No team in the East has done enough to separate itself from the pack. <\/p>\n
While the top two seeds in the West have already punched their tickets to the semifinals, every Eastern Conference matchup currently sits 3-2. <\/p>\n
The Detroit Pistons are the lone home-seed to be playing from behind, surviving an elimination game on Wednesday thanks to Cade Cunningham\u2019s heroic 45-point performance. <\/p>\n
All other favourites have a chance to advance with a win on the road. <\/p>\n
Projecting forward, here are the prices for the Top 5 teams in the East to make the semis and the Finals. <\/p>\n
TeamOdds to make East FinalOdds to reach NBA FinalsBoston Celtics-2200+115Cleveland Cavaliers-1500+260New York Knicks-900+470Detroit Pistons+120+850Orlando Magic-142+3000<\/p>\n
Four teams currently sit at 10-to-1 or shorter to reach the NBA Finals. <\/p>\n
Out West, the Oklahoma City Thunder are priced at -240 while the San Antonio Spurs are the only other team shorter than 10-to-1.<\/p>\n
Credit to the Toronto Raptors for putting up an encouraging postseason performance, but for today\u2019s exercise, I\u2019m going to focus on the Top 5 and rank them based on which bet yields the most value in my opinion. <\/p>\n
Boston Celtics, +115 to make Finals<\/p>\n
The Celtics are understandably the betting favourites to win the East. <\/p>\n
They finished second in the regular season with the lone team ahead of them on the brink of elimination. <\/p>\n
Jayson Tatum would be -10000 if the NBA handed out a Comeback Player of the Year award. <\/p>\n
His return to this form is the single biggest needle mover and justifies Boston\u2019s stance atop the East. <\/p>\n
At a 46.5 percent implied probability though, I\u2019m just not sure their ticket to the NBA Finals is that locked in. <\/p>\n
Two glaring holes stick out to me. <\/p>\n
First is their lack of rim protection. <\/p>\n
The return of Joel Embiid over the last two games has proven that the Celtics can be exposed at the rim. <\/p>\n
Their entire defensive scheme is catered to limiting looks at the rim, yet Embiid got 14 points in the paint shooting 7-of-9. <\/p>\n
Neemias Queta was deservedly in the MIP mix, but he can\u2019t hang with an offensive heavyweight like Embiid. <\/p>\n
Nikola Vucevic has been a below-average defender for a while now and isn\u2019t their answer. <\/p>\n
The second concern I have is their overdependence on the deep ball. <\/p>\n
I get head coach Joe Mazzulla\u2019s stubborn belief in the math, but moments like their 14-shot drought in Game 5 exacerbate how one-dimensional they can be.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t forget in their semifinal battle with New York last playoffs, Boston shot 25 percent from three in Games 1 and 2 which ultimately was a hole they couldn\u2019t dig out of. <\/p>\n
Value ranking: 2 out of 5<\/p>\n
Cleveland Cavaliers, +260 to make Finals<\/p>\n
Of all teams here, we as Toronto fans clearly have the most visibility on this contender. <\/p>\n
No honest Cavs fan can say to themselves that this opening round has been encouraging. <\/p>\n
Cleveland\u2019s twin towers are proving that they\u2019re not the defensive stalwarts we\u2019ve been led to believe. <\/p>\n
Toronto is third in the playoffs with 51.6 points in the paint, a major indictment on their rim protection. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m also concerned with Donovan Mitchell\u2019s inability to breakthrough Toronto\u2019s defence. <\/p>\n
Even though Scottie Barnes is an All-NBA defender, his disappear over these past three games must be ringing the alarm bells. <\/p>\n
The Cavs have ultimately been exposed as a soft team that lacks the toughness of a true championship contender. <\/p>\n
Should they advance to the semifinals, both potential opponents play a brand of basketball that likely overpowers them.<\/p>\n
Value ranking: 5 out of 5<\/p>\n
New York Knicks, +460 to make Finals<\/p>\n
If not for two CJ McCollum backbreaking daggers, New York would already be resting in Madison Square Garden waiting on their next opponent. <\/p>\n
The Knicks currently own the third-best net rating only behind the Thunder and Spurs. <\/p>\n
