The NBA Play-In Tournament and the NBA Cup, Explained

The NBA regular season used to be a long, quiet march to April. Two newer formats changed that. The NBA Cup gives November real stakes, and the play-in tournament keeps a dozen teams chasing the postseason until the final week. Here is how both work in their current form.

The play-in tournament

Sixteen teams make the NBA playoffs, eight from each conference. The top six seeds in each conference qualify directly. Teams that finish seventh through tenth go to the play-in, which decides the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds in three games per conference:

1. No. 7 hosts No. 8. The winner becomes the 7 seed.
2. No. 9 hosts No. 10. The loser is eliminated.
3. The loser of 7 vs. 8 hosts the winner of 9 vs. 10. The winner becomes the 8 seed; the loser goes home.

The format rewards finishing seventh or eighth: those teams need to win only one of two games, while the 9 and 10 seeds have to win twice on the road. That is why the race for sixth place, the last spot that avoids the play-in entirely, is often the most watched in March and April.

The NBA Cup

The NBA Cup, first played in the 2023-24 season as the In-Season Tournament, is a competition staged inside the regular season. It runs from November into December.

Group play

All 30 teams are drawn into six groups of five, three groups in each conference, based on the previous season's records. Each team plays four group games on designated Cup nights, two at home and two on the road. If teams finish level, head-to-head results come first, then point differential in group games.

Knockout rounds

Eight teams advance: the six group winners plus one wild card from each conference, the best second-place finisher. The quarterfinals are hosted by the higher seeds, and the semifinals and championship are played in Las Vegas in mid-December.

Do Cup games count?

Yes, with one exception. Group games, quarterfinals and semifinals all count toward the 82-game regular-season record. The championship game does not. Teams that are knocked out pick up extra regular-season games during the Las Vegas week so every club still plays 82.

After the play-in

Once the field is set, the playoffs run four rounds of best-of-seven series, ending with the NBA Finals in June. Higher seeds hold home-court advantage in every round, decided by regular-season record in the Finals.

Check the NBA standings to see who is in play-in range tonight, follow every game on the NBA scoreboard and read the latest NBA news.