 | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Basketball |
| Established | 2020 |
| Format | Page playoff system |
| Teams | 8 total; 4 per conference |
| Broadcast |
|
TheNBA play-in tournament is the preliminaryNational Basketball Association (NBA)postseason tournament. It determines the final two playoff seeds in theEastern Conference andWestern Conference and is played immediately prior to theNBA playoffs, which is the main tournament of the postseason and regarded by the league as separate from the play-in tournament. Teams finishing the regular season in positions 7 through 10 in thestandings for each conference compete to determine the number 7 and 8seeds in each conference'sbracket tournament.
On June 4, 2020, the NBA Board of Governors approved the first ever play-in game for the2019–20 season. The game was part of the NBA's plans for abubble as part of its return to play during theCOVID-19 pandemic. If the 8 and 9 seeds in either conference were within four games of each other, the two seeds would play each other in up to two play-in games. If the 8 seed won the first game, it would advance to the playoffs. If the 9 seed won the first game, a second game would be played. The winner of the second game would advance to the playoffs.[1]
On November 19, 2020, the NBA Board of Governors approved a format for the2020–21 season to have a playoff play-in tournament involving the teams that ranked 7th through 10th in each conference. On July 22, 2022, the NBA Board of Governors made this format permanent.[2]
The format is similar to the first two rounds of thePage–McIntyre system for a four-team playoff. The 9th-place team hosts the 10th-place team, with the loser being eliminated. The 7th place team hosts the 8th place team in the double-chance game, with the winner advancing as the new 7-seed. The loser of the 7/8 game hosts the winner of the 9/10 game, with the winner receiving the new 8-seed. The NBA's regular playoff format then proceeds as normal. Furthermore, the winner of the match between the loser of the 7/8 game and the winner of the 9/10 game always plays on day 2 of the NBA playoffs to allow that team at least a day of rest.[3]
The current bracket structure in each conference is as follows:
| Play-in games | No. 8 seed game | Final seeds | |||||||||||
| 7th | place team | Home | 7/8 | Winner of 7/8 game | No. 7 seed | ||||||||
| 8th | place team | Away | 7/8/9/10 | Winner of No. 8 seed game | No. 8 seed | ||||||||
| 7/8 | Loser of 7/8 game | Home | |||||||||||
| 9/10 | Winner of 9/10 game | Away | |||||||||||
| 9th | place team | Home | |||||||||||
| 10th | place team | Away | |||||||||||
Atlanta and Miami have played six play-in games, the most games played by a team in the play-in tournament, while Miami has the most wins, with four.
Due to the current structure of the NBA playoff system, one division winner is no longer guaranteed a playoff spot, let alone a top-four placing. To date, only two teams have qualified for the play-in tournament as division champions: the2022–23 Miami Heat and the2024–25 Orlando Magic, both from theSoutheast Division. Both teams eventually qualified for the playoffs via the play-in tournament.
The 2022–23 Miami Heat had the best performance by any play-in team in the playoffs after reaching the2023 NBA Finals.
Jayson Tatum set the record for most points in a single play-in tournament game by scoring 50 points against Washington on May 18, 2021.[4]
Since the inception of the 7–10 seedPage–McIntyre play-in format in 2021, the 7 seed has always made it out of the play-in and into the playoffs, while the 10th seed has only done so once: the Miami Heat in 2025 after defeating Chicago and Atlanta.[5]
The below table shows teams' results per their conference position entering the play-in tournament, since the NBA adopted the current format in 2021.
