The 2027 NBA playoffs start on April 17, 2027 on ESPN’s calendar, after a play-in window that opens April 12. Oklahoma City and San Antonio are co-favorites for the title at +270, and the defending champion Knicks are +900.
Those are DraftKings prices on ESPN’s 2026-27 futures board, read on September 24, 2026, and the Knicks won last season’s title as a No. 3 seed that went 16-3 in the playoffs. For the regular season, start with our NBA Expert Betting Guide.
The 2027 NBA postseason calendar
| Stage | 2026-27 dates on ESPN’s calendar |
|---|---|
| Regular season | October 20, 2026 to April 11, 2027 |
| Play-in tournament | From April 12, 2027 |
| Playoffs | From April 17, 2027 |
The schedule lists 80 regular-season games for each team so far, with the last one on April 11. Last season the calendar and the games lined up: ESPN’s 2025-26 playoff window opened on April 18, 2026, and the first round started that afternoon with Toronto at Cleveland.
How the NBA playoffs work
The top six teams in each conference go straight into the playoffs. Seeds 7 through 10 play the play-in tournament for the last two places in each conference, and every round after that is best of seven.
The play-in has three games per conference:
- 7 vs. 8: the winner is the No. 7 seed.
- 9 vs. 10: the loser is out.
- 8th seed game: the loser of 7 vs. 8 hosts the winner of 9 vs. 10, and the winner is the No. 8 seed.
The 2026 play-in showed why the first game matters. Portland won at Phoenix 114-110 to take the West’s No. 7 seed, and Phoenix then had to beat Golden State 111-96 for No. 8. In the East, Philadelphia beat Orlando 109-97 for No. 7, and Orlando took No. 8 by beating Charlotte 121-90 after Charlotte had knocked out Miami 127-126 in the 9-10 game.
What the 2026 playoffs showed
The Knicks won the 2026 title as the East’s No. 3 seed and lost three games in four rounds. They beat Atlanta 4-2, swept Philadelphia and Cleveland, and beat San Antonio 4-1 in the Finals, from June 3 to June 13.
Home court was worth less than the seeding suggests. Home teams went 47-38 across the 85 playoff games, a 55% rate. The Knicks won all three Finals games they played in San Antonio, Games 1, 2 and 5, and two of the five Finals games were decided by one point: 105-104 in Game 2 and 107-106 in Game 4.
Both No. 1 seeds went out before the Finals:
- Oklahoma City, 64-18 and the West’s top seed, lost the conference finals to San Antonio in seven games, 111-103 at home in Game 7.
- Detroit, 60-22 and the East’s top seed, needed seven games to beat No. 8 Orlando, then lost Game 7 of the second round at home to Cleveland, 125-94.
The road team won three of the five Game 7s. No. 7 Philadelphia won Game 7 in Boston 109-100 to knock out the No. 2 seed, Cleveland won in Detroit and San Antonio won in Oklahoma City. The two home wins were Detroit over Orlando and Cleveland over Toronto.
How to bet each round
The first round is where the seeding gap is widest: the No. 1 seed plays the No. 8. In 2026 two of the eight first-round series went to the lower seed: Philadelphia over Boston, and No. 6 Minnesota over No. 3 Denver in six. Read each series price against the matchup, not against the seed number.
In the second round and the conference finals, series prices tighten and single games carry more weight. The 2026 West final went seven games, and the road team won three of them, Games 1, 3 and 7. Game lines, totals and player props all run alongside the series price, and our NBA predictions carry each game once the matchups are set.
The Finals have their own market. For 2027, the conference prices already posted are the place to start:
| Conference | Favorite | Next |
|---|---|---|
| West | Oklahoma City Thunder +145 | San Antonio Spurs +160, Denver Nuggets +1100 |
| East | New York Knicks +340 | Philadelphia 76ers +380, Boston Celtics +550 |
The West is priced as a two-team race: the Thunder and Spurs are both shorter than +200, and nobody else is shorter than +1100. The East is open. Four of its teams are +800 or shorter, with Detroit at +800 despite the East’s best record last season.
Things to weigh before you bet
Seeds do not decide series. Denver was the West’s No. 3 seed at 54-28 and went out 4-2 to Minnesota, and Boston, 56-26, lost to a No. 7 seed. A season’s record is the start of the handicap, and the last month of games, the injury list and the matchup are the rest of it.
Use the numbers that travel into the playoffs. Offensive, defensive and net rating per 100 possessions, effective field goal percentage and turnover rate describe how a team plays, where points per game also describe how fast it plays. Oklahoma City allowed 107.9 points a game last season, second-fewest in the league, and still went out in seven.
Shop the price and think about hedging. A futures ticket on a team still alive in May can be hedged with a series or game bet against it, which locks in part of the return whichever side wins. Arbitrage is the same idea across books: when two books disagree enough on the same game, a bet on each side can return more than the stakes. Our Scores & Odds page has the current lines, and it is worth reading our list of common NBA betting mistakes first.
Rivalries add weight too. San Antonio at New York on Christmas Day 2026 is the first meeting of last June’s finalists since the series, and our biggest NBA rivalries guide covers the others.
Using handicappers in the playoffs
The play-in window opens April 12, and from then a handicapper’s value is the work you would otherwise do yourself: series prices against matchups, rest days, injury news. Our handicapper reviews cover the services, and for daily plays you can Buy Picks or follow our NBA Picks.
The price to beat is already on the board. Oklahoma City and San Antonio at +270 each carry about 27% implied chance apiece, margin included, and last season neither won the title.