The NBA Playoffs are a mere weeks away. Teams are battling to the finish for seeding, home court, preferred matchups, and to make it in, or out, of the play-in tournament.
With so much parity around the NBA this season, we'll likely be waiting until the final night of the season to see who makes the playoffs and who will match up in play-in games during the opening week of the postseason.
Here's a look at where the each of the postseason hopefuls is slated to land in the play-in tournament, their odds to make the playoffs and Sean Koerner's projections for each team's playoff probability.
Western Conference Playoff Standings
Playoff odds as of Wednesday and via FanDuel
No. 1 | 100% | |||
No. 2 | 100% | |||
No. 3 | 100% | |||
No. 4 | 99.2% | |||
No. 5 | 87.6% | |||
No. 6 | 94.2% | |||
No. 7 | 86.1% | |||
No. 8 | 34.7% | |||
No. 9 | 48.8% | |||
No. 10 | 13.0% | |||
No. 11 | 35.6% | |||
No. 12 | 0.3% | |||
Eastern Conference Playoff Standings
Playoff odds as of Wednesday and via FanDuel
No. 1 | 100% | |||
No. 2 | 100% | |||
No. 3 | 100% | |||
No. 4 | 100% | |||
No. 5 | 99.1% | |||
No. 6 | 92.8% | |||
No. 7 | 89.4% | |||
No. 8 | 52.4% | |||
No. 9 | 43.0% | |||
No. 10 | 22.9% | |||
NBA Playoff Picture
Using Sean Koerner's projections, we’ve predicted how the playoff standings would shake out based on simulating the final games of the regular season.
Here’s a look at where the NBA Playoff picture stands as of March 29:
East Notes
The East standings have largely remained the same over the past week. After a brief stint in the No. 6 spot, the Heat lost two critical games to the Nets and Raptors, which moved them back down to No. 7. They are far enough ahead of the Hawks that Koerner's model projects them to stay in that spot.
West Notes
The Western Conference is much more jumbled and difficult to project with so many teams in contention for a postseason spot.
The Pelicans jumped from 12th in the West last week to eighth this week and their odds to make the playoffs moved from +360 to +180 at FanDuel. The Mavericks have seen the biggest drop over the week — they had a projected 67.5% chance to make the playoffs before losing to the Hornets in back-to-back games.
Three of their next five games are on the road — Philadelphia, Miami and Atlanta (second game of a back-to-back) — and all five teams they face in that span currently in the playoff picture (the Kings and Bulls are the other two).
Based on Koerner's model, here are the results of where each team is expected to land and the most likely first-round playoff matchups in each conference:
