After an unimpressive Washington Wizards season, here is who Voice Sports is predicting will win the 2024 NBA playoffs after our beloved city missed the competition this year:
Andrew Arnold
WCR1:
OKC over NOP, DAL over LAC, MIN over PHX, DEN over LAL
WC Semis:
OKC over DAL, DEN over MIN
WCF:
DEN over OKC
ECR1: BOS over MIA, ORL over CLE, IND over MIL, NYK over PHI
EC Semis:
BOS over ORL, IND over NYK
ECF:
BOS over IND
Finals:
DEN over BOS in 6
With apologies to 29 other teams, the Denver Nuggets are head and shoulders above the rest of the league with their starting lineup having a 13.6 net rating. That’s the second-best five-man group in the league (minimum 300 minutes played) bested only by Milwaukee’s starting five. Nikola Jokic will almost certainly capture his third MVP in four years, with the Serbian big man being the undisputed best player in the league in my book. Sure, Boston cruised to the number one seed out east (did you know the gap between them and the two seed was more than the one seed and the ten seed out West?), and sure, OKC and Minnesota proved to be worthy adversaries for the Nuggets as they all jockeyed for the top seed, and sure, Dallas and Philly are coming into the postseason playing their best basketball, but when crunchtime comes, there’s no team I trust more to get it done than Denver. I think they breeze through the Western Conference side of the bracket and only moderately break a sweat in the finals en route to their second championship in as many years.
Bradshaw Cate
WCR1:
OKC over NOP, DAL over LAC, MIN over PHX, DEN over LAL
WC Semis:
OKC over DAL, DEN over MIN
WCF:
OKC over DEN
ECR1:
MIA over BOS, ORL over CLE, IND over MIL, NYK over PHI
EC Semis:
MIA over ORL, NYK over IND
ECF:
MIA over NYK
Champions:
The Oklahoma City Thunder over the Heat in 7
Call it regional bias, but I love the Oklahoma City Thunder. I miss the days when kids in my elementary school would show up to class in Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant jerseys, and I imagine now my old stomping grounds are filled with Jaylin Williams jerseys (in Arkansas we take pride in our former Razorbacks). I think the current team can achieve the success that Westbrook, Durant, and Hardin could never capture. That being said, they are a young team, and that playoff inexperience may haunt them throughout May and June. However, I think the matchup against the Pelicans will provide the needed experience to adjust to the new stage.
My boldest upset has to be the Heat without Jimmy Butler upsetting the 1-seed Celtics. Frankly, I don’t think Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown are a winning duo, and I find that giving Brown the supermax deal last offseason hurt the overall future of this team. The championship window feels like it’s closing for Boston, and I would not be surprised if we see either Tatum or Brown playing on a new team after another early playoff exit. As Papi Le Batard once said, “you are about to see a Heat team that no one has seen in the playoffs… they are going to say ‘oh the Nuggets are going to win, oh Denver the altitude’ and you know what, THE HEAT ARE GOING TO WIN IT ALL.”
Ben Jakabcsin
WCR1:
OKC over NOP, DAL over LAC, PHX over MIN, DEN over LAL
WC Semis:
OKC over DAL, DEN over PHX
WCF:
DEN over OKC
ECR1:
BOS over MIA, ORL over CLE, MIL over IND, NYK over PHI
EC Semis:
BOS over ORL, MIL over NYK
EFC:
BOS over MIL
Finals:
DEN over BOS in 7
This is Boston’s year right? After running away with the Eastern Conference in the regular season expectations are high as ever for the Celtics. I mostly agree with this sentiment. One has to assume that with the playoffs at hand the Bucks will figure things out eventually, but outside of them who scares you in the East? The second seeded Knicks could be in a seven-game rock fight just to escape the first round, and as fun of a story as the Orlando Magic have been this season, I don’t see them testing Boston too much. Don’t sleep on teams coming out of the West, though. After making it to the finals without so much as having to see a game 7, I think the Celtics come up short once again this time to the Nuggets who I think are a much better team than their record suggests. Maybe next year, Boston.
Anna Cordova
WCR1: OKC over NOP, DAL over LAC, MIN over PHX, DEN over LAL
WC Semis: OKC over DAL, DEN over MIN
WCF:
DEN over OKC
ECR1:
BOS over MIA, ORL over CLE, MIL over IND, NYK over PHI
EC Semis:
BOS over ORL, MIL over NYK
EFC:
BOS over MIL
Finals:
DEN over BOS in 6
