Play‑In opens Tuesday
The NBA’s play‑in tournament starts Tuesday with Heat vs. Hornets at 7:30 p.m. ET and Trail Blazers vs. Suns at 10 p.m. ET on Prime — those two winners will play for the final first‑round berths. (x.com) The updated bracket and schedule were published as the league moved from regular‑season drama into postseason matchups. (nytimes.com)
The National Basketball Association’s play-in tournament starts Tuesday, April 14, with two single-game matchups that begin filling the last four playoff spots. (nba.com) Tuesday’s games are Miami at Charlotte at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time and Portland at Phoenix at 10 p.m. Eastern time, and the league says every play-in game will stream on Prime Video. (nba.com) The format gives teams seeded seventh through tenth in each conference a final route into the bracket. The seventh-place team hosts the eighth-place team for the No. 7 seed, while the ninth-place team hosts the tenth-place team in an elimination game. (nba.com) That setup is why Tuesday’s East game is sudden death for the Heat and Hornets, but Tuesday’s West game is not. Phoenix, as the No. 7 seed, can still reach the playoffs with a loss, while Portland, as the No. 8 seed, would get one more chance on Friday if it loses. (nba.com) The rest of the field plays Wednesday, April 15, when Orlando visits Philadelphia at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time and Golden State visits the Los Angeles Clippers at 10 p.m. Eastern time. The winners of those games claim the No. 7 seeds, and the losers are eliminated. (nba.com) Friday, April 17, is reserved for the final play-in games in each conference: the loser of the 7-versus-8 game hosts the winner of the 9-versus-10 game for the No. 8 seed. Those winners move into first-round series against Detroit in the East and Oklahoma City in the West. (nba.com; sports.yahoo.com) The bracket around them is already mostly set. Cleveland will face Toronto and New York will face Atlanta in the East, while Denver will face Minnesota and the Los Angeles Lakers will face Houston in the West when the first round opens Saturday, April 18. (nba.com; sports.yahoo.com) The regular season ended Sunday with several seeds still moving. Yahoo Sports reported Toronto grabbed the No. 5 seed in the East, and Denver’s win over San Antonio locked the Nuggets into No. 3 and pushed the Lakers to No. 4. (sports.yahoo.com) The standings show how tight the play-in line was in both conferences. Charlotte finished 44-38 and Miami 43-39 in the East, while Phoenix finished 45-37 and Portland 42-40 in the West. (basketball-reference.com) By the end of Friday night, the postseason bracket will be complete and the first-round schedule will be locked around eight confirmed matchups. (nba.com)
