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Thunder wrap up top seed; Pistons’ Cunningham returns

Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) brings the ball up court against Milwaukee Bucks guard Gary Harris (11) during the first half Wednesday in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Home-court advantage mattered big-time to Oklahoma City last season, when the Thunder won a Game 7 at home to secure the NBA title.

And every Game 1 the Thunder play this season — along with every Game 7, if necessary — will be on their home floor once again.

The defending NBA champion Thunder will be the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs for the second consecutive year — and the No. 1 seed on the Western Conference bracket for the third straight season. The Thunder wrapped up the top spot with a 128-110 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.

OKC clinching the No. 1 seed in the West locked the San Antonio Spurs into the No. 2 seed. The Spurs would have home-court advantage in any playoff series except a Western Conference finals against Oklahoma City.

Other seeds now wrapped up:

— Detroit will be No. 1 in the Eastern Conference. On Wednesday, Pistons guard Cade Cunningham had a double-double in his return to the lineup against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Cunningham, who had been sidelined since March 19 after sustaining a collapsed lung in a win over the Washington Wizards, finished with 13 points and 10 assists in 26 minutes as the Pistons won 137-111.

— Minnesota will be No. 6 in the West.

— Phoenix will be the No. 7 seed going into the West play-in tournament, meaning the Suns will get two chances — both at home — to win one game and earn a playoff berth.

— Golden State will be the No. 10 seed going into the West play-in tournament.

Who’s in and who’s out?

Here’s what we know so far regarding the NBA playoff field for this season.

— Eastern Conference playoff teams: Detroit will open the postseason on April 19. Boston, New York, Cleveland are in. At this point, Atlanta and Toronto would get the other two guaranteed spots, but those are not clinched.

— East play-in teams: Miami is locked into the play-in for the fourth consecutive year. Entering Thursday, the other three teams headed there would be Philadelphia, Orlando and Charlotte. Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid was diagnosed with appendicitis and was to undergo surgery on Thursday in Houston, the 76ers announced.

— East eliminated teams: Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Brooklyn and Washington.

— Western Conference playoff teams: Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver, the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston and Minnesota are in. Denver, the Lakers and Houston are still jostling to see who’ll be the No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 seeds.

— West play-in teams: Phoenix, the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland and Golden State are in. The Suns will be the No. 7 seed, the Clippers and Trail Blazers are battling for No. 8, and the Warriors will be the No. 10 seed.

— West eliminated teams: Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, Utah and Sacramento.

Today’s schedule

— Detroit at Charlotte: Game might mean a lot to Hornets’ play-in seed.

— Miami at Washington: Another chance to reflect on Bam Adebayo’s 83-point game.

— Cleveland at Atlanta: The teams could wind up meeting nine times in like 3-1/2 weeks.

— New Orleans at Boston: Celtics won’t be on road again until Game 3 of Round 1.

— Philadelphia at Indiana: 76ers still trying to get out of the play-in tournament.

— Toronto at New York: Major implications likely for Raptors.

— Orlando at Chicago: Magic could still get out of the play-in.

— Brooklyn at Milwaukee: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s home finale with Bucks? (And will he play?)

— Dallas at San Antonio: Victor Wembanyama needs one more game to qualify for award ballots.

— Oklahoma City at Denver: Lots of meaning for Nuggets, not for Thunder, so advantage, Denver.

— Minnesota at Houston: Rockets could get home-court in Round 1, playing best ball of season.

— Memphis at Utah: The Jazz have worked hard to keep their top-eight protected draft pick.

— LA Clippers at Portland: Could this be a playoff to decide the No. 8 seed for the play-in?

— Golden State at Sacramento: Warriors keep building toward road play-in challenge that awaits.

— Phoenix at LA Lakers: Lakers just need to get healthy, Suns know they’ll host play-in games.

National TV schedule

Tonight on Prime Video: Cleveland-Atlanta (7 p.m. Eastern) and Minnesota-Houston (9:30 p.m.)

Sunday on ESPN: Orlando-Boston (6 p.m. Eastern) and Denver-San Antonio (8:30 p.m.)

Betting odds

Oklahoma City (+130) is favored to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed by San Antonio (+450), Boston (+550), Denver (+1000), Cleveland (+1300) and New York (+2000). Detroit, the No. 1 seed in the East, is +2200. The Los Angeles Lakers were +2500 before Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves got hurt; they’re +30000 now.

Play-in schedule

Some of the NBA’s play-in tournament schedule is now known:

— Phoenix will play host to either the LA Clippers or Portland on Tuesday at 10 p.m. Eastern. (The winner of that game will play No. 2 San Antonio in Round 1, the loser will play a home game on Friday for the right to play No. 1 Oklahoma City in Round 1).

— Golden State will visit either the LA Clippers or Portland on Wednesday at 10 p.m. Eastern. (The loser of that game is eliminated, the winner moves on to Friday.)

All games in the play-in tournament will be shown on Prime Video.

Key dates

— Friday: All 30 teams play their 81st games of the season.

— Saturday: No games.

— Sunday: All 30 teams play their regular-season finales.

— April 14, 15 and 17: NBA play-in tournament dates.

— April 18 and 19: NBA playoff series openers.

— May 2, 3 or 4: Conference semifinals begin.

— May 10: NBA draft lottery.

— May 10-17: NBA draft combine.

— May 17 or 19: Eastern Conference finals begin on ESPN and ABC.

— May 18 or 20: Western Conference finals begin on NBC and Peacock.

— June 3: Game 1, NBA Finals on ABC. (Other finals dates: June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19).

Numbers watch

— Denver’s Nikola Jokic is going to lead the NBA in both assists per game and rebounds per game this season. He’ll be the first person to win both an assist-per-game and rebound-per-game title; Wilt Chamberlain led the league in both total assists and total rebounds in 1967-68, but Oscar Robertson won the assist-per-game title that season.

— The NBA remains on pace to see more points this season than ever before. The current pace is about 284,300; the record total for a season is 282,137, set in 2022-23.

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