The Brooklyn Nets ended the regular season on a four-game winning streak that earned them the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference, but there’s still work to be done for the Nets to advance to the first round of the playoffs.
The Nets will have to go through the NBA’s play-in tournament, and have the benefit of home-court advantage as the No. 7 seed.
How does the NBA’s play-in tournament work?
In both conferences, the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds will face off to determine the overall No. 7 seed for the first round. The winner of the 7-8 matchup will advance to play the No. 2 seed in their conference.
The No. 9 and No. 10 teams will also play. The loser of that game is eliminated from playoff contention – but the loser of the 7-8 game still gets another chance. On Thursday, the loser of the 7-8 game will play the winner of the 9-10 game to determine the No. 8 seed in the conference, and that team will move on to face the No. 1 overall seed.
The Brooklyn Nets will host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, TNT). If the Nets win that game, they will play the Boston Celtics in the first round.
A loss would drop the Nets into Thursday’s last-chance playoff against the 9-10 winner. If the Nets were to advance from that game, they would play the Miami Heat in the first round.
[mm-video type=video id=01g04v7s53xb0cvyrpws playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01g04v7s53xb0cvyrpws/01g04v7s53xb0cvyrpws-4c33ec8d2713b2c18fefb7edb740e4d0.jpg]
[vertical-gallery id=44401]