How the Raptors and Canada's best NBA player fit into the play-in tournament

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It's not quite the playoffs, but it's pretty close. While the league's top teams rest up for the start of the traditional playoff bracket this weekend, eight other clubs will battle for the chance to join them via the NBA's play-in tournament. This year's play-in involves Canada's only NBA team (the Toronto Raptors) and Canada's best NBA player (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander). Here's what to know: How the play-in works: The top six playoff seeds in each conference have already been decided. The teams that finished seventh through 10th in the regular-season standings will now compete for the seventh and eighth playoff seeds. The play-in starts with the seventh-place team hosting the eighth-place team. The winner of that game advances directly to the playoffs as the No. 7 seed. The loser can still get in as the No. 8 seed by defeating the winner of tomorrow night's do-or-die game between the ninth- and 10th-place teams. That means the seventh- and eighth-place teams have two chances to win one game to get into the playoffs, while the ninth- and 10th-place teams must win two consecutive games to earn a playoff spot. The 7 vs. 8 game in each conference is tonight, the 9 vs. 10 games are tomorrow and the final round of the play-in goes Friday. The 16-team playoff bracket tips off Saturday.

The matchups:

Tonight: (8) Atlanta at (7) Miami — 7:30 p.m. ET (8) Minnesota at (7) Los Angeles Lakers — 10 p.m. ET

Wednesday: (10) Chicago at (9) Toronto — 7 p.m. ET (10) Oklahoma City at (9) New Orleans — 9:30 p.m. ET

Friday: Winner of Chicago/Toronto at Loser of Atlanta/Miami Winner of