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Dan Lyons

NBA Play-In Tournament Rules & Format Explained

NBA Los Angeles Heat Lakers Pelicans Hawks Bulls Timberwolves Celtics Warriors

Bulls guard Coby White drives on Heat guard Tyler Herro. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The 2020 NBA playoffs were unlike any that we've seen before, as COVID-19 forced the entire league into a bubble in Orlando to complete the season. The Los Angeles Lakers, led by LeBron James, made it through that bizarre postseason to win the NBA Finals.

While the bubble is a thing of the past, the league has kept one holdover from 2020: the play-in tournament. The NBA playoffs remain at 16 teams, but the final two seeds of each conference are determined by a pair of four-team brackets.

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