The NBA's Western Conference playoff field is set

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The NBA's Western Conference playoff field is set

Wed, Apr 8, 2026 ·

9 min read

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🚨 Headlines

🏒 Avs clinch No. 1 spot:The Avalanche clinched the top seed in the West for the third time in the last five seasons, and can clinch the Presidents' Trophy (league's best record) as soon as tomorrow.

🏀 Meltdown in Milwaukee:Giannis Antetokounmpo's rocky relationship with the Bucks is apparently even more fractured than it seemed , with the two-time MVP reportedly asking Milwaukee to trade him multiple times this season. Their yearslong game of tug of war may finally, actually, be coming to an end.

⚽️ Champions League quarterfinals:The last eight kicked off on Tuesday with a pair of first-leg matches. Bayern Munich won their heavyweight clash against Real Madrid, 2-1, and Arsenal beat Sporting CP, 1-0, with a game-winner in stoppage time.

🏀 Geno reflects on outburst:Geno Auriemma released a second statement apologizing for his postgame blowup towards Dawn Staley that dominated headlines following UConn's Final Four loss to South Carolina. "I've lost more games in the Final Four than any coach in history," he wrote. "But Friday I lost something more important. I lost myself."

⚽️ USMNT hopeful injured:American Patrick Agyemang will miss the World Cup after suffering a serious Achilles injury in Monday's Derby County game. The Connecticut native was one of four strikers competing for three spots on this summer's roster.

See what else is trending on Yahoo Sports .

🏀 The West is set

With the Timberwolves winning and the Suns losing on Tuesday, the Western Conference's six playoff teams (Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets, Lakers, Rockets, Wolves) and four play-in teams (Suns, Clippers, Trail Blazers, Warriors) are now set . All that's left is determining seeding before the regular season concludes on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in the East:The top four teams (Pistons, Celtics, Knicks, Cavaliers) are locked into playoff spots, though seeding remains up for grabs, while the Heat are headed to the play-in tournament for the fourth straight year . The middle of the pack (Hawks, Raptors, 76ers, Magic, Hornets) remains tight, and those five teams could end up in either the playoffs or play-in.

Where it stands: Clinching scenarios, remaining schedules

📸 In photos: Brawl in Anaheim

Unlike most MLB "brawls," this one actually had punches. In Tuesday's game between the Braves and Angels, a fight broke out in the fifth inning when Atlanta pitcher Reynaldo López and Angels DH Jorge Soler went at it, triggering a full clearing of the benches and bullpens.

Tension had been brewing throughout the game, with Soler hitting a two-run homer in the first inning and then getting hit by a 96-mph fastball in the third. That tension boiled over when López threw a high fastball during Soler's third plate appearance.

The former teammates were soon going after each other, with López using a baseball as a weapon and Soler eventually being tackled to the ground by Braves manager Walt Weiss and others. Meanwhile, Angels star Mike Trout pushed López out of the action.

There is a degree of familiarity on both sides of this fracas, as López used to play for the Angels and Soler used to play for the Braves. Both combatants were ejected from the game, and Atlanta went on to win 7-2.

⛳️ From patron to champion

Jay Busbee, Yahoo Sports:

Bubba Watson's shot from the trees on the 10th hole at the 2012 Masters remains one of the finest moments in the tournament's history. An impossible arc that somehow ended up on the green, the shot in sudden death gave Watson the first of his two green jackets.

Equally remarkable: although nobody knew it at the time, another two-time green jacket winner was among the patrons in the gallery watching it all unfold.

"I was here that day," Scottie Scheffler said Tuesday prior to the start of the 2026 Masters. "This tournament is a great experience to come to as a patron, and being able to be up close and see someone accomplish something that I dreamed of accomplishing at the time, I think is very inspirational."

At the time, Scheffler was a 15-year-old student at Highland Park High School in Dallas, and already showing signs of the golf genius he would become. He won three straight state titles from 2012-14, and the U.S. Junior Amateur in 2013.

Two years after watching Watson execute one of the finest shots in Masters history, Scheffler made his PGA Tour debut as a 17-year-old at what was then called the HP Byron Nelson Championship. (Naturally, he made the cut and finished T22.)

Continuing the improbable intersecting storylines from that day, Watson's caddie Ted Scott would one day become Scheffler's caddie, and an instrumental element of his charge to the top of the golf world.

"Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought the guy carrying Bubba's bag at the time would be one of my best friends," Scheffler said, "and my caddie for a long time as well."

Scheffler is in what passes for him as a lull, with "just" one win in six starts. Still, there's something about this week that brings him peace.

"Augusta is the place you always want to get to, whether or not it's to play in the tournament or just to get to see the golf course," he said. "For me, I truly feel that once you drive down Magnolia Lane, everything else melts away, and you get to be here and be focused. There's not a lot of distractions this week."

Although he has two green jackets of his own, Scheffler hasn't yet crafted one of the eternal Masters shots like Watson's in 2012. Still, there's plenty of time … starting with his 1:44pm ET tee time on Thursday.

