The NBA Conference Finals begin Tuesday night with Game 1 between the No. 6 seed Indiana Pacers and the No. 1 seed Boston Celtics.
And on Wednesday night, Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals begins between the fifth-seeded Dallas Mavericks and third-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves.
That's what everyone thought, right?
The 2024 NBA postseason will bring plenty of surprises, and in about a month, a champion who hasn't won a title in at least a decade will be crowned.
The Mavericks last won a championship in 2011, followed by the Celtics in 2008. The Pacers have never won an NBA title, and the Timberwolves have never appeared in the NBA Finals.
Will that change this season? Let's find out:
Boston Celtics vs. Indiana Pacers Eastern Conference Finals predictions
The Celtics enter Tuesday night's Game 1 as the favorites in the series, and rightly so. Boston has been the best team in the NBA all season and continued that momentum in the postseason with consecutive wins over the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers.
According to FanDuel, the Celtics are currently -1200 favorites to win the series, while the Pacers are a +680 favorite. However, the Pacers have developed into underdogs throughout the postseason.
The Celtics will be without star big man Kristaps Porzingis, who is suffering from a soreus strain and will be sidelined for at least the beginning of the series. The Pacers are also on fire, setting an NBA record for shooting 67.1 percent from the field in Game 7 against the Knicks. The Celtics haven't played a game since May 15th.
The Pacers are expected to put up a heated battle in Game 1 and may get the first punch in the first half. But the Celtics' star duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown should be able to fight back, while Derrick White, Alvarez Horford and Jrue Holiday make life difficult for Indiana on both ends of the court.
The Celtics will play the first two games at home, and the Pacers will play Games 3 and 4 at home. The Celtics will then win Game 5 at home and close out the series at Indiana in Game 6, aiming to advance to the NBA Finals for the second time in three years.
However, this series will be better than expected.
Prediction: Celtics 6th.
Tim Heitman/Getty Images
Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Prediction
The Timberwolves defeated the NBA's current giants on Sunday, defeating three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and the reigning champion Denver Nuggets. Anthony Edwards has emerged as a bona fide superstar in the league, and Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert have become an unstoppable big man duo.
Meanwhile, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving make up the NBA's best backcourt, and trade deadline acquisitions Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington have been crucial to Dallas' strong postseason run. It has been proven that there is.
This should be one of the most exciting series of the postseason, with three of the league's best scorers trading shots. Both teams have a deep depth of role players, and “other players” could be the X-factor in this series.
With both teams coming off thrilling upset wins, Minnesota's Target Center should erupt on Wednesday night for the team's first conference finals game since 2004.
Edwards, who locked up Jamal Murray in the second half of Sunday's Game 7, said after the game that he would guard Irving. Standout defender Jaden McDaniels is likely to match up with Doncic.
Minnesota is expected to win Game 1 to take the lead, then Dallas will win Game 2 on the road. The teams will then split his next four games, making it a win-or-lose Game 7 for a spot in the NBA Finals.
It'll be an epic Game 7, but it'll come down to making shots — and there's no more proven shot-maker on that court than Irving, a former NBA champion who hit the biggest shot in Cleveland Cavaliers history in 2016 in the Finals.
Now, Irving will once again be the hero for Dallas, which is playing in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2011. A revenge series will also begin between Irving and his former team, the Celtics.
Prediction: Mavericks 7th.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, finding common ground and finding connections.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, finding common ground and finding connections.
