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How the NBA's play-in tournament works and when it starts

The top six teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs while the next four teams play for the seventh and eight seeds. Here's how it works. - www.latimes.com

With the regular season finishing Sunday, the NBA's postseason is set to begin Tuesday with the play-in tournament. The Lakers, who finished third in the Western Conference, and the Clippers (fifth) qualified for the first round of the playoffs, which begin next weekend. The NBA's inaugural play-in tournament came during the COVID-19-interrupted 2019-20 season as a way to make it more competitive when the regular season resumed in the bubble at the Walt Disney World sports complex near Orlando, Fla.

After another experimental postseason utilizing the play-in tournament, the NBA's board...

Dan Loumena.