In the NBA, winning the regular season makes a team known.
A win in the postseason, however, would put a team in the league’s history books, as it only needed 16 wins to hoist the Larry O’Brien championship trophy in the air.
Well, at least that’s true for the 12 teams in both conferences, because the 7-seeds and 8-seeds have yet to be determined through the Play-In Tournament, so they have to win 17 or 18 games to become champions!
The 2023 NBA playoffs are upon us and a lot can happen over the next two and a half months.
they are Milwaukee Bucks To beat the team? can Boston Celtics Return to the NBA Finals? What do we do defending champion Golden State Warriors? Will it be? Denver Nuggets Finally entered the Western Conference as a 1 seed?
All of these questions and more will be answered over the next several weeks and without further ado, here are my five bold predictions for the 2023 NBA Postseason:
At least one playing team won the correct game series
Since the NBA added the play-in tournament in 2020, although it actually begins in 2021, no team awarded a 7-seed or 8-seed in the playoffs has actually won a playoff series.
of Minnesota Timberwolves And New Orleans Pelicans They gave their opponents a run for their money in last year’s playoffs, but fell short of winning their series outright.
This “playoff curse” ends this season, as the team that participates in either the Eastern Conference play-off or the Western Conference play-off wins its first-round playoff series.
Essentially, either a 7-seed or 8-seed will upset a 2-seed or 1-seed in either conference this year.
Why am I so sure of this?
Well, there’s always a chance that one of the Eastern playoff teams will make a run, but let’s be honest, none of the four teams in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament are beating the Bucks or Celtics.
Of course, it could happen, but it won’t.
This year’s upset will happen in the Western Conference, because these teams currently seeded 7-10 could easily be in the real playoff picture if they get another win or two in the regular season.
Complete 2023 NBA PLAYOFFS schedule and results: Click here
Both the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies They are the top two teams in the conference, and rightly so, but the West has been extremely competitive all season and all four teams in the Western Conference playoff race are dangerous.
of Los Angeles Lakers They are currently the last “wild card” in the 7-seed and if they beat the Timberwolves in the 7-seed play-in game, Memphis will have their hands full. Not only do they have to plan to stop LeBron James, who is having his best season at age 38, despite only playing in 54 games, but they have to try to stop Anthony Davis. Without both Steven Adams and Brandon Clark.
With D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jared Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura, Mo Bamba and Austin Reaves leading the offense, Los Angeles is one of the hottest teams in the league right now and no team wants to see them in a seven game streak.
Given the size of both Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, Minnesota could give Memphis some headaches. Not to mention, the Minnesota-Memphis rivalry is real and getting a second chance to play the Grizzlies could be the biggest motivation for the Timberwolves.
New Orleans Pelicans or Oklahoma City Thunder They will be eliminated when they play this week, but both teams have the ability to stretch the series. The Pelicans proved this a season ago when they took the 1-seed Phoenix Sun Their first-round series is up to six games and the Thunder are a young, energetic team with one of the best one-on-one scorers in the league in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Maybe I’m wrong and you’ll all laugh at me when the first round of the playoffs is over, but when the Lakers, Timberwolves, Thunder or Pelicans sit in the Western Conference semis, I can definitely say, “I told you so!”
Boston and Milwaukee lost one game in the first-round matchup
The Milwaukee Bucks enter the Finals with the best record in the league. The Boston Celtics entered the Finals with the second best record in the league.
Ipso facto, the Bucks and Celtics are the two best teams competing for a championship in the NBA.
Looking at the Eastern Conference playoff race, it’s hard to find a team that needs to beat the Bucks or Celtics in seven games.
of Miami Heat They are too inconsistent throughout the seasons to be considered real threats Atlanta Hawks Continue to be the team to rub shoulders with, the Toronto Raptors In the coaching team and in the forefront and at Chicago Bulls They have already booked their flight to Cancun.
Both Milwaukee and Boston have a good chance to sweep their respective first round playoff series and it will be at least one.
Complete 2023 NBA PLAYOFFS schedule and results: Click here
Of course, the Celtics and Bucks will enter the Eastern Conference semifinals with either an 8-0 record or a combined 8-1 record.
They are so dominant as a team and while they have overlooked their first-round opponents in their respective streaks, none of the four teams competing in the playoffs have the power to take down Giannis Antetokounmpo or Jayson Tatum and their team. groups more than once.
