Play‑In officially underway
The NBA Play‑In Tournament began Tuesday, April 14, with the league using the 7‑vs‑8 and 9‑vs‑10 mini‑bracket to decide final playoff seeds. (The format: 7‑8 play for the seventh seed while 9‑10 play an elimination game, and the 9/10 winner then faces the 7/8 loser for the eighth seed.) (CBS Sports, (covers.com)) The entire Play‑In is streaming on Prime Video this year, and the full first round of the playoffs is scheduled to start Saturday, April 18. (Sporting News, Yahoo Sports)
The National Basketball Association’s Play-In Tournament opened Tuesday, April 14, with four postseason spots still unsettled ahead of the playoffs. (nba.com) The league uses a four-team bracket in each conference: the seventh-place team plays the eighth-place team for the No. 7 seed, while the ninth-place team faces the 10th-place team in an elimination game. The winner of the 9-versus-10 game then plays the loser of the 7-versus-8 game for the No. 8 seed. (nba.com) The 2026 Play-In runs from Tuesday, April 14, through Friday, April 17, and the first round of the playoffs begins Saturday, April 18. The National Basketball Association’s official postseason calendar lists Game 1 of the Finals for Wednesday, June 3. (nba.com) Tuesday’s first two games already changed the bracket. Charlotte beat Miami 127-126 in overtime in the Eastern Conference elimination game, and Portland beat Phoenix 114-110 to claim the Western Conference’s seventh seed. (nba.com) That left Miami out of the postseason, while Portland advanced directly into the West playoff field. Charlotte moved on to face the loser of the East 7-versus-8 game for the final Eastern Conference berth. (nba.com) The remaining Wednesday, April 15, games are Orlando Magic at Philadelphia 76ers at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time and Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Clippers at 10 p.m. Eastern time. Both games are listed on the official schedule as Prime Video exclusives. (nba.com) This year’s broadcast setup is new for the event. Amazon says Prime members can watch every SoFi Play-In Tournament game on Prime Video, with some additional playoff games also included later in the postseason package. (amazon.com) The Play-In format has been part of the league’s postseason path since the pandemic-era 2019-20 season, when the National Basketball Association first used a qualifying format in the Orlando bubble. The league then adopted the current tournament structure for the 2020-21 season. (nba.com) By Friday night, the bracket will be complete and the full 16-team playoff field will be set. Saturday’s first-round openers start the next phase, but the pressure games are already here. (nba.com)
