How does the NBA play-in work? Seeds 7 to 10 in each conference play a short knockout ladder, and the winners take the 7th and 8th playoff seeds. Seeds 1 to 6 skip it entirely.
Take a team that finishes ninth in its conference. It is still alive, but it must win two straight games to reach the playoffs, while the teams above it need only one. This guide covers only that four-team ladder. The bracket that follows is covered in how does the nba playoff format work.
Who enters the play-in and how seeds are set
The play-in field is the group of seeds 7 to 10 in each conference. ESPN’s 2025 format guide states that the top six teams in each conference are guaranteed playoff spots, so everyone below them must go through the tournament. The ninth and 10th teams are the ones ranked by winning percentage in the conference standings, which is why the last weeks of the regular season matter for teams hovering around .500.
Each conference has its own tournament made up of its bottom four qualifiers, according to WJTV’s explainer. East teams never play West teams, and the two brackets run side by side with the same structure.
The first version, in the 2020 bubble, set a stricter entry test. Sporting News reports that a play-in happened only if the No. 9 seed in a conference was four or fewer games out of the No. 8 seed. The Western Conference met that test.
The play-in game ladder for seeds 7 to 10
The ladder is a sequence of three games, and the order matters because the seed a team earns depends on which game it wins. The table compares the two halves of the bracket.
| Seeds | Opening game and host | What it takes to reach the playoffs | What a first loss means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 and 8 | Game 1, hosted by No. 7 | One win. The winner is the No. 7 seed. | Still alive. The loser hosts the Game 2 winner in Game 3. |
| 9 and 10 | Game 2, hosted by No. 9 | Two straight wins, ending as the No. 8 seed. | Eliminated and sent to the draft lottery. |
The game order and seed rewards come from ESPN’s format guide, and the one-win requirement for seeds 7 and 8 matches WJTV’s description.
Game 1: No. 7 hosts No. 8
The higher seed gets home court, and the winner locks up the No. 7 playoff seed. Both teams need only one win to advance, so the pressure is real but the penalty for losing is softer than anywhere else in the bracket.
Game 2: No. 9 hosts No. 10
This is the only sudden-death game in the ladder. The loser is eliminated and enters the NBA draft lottery, while the winner moves on to face the Game 1 loser. How lottery positions are then set is explained in how does the nba draft work.
Game 3: the second chance for seed 7 or 8
The loser of Game 1 hosts the winner of Game 2. The winner of this game takes the conference’s No. 8 seed, and the loser is out. The home-court edge belongs to the team that fell in the first game, so a seed 7 or 8 that lost still holds an advantage over the team that has just survived a win-or-go-home game.
Common misreadings of the format
- Winning Game 3 does not earn the No. 7 seed. Only the Game 1 winner gets No. 7. The Game 3 winner is always No. 8, which matters for which top-two opponent they face later. How the 7th and 8th seeds slot into the bracket is covered in how do the nba playoffs work.
- A 10th seed is not a formality. In 2025, according to ESPN, the No. 10 Heat beat the No. 8 Hawks 123-114 in overtime. Seeding sets who hosts, not who wins.
- Home court changes by game. The No. 7 team hosts Game 1, the No. 9 team hosts Game 2, and the Game 1 loser hosts Game 3. A team can therefore be home for one game and away for the next.
- The current format is not the bubble version. WJTV notes that the 2020 bubble play-in produced only one game to settle final seeding. The structure used now came after it.
Tiebreakers when teams finish level
Standings are built on winning percentage, so two teams can finish with identical records and the order between them has to be settled. The clearest supported example comes from 2020. Sporting News lists the Western Conference as the Trail Blazers eighth at 35-39, with the Grizzlies ninth and the Suns 10th, both at 34-39.
The Grizzlies and Suns had the same record, so a tiebreaker decided it. Memphis took the ninth seed by virtue of a head-to-head tiebreaker, having won the season series against Phoenix 3-1.
The practical lesson is that a regular-season game against a direct rival can carry extra weight for any team finishing in the bottom four of the qualifying group. Head-to-head results are one way level teams are separated, as that 2020 case shows.
From the 2020 bubble to the current format
ESPN says the play-in was initially implemented in the 2020-21 season. WJTV adds that the one-game 2020 bubble experiment came first, and that the NBA approved the current format of the tournament the following season.
Its best-known success story is the 2023 Miami Heat. WJTV reports that Miami snuck in after winning the second tournament game, entered the playoffs as the No. 8 seed and reached the NBA Finals. That run is the usual evidence offered that a team arriving through the play-in can still contend deeply.
Is the play-in worth it?
The case in favour is mostly about incentives. WJTV says the format was designed to discourage some teams from punting half the season, because more clubs have something to play for. Keeping seeds 7 to 10 in contention gives games in the standings more consequence than a straight top-eight cutoff would.
The case for caution is about fairness to the teams at the bottom of the group. That gap is built into the structure. Supporters accept it because the reward for finishing higher is a real, visible advantage.
A reasonable verdict is that the format works best for fans of mid-table teams and for the league’s regular-season stakes, and works least well for the team that loses Game 2 after a strong year. Whether it is good for the league depends on whether more meaningful late-season games outweigh that harshness. The Heat’s 2023 run is the strongest supported evidence that the winners are not just filler.
Frequently asked questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who makes the NBA play-in? | Seeds 7 to 10 in each conference, since the top six teams are guaranteed playoff spots, per ESPN. |
| How many wins does each seed need? | Seeds 7 and 8 can advance with one win in Game 1. Seeds 9 and 10 need two straight wins. |
| What happens to teams that lose in the play-in? | The Game 2 loser and the Game 3 loser are eliminated, and eliminated teams enter the NBA draft lottery. |
| When did the play-in start? | It was initially implemented in the 2020-21 NBA season, and the current format was approved after the one-game bubble version in 2020. |
