The NBA’s 2026 Play-In Tournament begins on April 14 and runs through April 17, serving as the bridge between the regular season and the start of the playoffs on April 18. The format involves the teams that finished seventh through 10th in each conference, and it determines the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds in both the East and the West.
The rules are straightforward, even if the pressure is not. In each conference, the No. 7 team hosts the No. 8 team, and the winner of that game claims the No. 7 playoff seed. The loser is not out yet; it gets one more chance. The No. 9 team also hosts the No. 10 team, but that game is pure elimination. The winner moves on, and the loser’s season ends immediately. After that, the loser of the 7-vs-8 game hosts the winner of the 9-vs-10 game, with the winner of that final matchup earning the No. 8 seed and the loser going home.
In the Eastern Conference, the bracket is set like this: the No. 9 Charlotte Hornets host the No. 10 Miami Heat on Tuesday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m. ET in an elimination game, and the No. 8 Orlando Magic visit the No. 7 Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m. ET for the right to become the East’s No. 7 seed. The East’s final play-in game will be Friday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. ET between the loser of Magic-76ers and the winner of Hornets-Heat.
In the Western Conference, the No. 8 Portland Trail Blazers face the No. 7 Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, April 14 at 10 p.m. ET, with the winner taking the West’s No. 7 seed. On Wednesday, April 15, the No. 9 Los Angeles Clippers host the No. 10 Golden State Warriors at 10 p.m. ET in the conference’s elimination game. The final West play-in game is Friday, April 17 at 10 p.m. ET, when the loser of Suns-Blazers will meet the winner of Clippers-Warriors for the No. 8 seed.
As for where people can watch, the answer is unusually simple this year: every single 2026 Play-In Tournament game will air exclusively on Prime Video. That is a notable shift, because the NBA has centralized the entire play-in round with one streaming partner rather than splitting it across multiple national TV outlets.
What makes the play-in compelling, beyond the format, is its cruelty. One team can survive after one bad night, another cannot, and by Friday the bracket is complete.
