The Sacramento Kings secured a home game in the NBA Play-In Tournament after a Dallas Mavericks loss on Sunday. The beam team’s win in their last game of the regular season was just the icing on the cake. But while the Kings remain alive for a spot in the Western Conference Playoffs, there is still work to be done.While the play-in tournament has been around for five seasons, this is just the Kings’ second appearance, and how it all works can be confusing to some. Read below for an explanation on the play-in tournament and Sacramento’s path to a playoff berth. The Kings’ Playoff Path The Kings need to win two straight play-in games to earn the final spot in the Western Conference playoffs.The tournament includes four teams in the Western Conference fighting for the last two playoff spots. The top six teams in the West have already secured their seeding and do not participate in the tournament.The Golden State Warriors (No. 7 in the Western Conference for now) and the Memphis Grizzlies (No. 8) will face off on Tuesday in San Francisco, with the winner securing the No. 7 seed in the playoffs and the loser having one more chance. Meanwhile, the Kings (No. 9) will host the Mavericks (No. 10) in a win-or-go-home game on Wednesday night. The losing team’s season will end and the winning team will play either Golden State or Memphis on the road Friday night with the last playoff spot in the Western Conference at stake. If the Sacramento Kings were to survive the play-in, they would face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. The Thunder finished the regular season with the best record in the NBA (68-14) and are led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the likely winner of this year’s Most Valuable Player award. But for the Kings, it will have to be one game at a time. Before they can worry about the Thunder, or where they would have to travel on Friday, they first need to beat the Mavericks on Wednesday for any of that to matter. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

The Sacramento Kings secured a home game in the NBA Play-In Tournament after a Dallas Mavericks loss on Sunday. The beam team’s win in their last game of the regular season was just the icing on the cake.

But while the Kings remain alive for a spot in the Western Conference Playoffs, there is still work to be done.

While the play-in tournament has been around for five seasons, this is just the Kings’ second appearance, and how it all works can be confusing to some.

Read below for an explanation on the play-in tournament and Sacramento’s path to a playoff berth.

The Kings’ Playoff Path

The Kings need to win two straight play-in games to earn the final spot in the Western Conference playoffs.

The tournament includes four teams in the Western Conference fighting for the last two playoff spots. The top six teams in the West have already secured their seeding and do not participate in the tournament.

The Golden State Warriors (No. 7 in the Western Conference for now) and the Memphis Grizzlies (No. 8) will face off on Tuesday in San Francisco, with the winner securing the No. 7 seed in the playoffs and the loser having one more chance.

Meanwhile, the Kings (No. 9) will host the Mavericks (No. 10) in a win-or-go-home game on Wednesday night. The losing team’s season will end and the winning team will play either Golden State or Memphis on the road Friday night with the last playoff spot in the Western Conference at stake.

If the Sacramento Kings were to survive the play-in, they would face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. The Thunder finished the regular season with the best record in the NBA (68-14) and are led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the likely winner of this year’s Most Valuable Player award.

But for the Kings, it will have to be one game at a time. Before they can worry about the Thunder, or where they would have to travel on Friday, they first need to beat the Mavericks on Wednesday for any of that to matter.

See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel