What to know about the NBA's play-in tournament

This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.

Pro basketball's first 82-game regular season since 2018-19 wrapped up on Sunday, but four playoff spots are still up for grabs. They'll be decided over the next few nights by a play-in tournament to round out the 16-team bracket. Here's a quick primer on the play-in and the Toronto Raptors' place in the NBA playoff picture:

How does the play-in tournament work?

It's actually two tournaments: one in the Eastern Conference, one in the Western. The top six seeds in each conference have already secured playoff spots. The purpose of the play-in is to decide the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds.

To start, the teams that finished the regular season in seventh and eighth place in their conference play each other. The winner advances to the playoffs as the No. 7 seed and will face the No. 2 seed in the opening round.

The ninth- and 10th-place teams also square off in the play-in, with the loser of that game eliminated. The winner faces the loser of the 7-8 matchup for the No. 8 seed in the playoffs — and a date with the top seed in the first round. In every play-in game, the higher-ranked team has home-court advantage.

What are the matchups?

In the Eastern Conference, it's No. 8 Cleveland at No. 7 Brooklyn tonight at 7 p.m. ET, and No. 10 Charlotte at No. 9 Atlanta on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.

In the West, it's the No. 8 Los Angeles Clippers at No. 7 Minnesota tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET, and No. 10 San Antonio at No. 9 New Orleans on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Thursday is an off night. The games to decide the No. 8 seeds will be played on Friday night (times TBD).

Who's the team to watch?

The most