Who will play in the Play-in tournament if several teams have the same record? The tiebreaker rules explained
The 2024/25 NBA regular season winds down on Sunday night with still a few places in the post season to be locked down.
With the bulk of the postseason positions now known with just two rounds of regular season games to be staged, the four teams per conference that will participate in the NBA Play-in Tournament have still yet to be established.
Originally conceived in 2020, the Play-in tournament determines the final two playoff seeds in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference and is played immediately prior to the NBA playoffs.
Teams finishing the regular season in positions 7 through 10 in the standings for each conference compete to determine the number 7 and 8 seeds in each conference’s bracket tournament.
As things stand, based on the current league positions, these would be the Play-in games should the league wind up today.
Western Conference
(7) Golden State Warriors vs. (8) Minnesota Timberwolves
(9) Sacramento Kings vs. (10) Dallas Mavericks
Eastern Conference
(7) Orlando Magic vs. (8) Atlanta Hawks
(9) Chicago Bulls vs. (10) Miami Heat
Teams tied on same regular season record
Should two teams be tied at the end of the regular season, this is the NBA’s criteria for deciding the final positions.
(1) Better winning percentage in games against each other
(2) Division leader wins a tie over a team not leading a division
(3) Division won-lost percentage (only if teams are in same division)
(4) Conference won-lost percentage
(5) Better winning percentage against teams eligible for the playoffs in own conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position)
(6) Better winning percentage against teams eligible for the playoffs in other conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position)
(7) Better net result of total points scored less total points allowed against all opponents (“point differential”)
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