Who Will Prevail?

By: Vasilios Dzelves, Sports Reporter

The NBA playoffs are set to begin on April 20th, with the play-in-tournament beginning April 16th. The New York Knicks are the second seed in the Eastern Conference.

A total of 16 teams will compete, eight from each conference. There are three rounds before reaching the championship game: quarterfinal, semifinal, and conference final. In the play-in tournament, four teams from each conference will compete in a two round tournament to fill in that seventh and eighth spot in their conferences.

Besides the Knicks, the other Eastern Conference teams that have made the playoffs are the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Indiana Pacers. The Eastern Conference teams competing in the play-in are the Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, and Atlanta Hawks.

The Western Conference teams that have made the playoffs are the Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, and New Orleans Pelicans. The Western Conference teams that have made the play-in tournament are the Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Lakers, and Golden State Warriors.

The Denver Nuggets look to win it back to back as they were the 2022-23 NBA Champions. The last team to win it back to back were the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018.

WJPS 9th grader, Alan Gonzalez said, “The Oklahoma City Thunder will win it because Shai has been playing well and the team chemistry is great.”

WJPS 9th grader, Tyler Valdez said, “The Celtics will take it home because they have both a top five offense and defense this season.”

“2009 NBA Playoffs” by RMTip21 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.