The final day of the NBA regular season is on the horizon, and with nine of 20 post-season seeds still undetermined and zero first-round matchups locked in, there is plenty of unfinished business to settle.

All 30 teams will be in action on Sunday, and once the dust subsides, we’ll finally have a look at the 2025-26 playoff picture that was months in the making.

For some, like the Oklahoma City Thunder and Detroit Pistons, who’ve already clinched the top spots in their respective conferences, the league’s regular-season finale will be about making it to the start of the playoffs (April 18) without any injuries and maybe some extra reps for depth players.

But for others, the stakes will be much higher.

The Toronto Raptors, for instance, enter Sunday facing a win-and-you’re-in scenario — a victory against the lowly Brooklyn Nets would punch their ticket to the big dance, marking the team’s first playoff appearance since 2022.

While a victory would guarantee at worst a sixth-seed finish for the Raptors, they could even move up to fifth with a bit of help from the Miami Heat on (more on that later).

As for beating the 13th-place Nets, it seems simple enough in theory, given they enter the game with a 20-61 record (third-worst in the NBA), feature the league’s last-place offence, a bottom-six defence and trail the season series 2-1.

But if the Jekyll-and-Hyde Raptors have taught us anything this year — the same team that beat the defending-champion Thunder but lost to the 22-59 Sacramento Kings — it’s that uncertainty is the only guarantee from them.

Especially with Toronto’s recent injury luck, or lack thereof. The statuses of starters Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett, and standout rookie Collin Murray-Boyles all appear to be in question after the trio of rotation players missed Friday’s series-sweeping loss to the New York Knicks (who the Raptors could line up across in the first round of the playoffs).

Although, it’s also no secret that Brooklyn appears to be more interested in securing draft lottery odds rather than victories. Yet, with just one game left, it’s unlikely the Nets catch the Indiana Pacers, who are a game ahead in the reverse standings or drop lower than the Utah Jazz, who are two games back.

So, don’t entirely put it past the Nets to come out on Sunday with the vigour of a team looking to play spoiler against a division rival and end their season on a high note, if for nothing more than to appease the basketball gods before the ping-pong balls spill out in May.

It’s also worth mentioning that if the Nets have done anything noteworthy on the basketball court this season, it’s that over their last 10 contests they’ve put together a middle-of-the-pack defence and have forced a league-best 17.9 turnovers per game.

During that same span, the Raptors’ 141 giveaways are tied-12th highest in the league, which doesn’t sound that high but is a noticeable change from their season-average ranking of seventh-fewest turnovers per game. Toronto also enters Sunday on the heels of a blowout loss in New York, where they committed 18 miscues for 27 points. And in the Raptors’ lone loss to the Nets this season (albeit way back in December), they committed 15 turnovers for 14 points — part of a season-low 81-point showing.

That’s not to say it’s everything, but it’s not nothing either. Toronto is 11-11 in games this season where they lost the turnover battle, and although .500 isn’t bad odds, it’s much closer than otherwise expected against Brooklyn.

Still, a 45-win Scottie Barnes- and Brandon Ingram-led Raptors team should have the wherewithal and talent to take care of business on Sunday — at Scotiabank Arena, where they’ve won eight straight — against the Nets. Shorthanded or otherwise, so long as they don’t enter the game simply expecting a victory to be handed over.

All three of Toronto, Orlando and Philadelphia are dancing on a knife’s edge between the playoffs and the Play-In ahead of Sunday’s regular-season finale. And besides the obvious reason of wanting to avoid the uncertainty and volatility that comes with a one- or two-game mini-tournament run, it’s worth avoiding the Play-In for the fact that those who come out as the seventh and eighth seeds are “rewarded” with matchups against two of the league’s hottest teams in the Pistons and Boston Celtics.

Detroit has been the cream of the crop in the East all year, managing the absence and return of superstar Cade Cunningham without a hitch and enters Sunday with the third-most wins this season and one victory shy of the Pistons’ first 60-win season in 20 years and third in franchise history.

