2026 Playoffs RD1

With our new playoff 3.0 system under way, we have four teams on bye, and four teams knocked out of the playoffs. Congrats to ILCN, FJUB, SQSQ, and SPDE on those byes. Let's look at our RD1 matchups.

ROUND 1 Matchups

• 5 SCRM vs 12 TRUO
• 6 CHMK vs 11 SBUK
• 7 SWMP vs 10 KSKT
• 8 BUFF vs 9 MELO

5 SCRM vs 12 TRUO

After picking up a title last season, our defending champs seem like they’re taking a bit of a break from contention. With a late night pre-deadline trade away of a healthy Bam Adebayo for the injured Anthony Davis, SCRM is signaling that they are effectively throwing in the towel on a title defense, likely due to the unknown health status of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Pivoting toward youth, SCRM should still be good enough for a first round win here.

As for TRUO, they slid into the playoffs by picking up a WK17 win and giving them their first taste of a championship chase since 2018—albeit this season’s new playoff format is twelve teams. TRUO has a little bit of defensive toughness and offensiveness explosiveness, but it would take a minor miracle for an upset here.

6 CHMK vs 11 SBUK

Entering the last week of the regular season, CHMK was looking at a very likely bye. However, a WK17 loss and then wins by the teams behind them pushed CHMK down to a sixth seed. Ouch. Entering this season on the heels of a big ball revamp, it’s an open question how they’ll fare without the services of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Part of the blame for a late fall down the standings was some games played management to wind down the season. Can CHMK pull it together for a title run?

SBUK isn’t exactly the picture of health themselves, as Joel Embiid, Franz Wagner, and Alex Sarr are all likely out for at least this week.  And rookie pugilist Moussa Diabate is likely out as well. While CHMK is ripe for an upset, it’ll have done by a mish mash compilation of Desmond Bane and Nickel Alexander-Walker to happen.

7 SWMP vs 10 KSKT

Another matchup that is ripe for an injury fueled upset, SWMP has Jalen Williams, Zach LaVine, Paul George, and most likely Jalen Suggs out of the lineup. That means it’ll be up to Nikola Jokic and Jalen Johnson to carry them through. That’s hopefully enough actually, as both are premier triple double threats. What SWMP can do further down the line however, is an open question. I guess it’ll be just one opponent at a time!

Never the picture of health, KSKT is actually only missing Tyrese Haliburton and probably Kristaps Porzingis for this first round matchup—neither of whom has really played anyway. KSKT has the MVP-esque stylings of Cade Cunningham, flanked by Norm Powell, Michael Porter Jr., and a quite healthy Zion Williamson. That could be enough to pull off an upset against SWMP, and if there’s a dark horse in the first round, KSKT is it.

8 BUFF vs 9 MELO

It took some work, but BUFF closed on a 5-1 run to end the season and they’ll have the upper hand versus MELO—a team they narrowly lost to in WK11. Similar to almost every team these days, injuries abound for BUFF. They are down Domantas Sabonis, Lauri Markkanenn, and likely Coby White and Jonathan Kuminga. The duo of Jalen Brunson and Brandon Ingram have taken BUFF to a winning record, but all those missing players could make it tough for this offensive focused team to push further into the playoffs.

After knocking CHMK out of a top four seed and a first round bye, MELO has to be riding high and looking to pull off another upset. They have no real important players on the injury report and this is one team that definitely has to offensive power to go head to head versus BUFF, behind Jaylen Brown, Kevin Durant, Pascal Siakam, and Brandon Miller. This is our premiere match of the week, and it’s a toss up who could win!