2024 NBA playoffs: Predictions, picks for entire postseason bracket with experts eyeing Celtics-Nuggets Finals

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There’s a belief that basketball produces a somewhat predictable postseason. The thought is that across a seven-game series, the best team has a longer sample to prove its worth than in, say, the single-elimination format of football. Hot pitching and goaltending can produce wild results in baseball and hockey, but basketball is widely considered to be a more stable sport. The best team, more often than not, will emerge victorious.

Well, lately at least, that belief has proven misguided. Remember, a play-in team reached the NBA Finals only a year ago when the Miami Heat won the Eastern Conference. Yet another play-in team in the Los Angeles Lakers reached the conference finals. Since 2009, we have seen only one NBA Finals series in which both No. 1 seeds won their conferences. That came all the way back in 2016. The No. 1 overall seed has not won a championship since the Golden State Warriors did so in 2017.

The modern NBA playoffs are a minefield. One sprained ankle can end a season. Shooting variance has never mattered more in a 3-pointer-obsessed league. No sport is as matchup-dependent. No sport changes as much between the regular season and the playoffs.

So keep that in mind as you browse our staff brackets for the 2024 NBA postseason. We all may have taken different roads to get there, but we all emerged in the same place. If recent history tells us anything, it’s that the actual postseason will be far more complicated than our brackets suggest they will be.

Brad Botkin’s bracket

Kim O’Reilly, CBS Sports

NBA Finals pick: Nuggets over Celtics. Denver spending the majority of the season on autopilot doesn’t change the fact that it is the best team and Nikola Jokic is the best player. What a series this would be, but in the end the Nuggets are just more reliable in the high-leverage possessions. Jokic is an indefensible dilemma: Cover him straight up and he bludgeons you as a scorer, double him and…

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2024-nba-playoffs-predictions-picks-for-entire-postseason-bracket-with-experts-eyeing-celtics-nuggets-finals/

Author : Sam Quinn

Publish date : 2024-04-15 21:04:18

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