As for Boston, the East’s No. 2 seed has looked even more potent since the return of Jayson Tatum, and boasts the league’s No. 2 offence over an 8-2 stretch entering the final day of regular-season play.

Avoiding either juggernaut and matching up against the Knicks (or even possibly the Cleveland Cavaliers in Toronto’s case) would presumably be a preferred path.

The Raptors can finish as high as fifth on Sunday or as low as eighth. In order to jump up a spot from sixth, Toronto needs a win over Brooklyn AND Atlanta to lose to Miami. But again, at a bare minimum, a win alone would lock the Raptors into a top-six finish and a guaranteed return to the playoffs. Whereas, should Toronto lose on Sunday, their path to keeping the sixth seed would require losses from both Philadelphia (who own the season tie-breaker) and Orlando.

The Magic can finish as high as sixth or as low as eighth, and their path into the playoffs requires a win over the Celtics AND a Raptors loss to the Nets. Orlando could at least clinch the seventh seed and own homecourt through the Play-In with a win over Boston and a Philadelphia loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

As for the 76ers, they can jump up to sixth or seventh, or stay put in eighth. Philadelphia needs a win over the Bucks AND losses from both the Raptors and Magic to leapfrog into the No. 6 seed. They could at least clinch seventh with a win and either a Raptors OR Magic loss.

And not for nothing, the Charlotte Hornets and Heat will be jockeying on Sunday for the right to host a No. 9 versus No. 10 matchup to open the Play-In tournament. Charlotte clinches the ninth spot with a win over New York OR a Miami loss to Atlanta. And the opposite is required for the Heat, who need a win and a Hornets loss to the Knicks to secure the nine seed.

Raptors vs. Nets, 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT (Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet+)

Magic @ Celtics, 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT

76ers vs. Bucks, 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT

Hawks @ Heat, 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT (Sportsnet+)

Hornets @ Knicks, 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT

Maybe more than ever, the Western Conference playoffs are projected to be a bloodbath.

And while most of the seeds have already been determined, the jockeying between Nos. 3 and 4 could prove to be a major advantage, or at the very least, prevent picking up too many scrapes and cuts early on.

Not that facing either the Thunder or San Antonio Spurs appears to be a realistic path forward, but if it’s between the defending champs, who’ve been there and done that, and the Spurs, who are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2019, it’s a matter of picking your poison. Especially since it stands to reason that Victor Wembanyama’s otherworldly impact will be put to the test as his minutes load gets upped for a stretch of games longer than anything he’s dealt with as a pro.

Hence, it would behoove both the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers to secure the third seed and avoid OKC until a potential Conference Finals showdown and line up a second-round series with San Antonio instead.

The Nuggets can clinch the third spot on Sunday with a win over the Spurs OR a Lakers loss to the Jazz. As for L.A., it’ll take a win against Utah AND a Denver loss to jump up from fourth.

In the event of a tie, that would fall in favour of the Lakers, who own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Nuggets.

And the same approach applies further down in the standings, where the Portland Trail Blazers and the Los Angeles Clippers will round out this season’s seeding battles.

The West Coast rivals enter Sunday jockeying for eighth in the conference, and whichever team comes out on top earns the right to take on the Phoenix Suns, (just 5-5 over their last 10 games) in a win-and-you’re in game for a date with the Spurs in Round 1 of the playoffs.

Securing eighth would also mean avoiding the Golden State Warriors, who may be the 10th seed, but just welcomed back Stephen Curry, arguably the greatest microwave scorer — and undoubtedly the best shooter — in NBA history.

And at the very least, securing the eighth seed for the Blazers or Clippers would mean a loss doesn’t end their season, as that team would then face the winner of the nine versus 10 matchup.

Lakers vs. Jazz, 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m PT

Nuggets @ Spurs, 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m PT

Trail Blazers @ Kings, 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m PT

Clippers vs. Warriors, 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m PT