The 2027 NBA Play-In Tournament falls between April 12 and April 16, 2027. The regular season ends on Sunday, April 11, with all 30 teams playing, and the playoffs start on April 17.
Those dates come from ESPN’s 2026-27 NBA calendar, which lists a play-in window of its own between the two. ESPN’s futures board has no play-in market yet, so the useful record for now is how last April’s six games went.
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How the play-in works
Four teams from each conference play for the last two playoff seeds. The 2026 games show each step:
- Game 1: the seventh-place team hosts the eighth. The winner is the No. 7 seed.
- Game 2: the ninth-place team hosts the tenth. The loser is out.
- Game 3: the loser of Game 1 hosts the winner of Game 2. The winner is the No. 8 seed, and the loser is out.
The seventh and eighth teams need one win in two chances. The ninth and tenth need two wins in a row, and in 2026 none of the four managed it.
2026 NBA Play-In results
| Date | Game | Result | What it decided |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 14 | Heat at Hornets, East 9 vs 10 | Hornets 127, Heat 126 (OT) | Charlotte advanced, Miami out |
| April 14 | Trail Blazers at Suns, West 7 vs 8 | Trail Blazers 114, Suns 110 | Portland No. 7 seed |
| April 15 | Magic at 76ers, East 7 vs 8 | 76ers 109, Magic 97 | Philadelphia No. 7 seed |
| April 15 | Warriors at Clippers, West 9 vs 10 | Warriors 126, Clippers 121 | Golden State advanced, LA out |
| April 17 | Hornets at Magic, East No. 8 game | Magic 121, Hornets 90 | Orlando No. 8 seed |
| April 17 | Warriors at Suns, West No. 8 game | Suns 111, Warriors 96 | Phoenix No. 8 seed |
Dates are US Eastern. The two games that ended the tournament were not close: Orlando won by 31 and Phoenix by 15.
The East side
Charlotte and Miami went to overtime in the 9 vs 10 game, and the Hornets took the extra period 13-12. LaMelo Ball scored 30 for Charlotte, Davion Mitchell had 28 for Miami, and Kel’el Ware pulled down 19 rebounds in the loss.
Philadelphia beat Orlando by 12 behind 31 points from Tyrese Maxey, although Desmond Bane scored 34 for the Magic. Orlando then led Charlotte 68-37 at halftime of the final game and won 121-90, with Paolo Banchero scoring 25.
The West side
Deni Avdija scored 41 as Portland won 114-110 in Phoenix, outscoring Jalen Green’s 35. Stephen Curry had 35 in Golden State’s 126-121 win over the Clippers, and the Warriors scored 43 in the fourth quarter.
Green then scored 36 as Phoenix beat Golden State 111-96 for the last West seed. The Suns lost the first game at home and still got in, which is what the Game 3 path is for.
What the play-in teams did next
| Team | Seed | Playoffs |
|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia 76ers | East No. 7 | Beat Boston 4-3, then lost 4-0 to New York |
| Orlando Magic | East No. 8 | Led Detroit 3-1, lost 4-3 |
| Portland Trail Blazers | West No. 7 | Lost 4-1 to San Antonio |
| Phoenix Suns | West No. 8 | Lost 4-0 to Oklahoma City |
Philadelphia is the one that went past the first round. The 76ers won Game 7 in Boston 109-100 and were then swept by the Knicks, who went on to win the title. Orlando came within one win of knocking out Detroit, the East’s top seed at 60-22.
Where last year’s play-in teams sit for 2027
There is no play-in market yet, but each of the eight 2026 play-in teams has a price to win its conference in 2026-27.
| Team | 2025-26 record | Conference odds | Implied chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia 76ers | 45-37 | +380 | 20.8% |
| Miami Heat | 43-39 | +950 | 9.5% |
| Orlando Magic | 45-37 | +2800 | 3.4% |
| Charlotte Hornets | 44-38 | +4500 | 2.2% |
| Golden State Warriors | 37-45 | +2200 | 4.3% |
| Portland Trail Blazers | 42-40 | +4000 | 2.4% |
| Phoenix Suns | 45-37 | +7000 | 1.4% |
| LA Clippers | 42-40 | +18000 | 0.6% |
These are DraftKings prices from ESPN’s 2026-27 futures board, read on September 24, 2026. The implied chance is 100 divided by the price plus 100. Philadelphia is second on the East board behind New York at +340, which is a long way from a play-in team, and a futures bet is worth making only when you rate a team’s chance higher than its price.
The full boards are in our Eastern Conference odds, Western Conference odds, NBA playoffs odds and NBA championship odds. From October 20, our NBA predictions carry every night’s lines. The Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic, Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns team pages hold their schedules, and every club is on the NBA teams page.