Updated 2023 NBA Championship Odds Ahead of First Round

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The first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs starts in under 48 hours and the odds to win the NBA title have been updated after the first two-thirds of the play-in tournament.

The winner of the Chicago Bulls vs Miami Heat will fill out the No. 8 seed in the East, while the winner of the OKC Thunder vs New Orleans Pelicans will take the No. 8 seed in the West. Here is how the 2023 NBA championship odds look as of Thursday night.

2023 NBA Championship Odds

The Bucks enter the 2023 NBA playoffs as the outright betting favorite, currently +265 at DraftKings Sportsbook. Their primary Eastern Conference rival, the Boston Celtics, are listed as second-favorite at +310.

The top team is the West, by a large margin, is Kevin Durant's Phoenix Suns, despite the 13-time All-Star continuing to deal with ankle problems. Phoenix enters the first round as a +425 third-favorite.

The reigning-champion Golden State Warriors are a distant fourth at +950. Steph Curry and the Dubs labored through the regular season with a 44-38 record and only earned the #6 seed in the West. They are unlikely to have home-court advantage in any series during the playoffs and will need to dramatically improve on their 11-30 road record in order to make a serious run at back-to-back titles.

The table below lists the series prices and series spreads for the six first-round matchups that have been set as of Thursday evening.

NBA First-Round Series Odds

The Celtics (-1000), 76ers (-900), and Suns (-500) are the heaviest favorites in the first round so far, but it can be expected that the Bucks and Nuggets will join the top three when their first-round matchups are set tomorrow night.

A three-leg parlay of the Celtics, Sixers, and Suns to advance to the second round would only generate -217 odds.

The series with the narrowest odds is Grizzlies vs Lakers, where the No. 2 Memphis Grizzlies are just -140 favorites over LeBron James and the No. 7 Los Angeles Lakers, who come back as slight +120 underdogs.

Unlike in the NFL, the NBA playoff bracket is fixed; teams are not reseeded after each round. If the Lakers do manage to upset the Grizzlies, they would go onto face the winner of the No. 3 Kings vs No. 6 Warriors.

The full bracket is displayed below.

2023 NBA Playoff Schedule

The first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs will run from Saturday, April 15, to Sunday, April 30, at the latest. The second round is tentatively scheduled to commence on May 1, but could move up a day or two if no first-round series go the distance.

The conference finals are slated to begin on May 15 and the NBA finals on June 1. If the 2023 NBA finals goes to a Game 7, it will take place on June 18.

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