Lakers power forward LeBron James (Photo: Getty)
The NBA regular season has concluded, and the play-ins will begin on Tuesday night.
The play-in tournament will decide which two teams will be the seventh and eighth final team to qualify for the playoffs. The play-in tournament is part of the expanded playoff format that was recently implemented. It allows a chance for teams that finished seventh-10th in the conference standings an opportunity to make the playoffs. The play-ins are held before the playoffs to determine which teams from each conference will enter as the seventh and eighth seed.
In the Eastern Conference, the four teams that will participate in the play-ins are the Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers and the Charlotte Hornets. The seventh-seeded Celtics will face off against the eighth-seeded Wizards, and the ninth-place Pacers will play against the 10th place Hornets. The winner of the Celtics-Wizards game will advance to the playoffs as the seventh seed. The loser of the Celtics-Wizards game will face the winner of the Pacers-Hornets game, and the winner will be the eighth seed.
In the Western Conference, the defending NBA Champions, the Los Angeles Lakers will face the Golden State Warriors to decide the seventh seed. The Memphis Grizzlies and the San Antonio Spurs will battle each other to determine who will face the loser of the Lakers-Warriors game for the final spot in the playoffs.
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