Real Madrid and Paris fight for a play-off spot in Euroleague play-ins

The Euroleague post-season starts this week, with the play-ins taking place tonight. The play-in format, inspired by NBA, was introduce last year, to encourage all teams to still keep competing until the end and allow for more teams in the regular season to have a chance in the play-offs. Thus, the teams than ranked seventh to tenth will play this mini-tournament ahead of the play-offs: Real Madrid, Paris, Bayern, and Crvena Zvezda.

The play-ins were introduce in the 2023-24 season (after they were launched in the NBA in 2020). The seventh and eighth team of the regular season take part in the play-in A: the winner gets qualification for the seventh spot in the play-offs. The loser will have another chance, though, against the winner of the play-in B match between teams ranked ninth and tenth. The loser of that match gets eliminated, and the winner plays the play-in C match against the loser of play-in A.

This year, Real Madrid was seventh and Paris Basketball eighth. Because Madrid finished better, they will play at home the play-in A, tonight at 20:00 BST, 21:00 CEST. Whoever wins will be paired against Fenerbahçe (second in the regular season) in the play-offs next week.

The play-in B also takes place tonight at 19:30 BST, 20:30 BST, between Bayern (ninth) and Crvena Zvezda (tenth). Whoever wins will face against Madrid or Paris on Friday. And whoever wins that match will be paired against Olympiacos (first in the regular season).