shot against the Thunder, even with Austin Reaves returning from injury. The best chance they’ll have is if Luka Doncic returns from his hamstring sprain, but considering that the league’s scoring champ this season had to fly to Spain to get treatment and only recently returned to sit on the Lakers bench in street clothes, the chances of him making a return for the second round seem slim.
Regardless, the Lakers have James, and any opportunity to see him play just a little more is a privilege.
Give the Cavaliers some credit; they won that Game 7 against the Toronto Raptors, doing so thanks to a concerted effort to crash the offensive glass and their star backcourt duo of Donovan Mitchell and James Harden showing up just enough.
But while a win’s always a win, there’s a legitimate question whether the series should have gone to seven games — or even six, or five.
The Cavaliers were big favourites over a young, inexperienced and banged-up Raptors team and, at times, had their lunch taken by what was supposed to be an inferior opponent.
The Raptors comported themselves well in the series and looked like they could’ve pulled off the upset, while Cleveland was the exact opposite.
At many points during the series, the Cavaliers looked like a team made up of playoff greenhorns and very nearly ended their season by shooting themselves out of games as the Celtics did.
They managed to put it together in the end, but it was a real rough ride.