NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Pelicans were slammed by the Memphis Grizzlies Saturday night, but a loss by the San Antonio Spurs has now guaranteed them a host spot for Wednesday night's play-in game against those Spurs.
The game will be played at 8:30 pm and will be televised on ESPN.
In order to add a little spice to the end of the season and to try to avoid teams tanking, the NBA added a 'play-in' game a couple of years back to determine the final spots in the postseason. It is similar to the NCAA tournament expanding to 68 teams and having some of them play an extra game to be included in the field of 64.
The way it works is that the top 6 teams in each conference automatically qualify for the playoffs. Teams 7-10 face off for spots 7 and 8 with the teams finishing higher getting some slight advantages.
The 7th team in each conference will host the 8th team on Tuesday night at the home of the 7th place team. The winner of that game gets the 7th seed, while the loser gets another chance.
The 9th and 10th seeds play on Wednesday night. The loser is eliminated, while the winner then has to travel to the home of the 7/8 loser for a one-game-winner-take-all. The winner is the 8th seed from that conference and faces the top seed when the full playoffs begin a week later.
Here is the current schedule for the play-in games in the Western Conference.
Game 1: No. 8 LA Clippers at No. 7 Minnesota Timberwolves (Tuesday, 8:30 p.m. on TNT)
Game 2: No. 10 San Antonio Spurs at No. 9 New Orleans Pelicans (Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN)
Game 3: Winner Game 2 at Loser Game 1 (Friday on TNT)
Should the Pelicans beat the Spurs, they will travel to the home of the loser of Game 1. Should they win that game, they will face the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the playoffs.