Here’s what you need to know about the NBA Play-in Tournament
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What to know about the NBA Play-in Tournament originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
For the second-straight year, the NBA is taking a page out of the NCAA’s book and kicking off the postseason with a play-in tournament.
Since permanently expanding the field to 16 teams in 1984, the NBA playoffs have continued to evolve, with much of the debate surrounding division champions and the best way to structure the bracket. The league seemed to reach a consensus in 2016 when they announced the playoffs would be made up entirely of the teams with the top-8 records from each conference, effectively eliminating any automatic bids and guaranteed seeding for division champions.
That consensus proved to be short-lived.
Covid-19 all but turned the NBA on its side as they sought one of the most ambitious undertakings in sports – hosting the playoffs in a bubble in the midst of the pandemic. In an effort to salvage the postseason, the Board of Governors elected to host a condensed end to the regular season featuring the top-22 team and include a play-in option for any nine-seed that finished within four games of the eight-seed. While it was ultimately only activated between the Memphis Grizzlies and Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference, it got the gears moving and the league continued to shake things up.
Ahead of the 2021 playoffs, the NBA announced they would include a “play-in” component between seeds 7 through 10 of each respective conference to determine the final two seeds on each side of the 16-team bracket.
Thus, the birth of the NBA play-in tournament.
What is the NBA play-in tournament?
The NBA play-in tournament is a pair of brackets featuring four teams, designed to determine the seventh and eighth playoff spot for each conference.
The tournament opens with a meeting between the teams with the seventh and eighth best records from each conference. The winner of that game automatically qualifies for the playoffs with the No. 7 seed. Meanwhile, the teams…
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Source : yahoo
