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NBA play-offs set: Nuggets, Clippers and Timberwolves all clinch berths; Warriors fall to Play-In Tournament

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Apr 13, 2025Basketball

The NBA regular season is complete, and the playoff brackets are set - and it took until the conclusion of the final game to determine the seeding.

Clippers win at Golden State to clinch berth, send Warriors to Play-In Tournament

With a berth in the playoffs on the line, James Harden put together a vintage performance.

Harden scored 39 points to lead the visiting Los Angeles Clippers to a 124-119 overtime victory over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday to secure the fifth seed in the Western Conference play-offs.

The loss sent the Warriors to the seventh seed and Play-In Tournament.

Harden came up huge when it mattered most, scoring 12 of his points in overtime - including two 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to give Los Angeles some breathing room.

He also dished out 10 assists for the Clippers (50-32), who would've fallen to the seventh seed had they lost, but now will take on the Denver Nuggets in the first round.

Stephen Curry had 36 points and made 7 of 12 3-point attempts, but had a costly turnover with less than 90 seconds remaining with Harden stealing the ball.

The Warriors (48-34) had a chance to tie it late, but Budy Hield missed a 3. They will now host the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday, with the winner earning the No. 7 seed.

Nuggets pull away from Rockets to clinch No. 4 seed

The Nuggets will stay in Denver for the start of their first-round play-off series.

With a 126-111 win over the Houston Rockets, the Nuggets locked up the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference.

The Rockets had already clinched the No. 2 seed and had nothing to play for, and ultimately pulled most of their starters after Denver (50-32) went on a 10-2 run to make the score 86-63 with just over five minutes to play in the third quarter.

Michael Porter Jr. led the Nuggets with 19 points, while Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic scored 18 apiece.

Jokic also had seven rebounds and seven assists, and finished the regular season with averages of 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and a career-high 10.2 assists.

He joins teammate Russell Westbrook and Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson as the only players in NBA history to average a triple-double in a season.

Fred VanVleet and Amen Thompson paced Houston with 15 points apiece. The Rockets finished the regular season 52-30 - their best record since going 53-29 in 2018-19.

Edwards leads Timberwolves to No. 6 seed

The Minnesota Timberwolves entered the final day of the regular season with a chance of slipping to the eighth spot in the West.

Anthony Edwards made sure that didn't happen.

Edwards scored 18 points in the third quarter and finished the game with 43 to power the Timberwolves to a 116-105 win over the Utah Jazz to wrap up the No. 6 seed in the conference. They will face the Los Angeles Lakers in their opening round.

Edwards drained seven shots from beyond the 3-point arc to finish the regular season with an NBA-best 320 3-pointers - one more than the Detroit Pistons' Malik Beasley.

Rudy Gobert had 19 points and 18 rebounds and Donte DiVincenzo added 16 points for Minnesota (49-33), which has gone 17-4 since the calendar flipped to March.

The Jazz, meanwhile, finished with 17 wins the entire season, going an NBA-worst 17-65, which also marks the worst record in the franchise's 51-year history.