2023 NBA Eastern Conference Potential Betting Playoff Match-Ups

It’s the last week of the NBA season, and the Association is starting to feel that shift that happens around playoff time. Defense becomes more physical. Games slow to possession by possession. Each game has a greater sense of impact than those random Thursday evening games in February. 

The debate about which conference is more difficult continues year to year. This year, it’s the Eastern Conference. The Milwaukee Bucks clinched the number one overall playoff seed last night. The conference has four teams with over 50 wins, compared to two in the Western Conference. 

The Eastern Conference offers a full slate of potential NBA experiences. A few intriguing first-round match-ups and epic later-round slugfests could happen later in the Eastern Conference playoffs. 

Check updated NBA Eastern Conference odds along with analysis and free picks.

2023 NBA Eastern Conference Potential Betting Playoff Match-Ups

Play-In Tournament: April 11-14, 2023
Playoffs Start: Saturday, April 15, 2023
NBA Finals: June 1 – June 18

Play-In Tourney Contenders

The addition of the NBA’s Play-In tourney for the last two playoff spots in each conference has been a fantastic introduction for NBA fans. Teams in that part of the bracket get the sense of playoff action out of the gate as they play to determine their fate in making it into the playoffs. For younger players, it’s a great experience to get the feeling of what those NBA playoff games are like. 

Given the strength of teams at the top of the bracket, the winners of the play-in tournament could be sacrificial lambs. That’s true for the 8-seed: Milwaukee is a juggernaut with the best record in the league. 

An intriguing first-round matchup that could come out of the play-in is if the Miami Heat wins their match-up against the Atlanta Hawks. The Heat would become the number seven seed and get a first-round match-up with the Boston Celtics. These teams played an extremely physical seven-game Eastern Conference finals last year that felt like a regression to the overly physical style of the 1990s NBA. A first-round series like this could make the Celtics’ path back to the NBA Finals extremely difficult. 

Top of the Bracket: The Easiest Path

Close observers of the Eastern Conference have their opinions on what they’d like to see in the later rounds. Most teams in the Eastern Conference are already locked in, so projecting the match-ups is straightforward. 

Chalk usually wins out in the NBA playoffs, so it’s reasonable to expect that the Bucks and Celtics will meet in the conference finals. Boston’s path to the finals is the harder of the two – the Celtics potentially facing the Heat in round one, followed by a match-up against presumptive NBA MVP Joel Embiid and the Sixers in Round 2. 

The Bucks have the easiest path to the conference finals. They play the winner of the play-in, then the winners of the Knicks-Cavaliers in the second round.  The Bucks’ health could be a factor in determining how far they go. 

In last night’s game against the Chicago Bulls, guard Khris Middleton reaggravated an old knee injury. Middleton missed 18 games this season with an injury to the same knee. Injury luck can make a big difference between a deep run or an early exit in the playoffs. If Middleton can’t go, it might be worth looking outside of the top two seeds in the conference. 

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