G League Playoffs: What’s the bracket for the 905?

Postseason basketball is here for Mississauga, as the Raptors 905 play a first round game tonight against the Grand Rapids Drive at Paramount Fine Foods Centre at 8 PM ET.

It was a disappointing finish to the regular season for the 905, who will look to shake some of that off tonight. Two straight losses to the Lakeland Magic and an injury to Wade Baldwin IV hurt them, as it eliminated the possibility of a bye through the first round.

You may be wondering, though — byes? First round that’s just one game? How does all this G League playoff business work anyway?

Well, with JD Quirante bringing a massive preview later today for the game itself, let’s get into the details of how this bracket would shape up.

In the G League, 12 teams qualify for the playoffs — starting with the six division winners. The 905 finished five games back of the Long Island Nets in the Atlantic, so their route came through the other six qualifiers: the wild cards. These six teams are made up of the top three teams from each conference by record. If you’re a Blue Jays fan, it looks pretty similar to the MLB playoff system.

The first round byes go to the top two teams in the conference by record. This is what the 905 were shooting for in their last week of the season. In the end, they were three games back of Lakeland, but finished high enough to earn a home playoff date.

Got it? Good. Here’s the G League playoff bracket for 2018-19. The first three rounds are single-elimination games, with the G League Final a best-of-three series.

Eastern Conference

#4 Raptors 905 vs. #5 Grand Rapids Drive
March 26, 8 PM ET
Winner plays #1 Long Island Nets in second round

#3 Westchester Knicks vs. #6 Windy City Bulls
March 27, 7 PM ET
Winner plays #2 Lakeland Magic in second round

Western Conference

#4 Stockton Kings vs. #5 Memphis Hustle
March 27, 10 PM ET
Winner plays #1 Rio Grande Valley Vipers in second round

#3 Oklahoma City Blue vs. #6 SLC Stars
March 26, 8 PM ET
Winners plays #2 Santa Cruz Warriors in second round

You can watch tonight’s Raptors 905 playoff game on ESPN U or Facebook Live.