Play‑In Tournament Starts
The NBA Play‑In Tournament kicks off today, April 14, to decide the final four playoff spots as the postseason begins. All 20 playoff seeds were locked before the play‑in, and eight teams will compete for four first‑round berths in scheduled matchups tonight and this week. (sports.yahoo.com)
The National Basketball Association play-in tournament opens Tuesday, April 14, with eight teams chasing the last four playoff spots. (nba.com) The format covers teams that finished seventh through 10th in each conference. The seventh-place team hosts the eighth-place team for the No. 7 seed, while the ninth-place team hosts the 10th-place team in an elimination game. (nba.com) Tuesday’s games are Miami Heat at Charlotte Hornets at 7:30 p.m. Eastern and Portland Trail Blazers at Phoenix Suns at 10 p.m. Eastern. Wednesday’s games are Orlando Magic at Philadelphia 76ers at 7:30 p.m. Eastern and Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Clippers at 10 p.m. Eastern. (nba.com) The winners of the 7-versus-8 games take the seventh seed in their conferences. The losers stay alive and host the winners of the 9-versus-10 games on Friday, April 17, for the eighth seed. (nba.com) The first round starts Saturday, April 18, so the play-in decides the final matchups for Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics in the East and Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs in the West. The 2026 bracket already has Cleveland Cavaliers against Toronto Raptors, New York Knicks against Atlanta Hawks, Denver Nuggets against Minnesota Timberwolves, and Los Angeles Lakers against Houston Rockets locked in. (nba.com) The 20 postseason places were set when the regular season ended Sunday, April 12, and playoff rosters were due Monday, April 13, at 3 p.m. Eastern. That left four unsettled seeds for the play-in to sort out this week. (nba.com) In the East, Philadelphia finished seventh and Orlando eighth at 45-37, while Charlotte took ninth at 44-38 and Miami 10th at 43-39. In the West, Phoenix finished seventh at 45-37, Portland eighth at 42-40, Los Angeles ninth at 42-40, and Golden State 10th at 37-45. (nba.com) The play-in began as a temporary pandemic measure in 2020 and became a permanent part of the league calendar in 2022. Since then, it has extended playoff races deeper into April by giving 20 of the league’s 30 teams a postseason path. (britannica.com, nba.com) All four play-in games this year are scheduled to stream on Prime Video, according to the league’s official schedule. By Friday night, the 16-team playoff field will be complete. (nba.com)
