The NBA Play-In Tournament Isn't Quite the Regular Season or the Playoffs

There are a few mid-April NBA video games that feel like game 7s that don't seem to be regular season or playoff games — meet the NBA Play-In Tournament.

Apr. sixteen 2024, Published 8:20 a.m. ET

The NBA Playoffs are about to start out. For the casual fan, which is most of America, it’s once they get started being attentive to more than the largest names in the sport.

One of the very few silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic is the NBA Play-In Tournament, now officially the SoFi 2024 NBA Play-In Tournament. Not precisely the regular season, no longer precisely the playoffs, the play-in was once created as a result of a COVID-related brief season. Since it worked so well, it has grow to be part of the construction of the season. Now the 10 highest teams in each and every conference have a possibility to play previous mid-April. But what does the regular basketball fan need to know?

The NBA Play-In Tournament is not just about as difficult because it sounds.

The FAQ page about the SoFi 2024 NBA Play-In Tournament on the NBA website begins simple and will get confusing. The "What is the Play-In Tournament?" phase is clear and states, “The SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament will resolve the teams that fill the 7th and 8th playoff seeds in each conference for the 2024 NBA playoffs.” Got it. Sounds easy.

The "How does the Play-In Tournament work?" segment is not easy. Instead of the use of the NBA’s language, we’ll lay it out.

The 7–10 teams in the standings in each conference have an opportunity to make the postseason. Team 7 and eight play every other and Team 9 and 10 play each other. Whoever wins in 7 vs. 8 advances and turns into the 7 seed. Whoever wins in Nine vs. 10 performs the loser of seven vs. 8. Whichever group wins that sport is the 8 seed. Simple, proper?

OK, it still sounds complicated, but it isn't. There’s a useful graphic.

The Play-In Tournament games are not playoff video games.

For causes which might be extra confusing than the structure of the play-in tournament, those video games don’t officially depend as playoff games. While this doesn’t topic to the casual fan, it does for the NBA obsessive stat freaks.

While the handiest stat that in truth way the rest is who wins and loses, some historically great games are necessarily in no man's land. For example, LeBron James scored 22 points and had Eleven rebounds and 10 assists for the Lakers of their 2021 play-in game victory over the Golden State Warriors. But that didn’t depend in his 2021 playoff record or his 2021 common season document.

For the super obsessive, you'll to find the stats for all play-in tournament games the place you’d to find stats for all games. You simply need to exchange the season type on the NBA Advanced Stats page. Located between All Star and In-Season Tournament are the information for these very watchable games.

Once once more, the best stats that really matter are who wins. Considering the organization that represented the East in the last NBA Finals had to go through the play-in tournament, the Miami Heat, simply because a crew completed round 0.500 for the regular season file doesn’t imply they can’t be the absolute best staff in the playoffs.

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