NBA play offs start for 2025/26 season

April 21, 2026

Share to Google Classroom

The NBA play-offs have begun after the 2025–26 regular season ended and the Play-In Tournament finished on 17 April. The first-round games started on 18 April, which means teams are already battling for places in the next stage.

The Oklahoma City Thunder and the Detroit Pistons earned the top seeds in their conferences, giving them strong positions as the race for the Larry O’Brien Trophy continues. Fans are now watching to see which teams can keep winning when the pressure is highest.

Some of the opening games have already brought exciting results. The Thunder beat the Suns 119–84 on 19 April, while the Lakers defeated the Rockets 107–98 on 18 April. In the East, the Celtics won 123–91 against the 76ers, and the Magic beat the Pistons 112–101. These early matches have shown that every game matters and that even strong teams cannot relax.

More first-round games are still to come this week, including another Magic v Pistons game on 22 April and another Suns v Thunder game later the same day. With so many matches close together, the play-offs are now in full swing.

Every team knows that one poor performance can change a whole series. That is why the opening days of the play-offs are so important and so exciting for basketball fans.

Article written by Shem Banbury - Kiwi Kids News Editor

This article was written using AI as an assistive tool for research and writing.

Learning Options

Recall Questions

Thinking questions

Digital Thinking

Learning Options

Recall Questions

Thinking questions

Digital Thinking

Janie wrote an account of a science project that she did at her primary school. Read her first draft. It contains some errors.

The Experiment

We had a library lesson at school. I read about a great experiment. It was for my science project. I decided to copy it. Before I could carry out the experiment, I had to collect a glass bottle, a hard-boiled egg, and some match’s. When it was time to present my project I told the class that I would make the egg go into the bottle. I asked my teacher to light the match and drop it in the bottle for me. Next, I put the peeled egg on top of the bottle opening. When the match had used up all the oxygen inside the bottle. The egg was sucked right in. I was so relieved that the experiment had worked. All my classmates were really impressed. My teacher said, “well done Janie!”