Looking Ahead to the NBA Playoffs
The 2023/24 NBA season is slowly reaching its climax, with the best teams in the league beginning their preparations for the playoffs. While there are still some slots up for grabs, many teams have already booked their place in the postseason and are aiming even higher. Regular season games will continue until the final picture is known, but who are the teams most likely to win the NBA finals series for the 2023/24 campaign?
Dates for the Diary
The final game of the regular season is due to take place on April 14. At that stage, the most successful franchises in the competition will advance, while the remainder will be eliminated, and will begin their preparations for next term.
The postseason will begin almost immediately: The play-in tournament runs from April 16 to 19, while the playoffs follow a day later. Those playoffs continue through May and into June, before the NBA Finals series for 2024 runs from June 6 to 23. The neutral verdict is in via the NBA playoffs odds from the leading sportsbooks, so who is in the frame to claim the pennant this year?
The Team to Beat
According to those odds, the favorites to move through the playoffs are the Boston Celtics. After a turbulent period where the franchise needed to change coach, the Celtics are now settled under Joe Mazzulla and will head to the playoffs following a strong regular season.
Boston have the best record of any team in this year’s NBA and seem likely to finish at the top of the standings. This means that Mazzulla’s men will receive a high seeding as they enter the playoffs, and if they can maintain their regular season form, the Boston Celtics will be the team to beat.
The Chasing Pack
Behind the favorites, the closest challenge to the Celtics is likely to come from the chasing pack. The Denver Nuggets, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Phoenix Suns and Oklahoma City Thunder are the highly ranked franchises heading into the playoffs.
Of those teams, Oklahoma has the best record of any team in the Western Conference, but it’s tight in this section. The Denver Nuggets and the LA Clippers have similar records after 67 games and the battle to be Conference Champions could be fought by those three sides.
In contrast, the Phoenix Suns have a disappointing record in the West and their place in the playoffs is far from certain. Their position in the markets seems based on reputation and squad strength rather than actual results.
That leaves the Milwaukee Bucks who are the closest challengers to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference.
An Underdog Surprise?
The format of the playoffs and the NBA finals series leaves little room for upsets. Games are played over a best of seven basis, so the strong sides can overcome an early shock result, and still come through to progress.
There are, however, a number of strong teams beyond the highly fancied franchises. It’s interesting that the sportsbooks are paying little attention to the Minnesota Timberwolves. After 67 games of the regular season, the franchise sat in third place in the Western Conference behind the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Denver Nuggets.
The feeling is that the Timberwolves don’t have the quality or squad depth to compete in the final stages, but that impressive record shouldn’t be ignored.
The Verdict
Based on form and results across the regular season, it’s all down to the Boston Celtics, but the team has been in this position before. Boston have been highly rated by independent sources, and they won their division in each of the last two seasons, but they haven’t won the NBA Championship since 2008.
From the chasing pack, the team to watch this year could be the Milwaukee Bucks. Consistency is the key to this franchise and the Bucks have reached the playoffs in each of the last seven seasons. They began the 2023 postseason campaign as the number one seed, but a first round exit at the hands of the Miami Heat has made fans wary.
A year earlier, the Bucks made it through to the Conference Finals, where they went down to the Boston Celtics. If we go back one more year to 2021, we find the second of the Bucks’ NBA Championship wins.
There is a feeling that the Boston Celtics are destined to claim their 18th NBA Championship, thereby setting a new record for the most wins in this competition. They have a strong squad, and are now settled under Head Coach Joe Mazzulla.
There are some tough challengers among the chasers, however, and there is expectancy among a Milwaukee Bucks team who are going under the radar.
Whatever happens in the next few weeks, we look certain to see another thrilling climax to a long and fascinating NBA campaign.