💯 Big Numbers

🏀 +39.70

Michigan earned every bit of its national championship, finishing the season with a net rating of +39.70, which trails only 1999 Duke (+43.01) for the highest ever tracked by KenPom (since 1997).

Best year ever?Across 30 years of KenPom data, just six teams have had a net rating of +37 or better, and three came this season alone: 1999 Duke (+43.01), 2026 Michigan (+39.70), 2025 Duke (+39.29), 2026 Arizona (+38.06), 2026 Duke (+37.37) and 2001 Duke (+37.32).

🏈 4 of 10

Four of the top 10 picks in our latest NFL mock draft played at Ohio State, with LB/Edge Arvell Reese going to the Jets (2nd pick), LB Sonny Styles going to the Titans (4th), WR Carnell Tate going to the Browns (6th) and S Caleb Downs going to the Chiefs (9th).

Rounding out the top 10:The rest of the top 10, courtesy of Yahoo Sports' Nate Tice and Charles McDonald, are Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza (Raiders, 1st), Georgia OT Monroe Freeling (Cardinals, 3rd), Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love (Giants, 5th), Texas Tech Edge David Bailey (Commanders, 7th), LSU CB Mansoor Delane (Saints, 8th) and Miami Edge Rueben Bain Jr. (Bengals, 10th).

⚾️ 561 days later

The Rays held their home opener on Monday, marking their first game back at Tropicana Field in 561 days. As a reminder, they played home games last season at Steinbrenner Field — the Yankees' spring training complex in Tampa — while the Trop (in nearby St. Petersburg) underwent extensive repairs due to the damage caused by Hurricane Milton in October 2024.

A temporary home:The Rays' lease at Tropicana Field runs through 2028, and new ownership (the team was sold last year for $1.7B) has made it clear their plan is to open a new stadium in Tampa by Opening Day 2029. "From a player perspective, I think the Trop will be a very welcome return home," Rays CEO Ken Babby told The Athletic ( $ ). "But it is not a long-term home."

🎾 66 weeks

This is the 66th week that Carlos Alcaraz has spent as the world's No. 1 player, tied with Jannik Sinner for the 12th-most ever. Stefan Edberg (72 weeks) and Lleyton Hewitt (80) — in 10th and 11th — aren't too far ahead, but Novak Djokovic (428) will take quite a while to catch.

67th week up for grabs:The timing here is fortuitous, as Sinner could reclaim No. 1 from Alcaraz depending on the results of this week's Monte-Carlo Masters. If it comes down to both reaching the final (a very reasonable assumption), the winner will earn the No. 1 ranking.

📺 Watchlist: Wednesday, April 8

🏒 NHL on TNT

The first-place Sabres visit the last-place Rangers in the first leg of tonight's doubleheader (7pm ET) , but the marquee game comes later when Macklin Celebrini's Sharks host Connor McDavid's Oilers (10pm) .

The present and the future:McDavid has already cemented his status as the best player of his generation, and Celebrini looks poised to take the mantle in the not-too-distant future. The 19-year-old currently has the third-best odds to win MVP, and his 107 points are fourth-most in the NHL, trailing only McDavid (128), Nikita Kucherov (127) and Nathan MacKinnon (123).

⛳️ Masters Par 3 Contest

The annual competition tees off this afternoon (12pm, ESPN+; 2pm, ESPN) at the nine-hole layout nestled in the northeast corner of Augusta National's grounds, where players and family members will partake in the lighthearted tradition that dates back to 1960 .

Fun facts:There have been 115 holes-in-one during the competition; six-time PGA Tour winner Jimmy Walker set the course record of 19 (-8) in 2016; no Par 3 Contest winner has ever gone on to win the Masters that same year.

More to watch:

⚽️ Champions League:PSG vs. Liverpool (3pm, Paramount+) ; Barcelona vs. Atlético Madrid (3pm, Paramount+) … Quarterfinals, first leg.
🏀 NBA:Hawks at Cavaliers (7pm, ESPN) ; Trail Blazers at Spurs (9:30pm, ESPN) … San Antonio (60-19) has 60 wins for the first time since 2017.
🎾 Tennis:Monte-Carlo Masters (7:30am, Tennis) … Round of 32 action for No. 4 Lorenzo Musetti, No. 9 Casper Ruud and more.

Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events in your city. Get tickets now!

⛳️ Masters trivia

Question: Who is the only U.S. president known to have been a member at Augusta National?

‌ Hint: He became a member in 1948.

‌ Answer at the bottom.

🏒 Utah debuts the "Zammoth"

The Utah Mammoth have introduced the "Zammoth," a mammoth-shaped Zamboni designed to carry eight people at a time.

Fan mobile:The Zammoth, which debuted during Tuesday's 6-5 (OT) win over the Oilers, will take a lap around the ice before each game and between each period, with Mammoth fans in tow. The other Zambonis will take care of the actual ice-cleaning.

Trivia answer:Dwight D. Eisenhower

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