The Chicago Bulls have clinched a spot in the NBA play-in tournament, a battle for the last two playoff seeds in each conference. Here’s an explainer about the history of the event and how it works — and where the Bulls stand.

The NBA introduced the idea after the restart of the pandemic-delayed 2019-20 season, with a team needing to be within four games of the No. 8 seed to force a play-in for the last playoff spot in the conference.

The Memphis Grizzlies finished a half-game behind the No. 8 seed Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference, and the Blazers won the first game of a play-in, thus earning the final playoff spot. In the East, the ninth-place Washington Wizards finished 7½ games behind the eighth-place Orlando Magic, meaning a play-in was unnecessary.

The next year, the NBA expanded its play-in rules, with only the top six seeds in each conference guaranteed of a playoff spot and the Nos. 7-10 seeds battling for the final two berths.

No. 7 would play host to No. 8, with the winner earning the No. 7 seed. Then the winner of host No. 9 versus No. 10 would face the loser of the 7-8 matchup, with that winner earning the No. 8 seed. The NBA has kept this format since then.

For the record, none of the play-in teams has won a first-round playoff series.

Despite losing 123-105 to the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night at the United Center, the Bulls clinched a play-in berth when the Orlando Magic lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers 117-113. At 38-41, the Bulls are four games clear of the Magic, Washington Wizards and Indiana Pacers (all 34-45) with three games to play.

Their chances of moving up from the 10th seed are slim, however. They trail the Hawks and Toronto Raptors (both 40-39) by two games, and the Raptors own the tiebreaker against the Bulls while a Hawks-Bulls tiebreaker would be determined by conference record (the Bulls currently have a half-game edge).

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