NBA Lines and Betting Predictions: Team Hunt for the 2024 Playoffs

Previous Betting News

3 Week left of 2024 Regular Season: Who’s In, Who’s out, and Who’s on the Hunt for the Playoffs

MyBookie NBA Playoffs 2024 | NBA Money Line Today

We are heading into the final few weeks of the NBA regular season, which means we are in the crazy part of the season when the battle for playoff spots really begins to fire up. As it stands right now, only one team has officially clinched a playoff spot, with the Boston Celtics also nabbing the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. We will see more teams book their place sooner rather than later, but there is still a lot of basketball to be played before we get a look at the final seeding. In a separate piece, we discussed the state of the play-in zone in both conferences, but this time we are going to focus on the top 6 in the East and West, so don’t lock in your NBA betting on this until you check out our thoughts.

Eastern Conference

As we mentioned at the top of this piece, the Boston Celtics have pulled away and clinched the #1 seed in the East. Any other team looking to make it to the NBA Finals is going to probably need to pay a visit to Boston to face a team that has only lost 3 times on their home court this season.

As far as the #2 seed goes, the Milwaukee Bucks are currently occupying that spot. They are 11 games back of the Celtics, but they are also 2 games up on the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are in the #3 seed right now. The Bucks, though, have been inconsistent, so that lead might not be totally safe.

The New York Knicks are in at #4, but they could still move up, as they are now just a half game behind Cleveland. The Knicks are hot at the moment and look most likely to move up. The Orlando Magic are a game back of the Knicks in the #5 spot and hold a 2 game lead over the Indiana Pacers in the final automatic spot. The Pacers are not entirely safe, though, as they are just a game and a half up on the Miami Heat, who hold the first play-in spot.

Find all Eastern Conference betting odds to Win
NBA Odds Today | Week 22

Western Conference

The way things look in the West, we may need to go all the way down to the wore to find out who gets the #1 seed heading into the playoffs. The defending NBA champions Denver Nuggets have the lead at the moment, but they are also just a half game up on the Oklahoma City Thunder.

This is far from being a 2-horse race, though, as we also have the Minnesota Timberwolves very much in the hunt for the #1 seed. They are down in the #3 spot right now, but they are also just a game and a half out of first and a game behind the Thunder. All 3 teams are in great form over the last couple of weeks, but any kind of slip could open the door for a lead change.

The top 3 look to be clear of the rest of the pack, with the Clippers now sitting 5 games back of the top 3 in the #4 seed. The Clippers are not playing particularly well right now and have to be looking over their shoulders at the New Orleans Pelicans, who are a half game back, while the Mavericks are also waiting to pounce in the #6 spot. Behind them, sitting in the play-in zone, the Kings and Suns are also close to the top 6, so it is going to be a tight race all the way to the end.

Find all Western Conference betting odds to Win
NBA Odds Today | Week 22

NBA Odds, National Basketball League Bet Today’s NBA Lines
MyBookie NBA Odds for the Games

Could the star-laden Los Angeles Lakers miss the Western Conference playoffs entirely? It’s possible as Anthony Davis isn’t coming back anytime soon and Los Angeles is ninth in the West, just three games ahead of No. 11 Portland. Of course, teams seeded 6-10 reach the play-in tournament. Let’s take a look at the following analysis for your NBA bets.

NBA Playoffs Analysis

Some higher-ups in the Lakers organization want coach Frank Vogel to pull struggling Russell Westbrook from the starting lineup and bring him off the bench but Vogel has resisted. He has held Westbrook out of closing stretches of games on a few occasions this season. He’s just not suited to play off the ball. He’s shooting 28 percent from 3. Westbrook has made it clear he sees himself as a starter and a closer, and he would not be OK with being demoted. Vogel is in a sticky situation.

Westbrook has averaged 18.1 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.3 assists in 34.4 minutes a game this season. Vogel has maintained that there’s still an opportunity for Westbrook to make a late-season charge as he did a season ago with the Washington Wizards.

“We have discussions, just like the front office has thousands of trade discussions every deadline, and they don’t discuss every one of those. Most of them don’t come to fruition. And that’s where we’re at with Russ. Is there a path where that’s the better option? We have talked about that. We’ve talked about everything we can do with our team,” Vogel said when asked about benching Westbrook. “We’re not there.”

Despite “a little struggle” in finding his role in his first season with the Lakers, Westbrook said he remains determined.

“My role and what I’m doing has changed every single night,” Westbrook said. “So I’m just trying to figure that out as I’m playing and to be able to benefit and help my team.”

We still think the Lakers will reach the play-in tournament simply because No. 11 Portland isn’t very good and has traded away many of its best players. Damian Lillard isn’t close to a return, either. ESPN’s BPI suggests a 9% chance of the Lakers earning the eighth seed through the play-in.

In the Eastern Conference, the Brooklyn Nets probably will be headed to the play-in tournament as well. They sit ninth in the East, 2.5 games ahead of No. 11 Washington. It doesn’t appear that Ben Simmons will debut this week, however. As a result of his holdout in Philadelphia, the last time Simmons played in an NBA game was Game 7 of the Sixers’ second-round series against the Atlanta Hawks on June 20.

Nets general manager Sean Marks said that they hope he’ll be able to begin ramping up his return-to-play program by the end of next week.

“Unfortunately his back stiffness has delayed his ability to get on the court with his teammates. so he’s been rehabbing this last sort of week to 10 days,” Marks said. “And then now he’ll progress throughout this week with some individual [work]. Hopefully, by the end of next week he’s getting more into the team environment, and then we can really ramp up and start him getting into sort of game shape and so forth.”

Kyrie Irving still can’t play in home games due to the New York City COVID mandate. A public mandate will be eliminated on Monday but not a private sector mandate. So while the unvaccinated Irving could attend Nets home games starting this week, he still can’t play. Mayo Eric Adams said that it “would send the wrong message” to the rest of the city if he were to make an exception for Irving to play without being vaccinated.

“Listen, I want Kyrie on the court,” Adams said. “I would do anything to get that ring. So badly, I want it. But there’s so much at stake here. And I spoke with the owner of the team. We want to find a way to get Kyrie on the court, but this is a bigger issue,” Adams said in the interview.

Nets star forward Kevin Durant became just the 23rd player in NBA history to hit the 25,000-point mark during Sunday’s 126-120 loss to the Boston Celtics. Durant would be much closer to the 30,000 mark had it not been for a torn right Achilles suffered in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals that cost him the entire 2019-20 season and a variety of different injuries that have piled up in recent years, including a sprained left MCL that cost him a month and a half of this season. Durant joins Los Angeles Lakers forwards LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony as the only active players in the 25,000-point club.