SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento Kings have officially clinched a spot in the NBA Play-In tournament with the Phoenix Suns' 133-95 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night.

This will be the second-straight play-in appearance for the Kings after breaking a historic playoff drought in 2023, snagging the 3rd seed in the West that year. They were eliminated from the play-in tournament last year in a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans.  

Prior to the Warriors game, Phoenix was 3.5 games back from Sacramento with four games left on the Suns' schedule. The Suns (35-44), now with three games left on their schedule, will have to win out and have Dallas (38-41) lose out to secure the 10th and final play-in spot in the Western Conference. Phoenix owns a head-to-head tiebreaker over Dallas.

Next up for Sacramento (39-40) is a three-game homestand to end the regular season. Sacramento needs to win out to have a winning record.

The Kings, led by interim head coach Doug Christie, first host the Denver Nuggets at the Golden 1 Center on Wednesday night. This will be Denver's first game since firing long-time head coach Mike Malone, who led the team to their only NBA title win just two years ago.

Sacramento then plays the Los Angeles Clippers before ending the season against the Suns, which could have had major play-in stakes.

The 7th and 8th seeds in the play-in tournament are out of reach for Sacramento, so that means they will either play against the Mavericks or the Suns in the first round of the tournament.

How the play-in tournament works

With the top six seeds in each conference securing a playoff spot, the 7-10 seeds battle it out in the play-in tournament to determine who gets each conference's last two playoff spots.

First, each 7th seed hosts the 8th seed. The winner secures the 7th seed in the playoffs.

Then, the 9th seeds host the 10th seeds. The losers are eliminated from playoff contention while the winners go on to play whoever lost the first matchups to secure each conference's 8th seed.