The Portland Trail Blazers are in the thick of a race for seeding in the NBA Play-In Tournament for 2026. For those unfamiliar, the 7th-10th seeds in the NBA’s Eastern and Western Conferences will have to face each other at the end of the regular season, playing a series of games to determine who will go on to occupy the 7th and 8th overall seeds in the postseason playoffs bracket.
The process looks like this:
- The 7th- and 8th-place teams in each conference play each other. The winner gets the 7th seed in the playoffs outright.
- The 9th- and 10th-place teams play each other as well. The loser of that game is out. The winner goes on to the final game of the Play-In.
- Finally, the loser of the 7th-8th game plays the winner of the 9th-10th game. The winner of this game gets the 8th seed in the playoffs bracket. The loser is out.
Right now the Blazers are tied with the Los Angeles Clippers for the 8th- and 9th-place positions
in the Western Conference, each with a 40-38 record, each with four games remaining on the schedule, including one head-to-head against each other.
We don’t yet know Portland’s final position in the standings following the regular season. We don’t know how many games they’ll have to play in the Play-In Tournament, whether they’ll need to win one or two to advance to the playoffs themselves.
Despite that, respondents to a recent poll regard the Blazers’ chances of success in the Play-In as good. Almost 3 in 4 voters said Portland will advance to the playoffs.
Are you as confident as the poll respondents? Share your thoughts below.
This survey brought to you by FanDuel.
