At the end of the 2020-21 NBA regular season, but prior to the first round of the postseason, the NBA will be conducting a play-in tournament. The tournament will be used to determine the final two playoff spots.
The tournament, which features four teams in each conference, was implemented to minimize tanking during the final weeks of the regular season.
As Sports Illustrated's Howard Beck recently noted, 24 teams were still competing with about a dozen games left on the schedule.
"That isn’t just dramatic by recent NBA standards. It’s downright revolutionary," Beck wrote.