With only four weeks remaining in the 2023/24 National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season, the race to the play-offs is truly on the home stretch, and the jostling for positions will only get crazier as the days go by. And week after week teams will fall by the wayside as they wilt under the pressure.

Thankfully, the Play-In Tournament – established since the 2020/21 season – gives the teams seeded 7-10 additional chances to extend their season and, similar to seasons past, dramatic matchups are expected in the tournament this year. When the Play-In Tournament was created, it appeared to be the league’s way to extend the season for teams unlikely to make lengthy play-off runs; however, this has not been the case. That point was driven home last season when the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat emerged from the tournament to feature in their respective conference finals, with Miami making it all the way to the NBA Finals.

This season, the Play-In Tournament is expected to be the most star-studded yet – particularly in the Western Conference – and could feature the likes of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Kyrie Irving, and Luka Doncic. But let’s not jump the gun, the Play-In Tournament will take place April 16-19 and there are many games to be played before the final standings are decided.

In the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics, the first and only NBA team to win 50 games so far this season, appear to be locked into the number one seed, barring an unimaginable collapse, and are favoured by JustBet to again represent the conference in the finals. At the other end of the spectrum, the Charlotte Hornets, Washington Wizards, and Detroit Pistons have zero postseason hopes, while the others in-between will be fighting tooth and nail for one of the coveted spots.

In the Western Conference, things are more tightly bunched, and the battle is expected to intensify over the next 30 days. At the top of the conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Los Angeles Clippers have locked horns in a battle for the number one position and, judging from their respective remaining schedules, they will likely finish the regular season in that order. At the tail-end of the conference, the San Antonio Spurs have already been eliminated, with the Portland Trailblazers and Memphis Grizzlies not too far behind. However, the play-off hopefuls are so precariously perched that any slip up in their remaining 14 to 15 games could spell an early offseason.

The positioning of the Lakers and Golden State Warriors is particularly interesting, as they are in a similar situation to where they were around the same time last year. The Warriors and Lakers sat in the 10th and 13th position, respectively, in March 2023, then reeled off big runs to make the postseason – the Warriors were seeded sixth and the Lakers seeded seventh at the end of the regular season. Both teams eventually met in the Western Conference semi-finals from which the Lakers emerged 4-2 winners.

The Lakers and Warriors currently occupy the ninth and 10th spots, respectively, and their current streaks are clear indicators of their play-off intentions. They renew the rivalry tomorrow night at Crypto.com Arena in a contest that will go a long way in determining where they both finish in the table.

The last 10 contests in this LeBron-Curry clash have been split equally, which includes the two matchups already played this year, and this particular encounter (plus another on April 9) will figure prominently in the final placing of these two franchises. The six-game, Western Conference semi-finals thriller last year was enough to signal what was in store when they met on January 27 – a double-overtime, back-and-forth, instant classic was the result, with LeBron and Curry at their finest.

Los Angeles took that game by the narrowest of margins (145-144) but revisited the Chase Center on February 22, where the Warriors took advantage of a LeBron-less Lakers and avenged the previous defeat, 128-110. This time around both teams are expected to be without their dazzling stars, as both Curry and LeBron are reportedly sidelined with ankle injuries. If both cannot go, the contest becomes more intriguing, and it will be left to the rest of the respective locker rooms to deliver. If one or the other can suit up (most likely LeBron), the odds will be skewed in that team’s favour.

On Sunday afternoon, the defending champion Denver Nuggets visit the American Airlines Center to take on the Dallas Mavericks in an expected nailbiter. The Nuggets presently occupy the second position in the Western Conference, while the Mavericks occupy the eighth slot but have the duo of Doncic and Irving who can put up big numbers on any given day.

These teams have evenly split the last 10 meetings, but the Nuggets won the two matchups played this season, in November and December 2023, despite the scoring heroics of Doncic on both occasions. Those games were played in Denver and now the series moves to Dallas where the Mavericks have a better record. The Nuggets are peaking at the right time, but so are the Mavericks, led by the NBA’s scoring leader (Doncic) at 34.6 points per game.

Doncic’s record run of 30-point triple-doubles was stopped on Monday night by the Chicago Bulls, who contained him to 27 points, 14 assists, and 12 rebounds. He withdrew from the 127-92 blow-out win midway through the fourth quarter to end his NBA-record streak that was set last Saturday, with his sixth straight triple-double with at least 30 points, eclipsing Russell Westbrook’s mark of five straight. However, personal records will be put aside on Sunday for this crucial encounter as the Mavericks try to put some distance between themselves and the heavyweights nipping at their heels. The outcome is hard to predict, but the promise of end-to-end action is guaranteed. Strap in and enjoy the ride.

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NDA 2023/24 Champion

Team Odds

Boston Celtics 3.30

Denver Nuggets 4.70

Los Angeles Clippers 6.00

Milwaukee Bucks 8.20

Phoenix Suns 19.00

Oklahoma City Thunder 21.00

Minnesota Timberwolves 28.00

Miami Heat 29.00

Philadelphia 76ers 30.00

Los Angeles Lakers 30.00

*Only Top 10 odds shown (see website for full list)

Note: Odds are subject to change