How the league works
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Seeds seven through ten in each conference play for the last two playoff spots. The seventh and eighth seeds get two chances; the ninth and tenth get one.
The play-in was first used in 2020 and has been part of the NBA calendar since the 2020–21 season. It keeps the final two playoff spots in each conference open until the very end. It involves the teams that finish seventh through tenth in the standings, and it works the same way in the Eastern and Western Conference.
Game one: seventh versus eighth
The seventh-place team hosts the eighth. The winner takes the No. 7 seed in the playoffs and is done. The loser does not go out; it plays one more game.
Game two: ninth versus tenth
The ninth-place team hosts the tenth. The loser is eliminated from the postseason at once. The winner advances to a second game.
Game three: the last playoff spot
The loser of the seventh-versus-eighth game hosts the winner of the ninth-versus-tenth game. The winner takes the No. 8 seed; the loser's season is over.
Why the format favours the higher seeds
A team that finishes seventh or eighth can lose once and still make the playoffs. A team that finishes ninth or tenth must win two games in a row, the first of them on the road or on a court that does not belong to it, to have any chance of the eighth seed. The gap between sixth place, which qualifies directly, and seventh, which may need to survive a game, is therefore as large as the gap between ten and eleven.
Who plays in the play-in
The play-in affects 8 of the 30 teams every season, and the playoff field is 16 teams whether the play-in exists or not. What changes is the stakes of the last weeks of the regular season: the difference between sixth and seventh place, and between tenth and eleventh, matters much more than it did before 2020.