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2023 NBA playoffs: One stat proves postseason basketball has reached historic level of parity – CBS Sports
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The NBA playoffs tend to be relatively predictable. The NBA has crowned 75 champions, and 50 of them have been No. 1 seeds in the postseason. Another 16 of them have been No. 2 seeds. Entering the 2023 postseason, only five No. 8 seeds had ever won a playoff series, and the same was true of No. 7 seeds knocking off No. 2 seeds. For most of the NBA’s history, the regular season was a reliable sample. Teams played 82 games, and in that time we got a pretty good idea of who the best teams were — and what they would do in the postseason.
But lately? That just hasn’t been the case. The NBA is so deep now that great teams can emerge from just about anywhere on the bracket. Teams are prioritizing the regular season so much less than they used to that the idea of a conference champion emerging out of the play-in tournament hardly seems farfetched. In fact, two of the eight remaining teams in the playoff field started this postseason in the play-in round. Two more of them emerged as theoretical underdogs by virtue of their lower seeds.
Add all of that up and the 2023 postseason has given us a historic degree of parity. The NBA moved to a 16-team playoff format in 1984, and for the first time in 40 postseasons, one of each of the eight possible seeds has advanced into the second round:
Here’s where things start to get interesting: the Vegas odds to win the championship hardly follow the seeding of the teams above at all. The current championship favorite at plus-140? The No. 2 seeded Celtics. Trailing them at plus-550 are the No. 1 seeded Nuggets — and the No. 6 seeded Warriors. Then we have the No. 4 seeded Suns (plus-650), No. 7 seeded Lakers (plus-750), No. 3 seeded 76ers (plus-1200), No. 8 seeded Heat (plus-2000) and No. 5 seeded Knicks (plus-2500).
Boston might be the heavy championship favorite, but remember, they needed six games just to knock out the lowly Atlanta Hawks. Only the 76ers swept through their first-round series, and even they had to overcome some drama to get there, and now the health of the star, Joel Embiid, will be a factor. The No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs, the Milwaukee Bucks, were knocked out by the Heat in only five games.
Here’s the takeaway: No team is truly a safe bet to win the title. In an NBA world that is so frequently dominated by dynasties, it is a welcome change of pace that is producing one of the most entertaining postseasons in recent memory thus far.
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