NBA Play-In contenders set

The play-in contenders: After finishing seventh and eighth respectively in the Eastern Conference, the Washington Wizards and Boston Celtics will now play for the No. 7 spot in the playoffs. The No. 9 Indiana Pacers and No. 10 Charlotte Hornets will face off tomorrow, too, and the winner will play the loser of the earlier game for the playoff’s No. 8 seed.

• In the West, it’ll be a Battle of California on Wednesday for the No. 7 seed, between the Golden State Warriors and the reigning NBA champs, the LA Lakers, while the Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs will play for their lives.

The best of the rest: The Philadelphia 76ers locked up the top spot in the East, and the Utah Jazz are the best in the West. They’ll each play the winner of their conference’s No. 8 seed game. The East’s Brooklyn Nets and West’s Phoenix Suns both finished second, so they’ll square off against the earlier winners (aka No. 7 seeds).

• Meanwhile, the third through sixth seeds already know who they’ll be facing in the first round of the postseason. Check out all of Round One’s match-ups here.

The GOATs: The end of the regular season wasn’t the only excitement this weekend — the Basketball Hall of Fame (HOF) inducted its 2020 class on Saturday. The honorees included the late Kobe Bryant (his widow Vanessa accepted the award), former Indiana Fever star Tamika Catchings, former San Antonio Spur star and former coach Tim Duncan, and 15-time NBA All-Star Kevin Garnett.

• The 2021 HOF class was also announced yesterday, and amongst the 16 inductees are the WNBA’s Yolanda Griffith and Lauren Jackson, and the NBA’s Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce and Chris Webber.