- Seeds 7 through 10 in each conference play for the last two playoff spots.
- The No. 7 and No. 8 seeds need one win in two tries. The No. 9 and No. 10 seeds must win twice in a row.
- Play-in games are their own category. They do not count as regular-season or playoff games.
- The NBA made the tournament permanent in July 2022.
The NBA regular season used to end with a clean cut. The top eight teams in each conference went to the playoffs and everyone else went home.
That is no longer how it works. Today only six teams per conference clinch a playoff spot outright. The next four have to earn one in a short tournament played right after the regular season ends.
Who gets in
Each conference is ranked 1 through 15 by record. Seeds 1 through 6 are in the playoffs. Seeds 7 through 10 go to the Play-In Tournament. Teams ranked 11th or lower are finished.
That means four teams per conference, eight in all, fight for four remaining playoff places.
The three games
Each conference plays the same three games.
| Game | Matchup | Winner | Loser |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game 1 | No. 7 hosts No. 8 | Becomes the No. 7 seed | Plays Game 3 |
| Game 2 | No. 9 hosts No. 10 | Plays Game 3 | Eliminated |
| Game 3 | Loser of Game 1 hosts winner of Game 2 | Becomes the No. 8 seed | Eliminated |
The new No. 7 seed then meets the No. 2 seed in the first round of the playoffs. The new No. 8 seed gets the No. 1 seed.
Why finishing seventh still matters
The tournament is not a coin flip between four equal teams. It rewards the teams that finished higher.
The No. 7 and No. 8 seeds get two chances to win one game, and the No. 7 seed plays at home. The No. 9 and No. 10 seeds have no margin at all. One loss ends their season, and the survivor has to win a second game on the road.
Seventh place buys you two chances. Tenth place buys you none.
Where it came from
The idea was first tried in 2020, when the season restarted in the bubble at Walt Disney World. Portland beat Memphis in a play-in for the last spot in the West.
The league used the current four-team format in the 2020-21 season as a one-year trial, kept it for a second year, and then voted on July 12, 2022 to adopt it on a full-time basis.
Why the league likes it
More teams have something to play for in the final weeks. A club sitting in 11th place in March is still one hot streak away from a shot at the playoffs, which gives it less reason to lose on purpose for a better draft pick.
The criticism is simple. A team can finish seventh, several games ahead of the team in 10th, and still lose its place in two bad nights. Fans tend to love that. Seventh-place teams tend not to.