| Regular season position | Record by game | Resulting playoff seed | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Play-in game | No. 8 seed game | 7th seed | 8th seed | Did not advance | |
| 7 | 8–2 | 2–0 | 8 | 2 | 0 |
| 8 | 2–8 | 4–4 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| 9 | 6–4 | 3–3 | 3 | 7 | |
| 10 | 4–6 | 1–3 | 1 | 9 | |
▲ = Win
▼ = Loss
| WEST | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas | 10th ▲ Sacramento | |||||
| 10th ▼ Memphis | ||||||
| Golden State | 8th ▼ LA Lakers | 10th ▼ Sacramento | 7th ▲ Memphis | |||
| 8th ▼ Memphis | ||||||
| LA Clippers | 8th ▼ Minnesota | |||||
| 8th ▼ New Orleans | ||||||
| LA Lakers | 7th ▲ Golden State | 7th ▲ Minnesota | 8th ▲ New Orleans | |||
| Memphis | 9th ▼ Portland | 9th ▲ San Antonio | 8th ▼ Golden State | |||
| 9th ▲ Golden State | 8th ▲ Dallas | |||||
| Minnesota | 7th ▲ LA Clippers | 8th ▼ LA Lakers | ||||
| 8th ▲ Oklahoma City | ||||||
| New Orleans | 9th ▲ San Antonio | 9th ▼ Oklahoma City | 7th ▼ LA Lakers | |||
| 9th ▲ LA Clippers | 7th ▲ Sacramento | |||||
| Oklahoma City | 10th ▲ New Orleans | |||||
| 10th ▼ Minnesota | ||||||
| Portland | 8th ▲ Memphis | |||||
| Sacramento | 9th ▲ Golden State | 9th ▼ Dallas | ||||
| 9th ▼ New Orleans | ||||||
| San Antonio | 10th ▼ Memphis | 10th ▼ New Orleans | ||||
| EAST | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Atlanta | 9th ▲ Charlotte | 8th ▲ Miami | 10th ▼ Chicago | 8th ▼ Orlando | ||
| 9th ▲ Cleveland | 8th ▼ Miami | |||||
| Boston | 7th ▲ Washington | |||||
| Brooklyn | 7th ▲ Cleveland | |||||
| Charlotte | 10th ▼ Indiana | 10th ▼ Atlanta | ||||
| Chicago | 10th ▲ Toronto | 9th ▲ Atlanta | 9th ▼ Miami | |||
| 10th ▼ Miami | 9th ▼ Miami | |||||
| Cleveland | 8th ▼ Brooklyn | |||||
| 8th ▼ Atlanta | ||||||
| Indiana | 9th ▲ Charlotte | |||||
| 9th ▼ Washington | ||||||
| Miami | 7th ▼ Atlanta | 8th ▼ Philadelphia | 10th ▲ Chicago | |||
| 7th ▲ Chicago | 8th ▲ Chicago | 10th ▲ Atlanta | ||||
| Orlando | 7th ▲ Atlanta | |||||
| Philadelphia | 7th ▲ Miami | |||||
| Toronto | 9th ▼ Chicago | |||||
| Washington | 8th ▼ Boston | |||||
| 8th ▲ Indiana |
7 teams have never played a play-in game: 4 in the West (Denver, Houston, Phoenix, Utah) and 3 in the East (Detroit, Milwaukee, New York)
| WEST | Participations | Games | Record | Qualified | Eliminated | 7th or 8th | 9th or 10th | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| qualified | eliminated | qualified | eliminated | ||||||||
| with | |||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| game(s) | |||||||||||
| ▲ | ▼▲ | ▼▼ | ▲▲ | ▲▼ | ▼ | ||||||
| Dallas | 1 | 2 | 1–1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Golden State | 3 | 4 | 1–3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| LA Clippers | 1 | 2 | 0–2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| LA Lakers | 3 | 3 | 3–0 | 3 | 3 | ||||||
| Memphis | 3 | 5 | 3–2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Minnesota | 2 | 3 | 2–1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| New Orleans | 3 | 5 | 3–2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Oklahoma City | 1 | 2 | 1–1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Portland | 1 | 1 | 1–0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Sacramento | 2 | 3 | 1–2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| San Antonio | 2 | 2 | 0–2 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| EAST | ▲ | ▼▲ | ▼▼ | ▲▲ | ▲▼ | ▼ | |||||
| Atlanta | 4 | 6 | 3–3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Boston | 1 | 1 | 1–0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Brooklyn | 1 | 1 | 1–0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Charlotte | 2 | 2 | 0–2 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| Chicago | 3 | 5 | 2–3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Cleveland | 1 | 2 | 0–2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Indiana | 1 | 2 | 1–1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Miami | 3 | 6 | 4–2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Orlando | 1 | 1 | 1–0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Philadelphia | 1 | 1 | 1–0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Toronto | 1 | 1 | 0–1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Washington | 1 | 2 | 1–1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| WEST | 18 | 13 | 13–13 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| EAST | 16 | 12 | 12–12 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| TOTAL | 34 | 25 | 25–25 | 17 | 17 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
In 2020,ABC aired the only play-in game.[6]
From 2021 to 2025, the tournament rights were split betweenTNT andESPN. In 2021 and 2024, televised games were determined by which conference finals each network was airing. In 2022, 2023 and 2025, TNT aired both 7–8 games, and ESPN aired both 9–10 games, but the rights for the final seed game was still determined by which conference finals each network was airing.[7][8][9]
As part of the new 11-year media deals that began in the2025–26 season,Amazon Prime Video will broadcast all NBA play-in tournament games beginning in 2026.[10]
In Canada, the home market of theToronto Raptors, coverage is split approximately equally between theSportsnet andTSN. Under their rights, the two broadcasters are allowed to produce their own feeds of Raptors games, otherwise they generally simulcast the U.S. broadcaster's feed.
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