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The NBA regular season is winding down to a close, with the final games on Sunday. The play-in tournament begins on Tuesday and concludes on April 19. The full-field NBA playoffs begin on April 16. So how do they work?
The top eight teams in the Eastern Conference standings and the top eight teams in the Western Conference compete on opposite sides with the winners facing off in the NBA Finals.
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The seeds are determined by the regular season standings. After the completion of the 82-game season, teams are ranked by win-loss record. If teams are tied, then whoever has the best head-to-head win percentage between the tied teams is seeded higher.
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The seeding matchups go as follows: No. 1 seed vs. No. 8 seed, No. 4 vs. No. 5, No. 3 vs. No.6, No. 2 vs. No. 7. The winners of the 1-8 and 4-5 series play each other in the conference semifinals. Meanwhile, the winners of the 3-6 and 2-7 match up in the other semifinal. The winners then compete in the conference finals with the winner advancing to the NBA Finals.
What is the NBA Play-In Tournament?
With the play-in tournament, the top six teams in each conference are guaranteed spots in the playoff field. The teams which finish seventh through 10th compete in the play-in tournament to earn the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds.
The ninth- and tenth-placed teams play each other on the ninth-place team's home court. The winner advances to the next play-in game while the loser is eliminated. The seventh- and eighth-placed teams play each other on the seventh-place team's home court, with the winner advancing as the No. 7 seed in the playoffs, while the loser hosts the winner from the 9-10 game for the No. 8 seed.
The winner of the third play-in game enters into the first round of the playoffs against the top seed in the conference.
The playoffs then begin with the conference quarterfinals as stated above. The teams play a best-of-seven series in each round. The first team to win four games advances to the next round. The series is in a 2-2-1-1-1 format. This means they play two games at one of the team’s arenas then two at the other before alternating back-and-forth if it is necessary to play Games 5, 6 or 7.