Though they\u2019re 3-2 like five other teams, they\u2019ve looked the most complete of the bunch. <\/p>\n
Their offence is humming as expected but their defence is surprisingly ranked fourth amongst playoff teams.<\/p>\n
That\u2019ll be key for them if they get through the East. <\/p>\n
For as gifted as Jalen Brunson is offensively, his clutch time defence is quickly proving to be a liability. <\/p>\n
Atlanta\u2019s gameplan in both comebacks was clear as day \u2013 keep switching until someone gets Brunson in a 1-on-1 matchup. <\/p>\n
Beyond that though, the team has collectively done a good job funnelling Atlanta into the mid-range and keeping points in the paint at a minimum (45.2, 7th).<\/p>\n
The Hawks have been held to the fifth-worst three-point percentage and that perimeter defence will be critical in a potential rematch with the Celtics. <\/p>\n
Boston had a more complete roster last season and were still unable to beat the Knicks. <\/p>\n
New York comes into this postseason with better depth and improved continuity. <\/p>\n
They are my favourite bet at their price to make a Finals appearance.<\/p>\n
Value ranking: 1 out of 5<\/p>\n
Detroit Pistons, +850 to make Finals<\/p>\n
Credit to Detroit for an incredible season that shattered every projection in existence. <\/p>\n
This is a franchise that went from losing a record-breaking 28 straight games two seasons ago to finishing atop the Eastern Conference with 60 wins. <\/p>\n
They\u2019ve made just four postseason appearances since the 2010s and are at risk of exiting in the first round for a fourth-straight time.<\/p>\n
Cunningham currently sits second in postseason scoring at 32.6 ppg, only behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. <\/p>\n
He will finish on the All-NBA Second Team at worst and was deservedly in the mix for MVP up until his collapsed lung injury. <\/p>\n
When it comes to championship aspirations though, Detroit\u2019s reluctance to push their chips in at the deadline is now haunting them. <\/p>\n
Orlando has done a fantastic job top-blocking his teammates on the perimeter and sending extra help to Jalen Duren on pick-and-rolls. <\/p>\n
This has resulted in Cunningham committing a league-high 33 turnovers through five games. <\/p>\n
To Detroit\u2019s credit, their calling card all season has been defence and that\u2019s held true in the playoffs. <\/p>\n
They had the second-best defensive rating this year and hold the same position in the postseason.<\/p>\n
My worry betting them to make the finals comes down to their one-dimensional offence. <\/p>\n
I think Orlando has exposed them and given other teams a gameplan for how to neutralize them on that end in series to come.<\/p>\n
Value ranking: 3 out of 5<\/p>\n
Orlando Magic, +3000 to make Finals<\/p>\n
For a team that looked to be on the brink of collapse ahead of the play-in tournament, the Magic have shockingly locked in and morphed back into the team that held the third-shortest odds to win the East heading into the season.<\/p>\n
Their relentless brand of defence has them one win away from pulling off the seventh 8-seed upset in NBA history. <\/p>\n
As strong as their defence has been, Orlando\u2019s offence continues to be inefficient. <\/p>\n
They currently rank second-last in offensive rating, hold the second-worst true shooting percentage and average the fewest assists per game. <\/p>\n
All their success is accredited to their defensive acumen but up against more potent teams like Cleveland, Boston or New York, I worry about their offence to come through for four games.<\/p>\n
The Magic have been a nice story in a league where chalk almost always prevails in Round 1. <\/p>\n
But with Franz Wagner\u2019s injury also looking to be more serious than first reported, I would only bet the smallest of wagers on an Orlando dart throw. <\/p>\n
Value ranking: 4 out of 5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No team in the East has done enough to separate itself from the pack. While the top two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[712,49,48,459,143747,82],"class_list":["post-639483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-nba-sports-basketball-league-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}