The first round of the NBA Playoffs is officially here! We used our predictive analytics model to analyze each team's likelihood of advancing past the first round of the playoffs and summarized the findings with our Best Bets in this article. Every team has dreams of winning the NBA championship, but which team actually will? Read on for our full analysis, and if you're looking for more parlays, don't forget to check out our Dimers Parlay Picker which does the work for you in putting the best of the Dimers projection data together into a quick parlay for you to bet.
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NBA Playoffs First Round Predictions
It has been quite an up and down season for Brooklyn, who couldn't have imagined they would be entering the first round of the NBA playoffs without Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving at the start of the season. As the six-seed, the Nets are a bit over-seeded, given that they have not been nearly as competitive with new “stars” Mikal Bridges and Spencer Dinwiddie. Our model gives Brooklyn just a 0.3% chance to win the Eastern Conference, which is even less likely than teams that began in the play-in. The Sixers are our model's third-favorite team in the East, with a 21.7% chance of winning the conference. James Harden and Joel Embiid have the star power to win the entire tournament, but it starts with a series win over Brooklyn.