Perhaps the play-in teams will get lucky and steal a home game against either the Bucks or the Celtics, but we should expect both Eastern Conference juggernauts to make a successful run into the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
They remember the cliches that Donovan Mitchell had to trade for him
Donovan Mitchell to 2010 When it is said that he will leave, remember during the vacation New York Knicks?
Well, that never happened and Mitchell ended up with this instead. Cleveland CavaliersA picture-perfect getaway for both parties! Donovan Mitchell has had an MVP-like year with the Cavaliers this season and has all the motivation in the world to succeed in the playoffs, especially with Cleveland playing New York in the first round of their playoff series.
In four games with New York this season, Mitchell is averaging 31.8 points, 7.5 assists and 4.8 rebounds while shooting 50.6 percent from the floor and 46.8 percent from three-point range. Mitchell scored 42 points and made 6 threes in his last game of the season against the Knicks on March 31st.
The point is, Donovan Mitchell loves playing with the Knicks and is going to take his game to a new level in the playoffs.
Complete 2023 NBA PLAYOFFS schedule and results: Click here
In the 2020 NBA Bubble, Mitchell averaged 36.3 points per game and looked like the best scorer in the NBA. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Cavaliers All-Star had another big performance like he did on the postseason bubble and recorded at least three games with at least 40 points in this series. !
Mitchell loves playing in Cleveland, has an incredible supporting cast around him and gets to play with the New York Knicks organization he grew up watching and cheering for as a kid in New York.
All the stars are aligning for the Knicks to have a historic playoff streak for Donovan Mitchell.
No team in the Western Conference takes any series.
It’s called the Wild, Wild West for a reason!
The Western Conference standings are very little different from those in the Play-In Tournament this season, which is why the Western Conference games are all over the place.
The Lakers, Timberwolves, Pelicans and Thunder have all won games in the first round this season and looking at the two matchups we already know, neither of the two series will end in victory!
In a 3-seed vs. 6-seed matchup, the Sacramento Kings They have the potential to hang with the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors and earn the right to host the Warriors in this first round series.
Complete 2023 NBA PLAYOFFS schedule and results: Click here
The Golden 1 Center in Sacramento is going to be packed, loud and the Kings are going to give everything they have to the Warriors.
Looking at the other matchup, the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers Splitting their four regular season games this season, the Clippers without Paul George still have plenty of depth and experienced veterans ready to contribute on the league’s biggest stage. If there’s one thing we know, it’s to never count out a team led by Kawhi Leonard!
There is no way any Western Conference team will clinch their series in the first round of the playoffs and see the playoff picture as a whole.There will be no series sweepers in any Western Conference this year.
One of the league’s established superstars won another title
Every team has a superstar but that’s not what we’re talking about here.
We are talking about Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James. One of these five stars will add a ring to their trophy cabinet and, in fact, any of these stars could be named Finals MVP if their team wins it all in June.
It looks like the Bucks and Celtics will meet in the Eastern Conference Finals, and even if the Philadelphia 76ers manage to take down the Celtics in their second-round series, it’s hard to see the Bucks not doing so. He came out of the east.
Complete 2023 NBA PLAYOFFS schedule and results: Click here
Who knows, maybe Cleveland or New York can shock the world and make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, but if they do, that opens the door for the Western Conference champions.
Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard have all won titles during their respective Hall-of-Fame careers, and no matter how they split the West, at least one of those stars will be in the Western Conference Finals.
Durant and Leonard will face each other in their teams’ first-round series, and Curry could face LeBron in the Western Conference semifinals, depending on how LeBron finishes in the play-in contest.
One thing to note when looking at the West is that none of the 1-5 teams have won a championship in the modern era and are currently the only team to win the Western Conference playoff race. The title belongs to the Golden State Warriors, as the Lakers have yet to claim a playoff spot and Minnesota, New Orleans and Oklahoma City have never won a championship.
Thunder organization He won a championship as the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979, but the franchise had never done so in Oklahoma City.
Championship experience matters in the playoffs and in a crowded Western Conference, Durant, Curry, Leonard and James have rings sticking out. One of those four superstars could face off against Giannis in the NBA Finals, giving us another conversation to talk about as he adds another championship to his league name.
Be sure to follow the new episode The Fast Break Podcast Prepared by Fastbreak itself Brett Siegel!
Streaming Apple Podcasts And Spotify, The Fast Break Podcast It takes you around the league with the latest news, intel, rumors and interviews from people close to the action for all 30 teams. Stay tuned for new episodes every Friday.
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