NBA Playoffs 2015: Championship Odds, Bracket Picture and Round-by-Round Format
If you're not up to speed on your 2015 NBA Playoffs bracket and odds, don't be ashamed. Heading into the final day of the regular season, only eight of the 16 playoff seeds were set in stone, and there was a still a battle for the eighth seeds being waged in both conferences.
The Brooklyn Nets managed to scrape their way into the Eastern Conference bracket, beating the Orlando Magic on Wednesday and watching as the Memphis Grizzlies helped them into the postseason by defeating the Indiana Pacers.
Despite a heroic, brilliant effort from Russell Westbrook over the course of the second half of the regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder lost out on a playoff bid on the final day of the season. Instead, the New Orleans Pelicans—led by budding superstar Anthony Davis—captured the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference.
Basketball fans couldn't have both dark-horse MVP candidates in the playoff bracket, a minor injustice in part created by the imbalance between the Association's two conferences. ESPN's Bill Simmons captured the sentiment this way:
With the first-round playoff picture set, here's a look at the championship odds and bracket.
Format
As a quick reminder or primer for the uninitiated, the NBA playoff format is as follows, per NBA.com.
Sixteen teams are divided into two brackets of eight teams, based on conferences. There are three divisions in each conference; the winners of each division make the playoffs, along with the five non-division winners with the best regular-season records in each conference. A division-winner can be ranked no lower than the fourth seed.
All rounds consist of best-of-seven series in a 2-2-1-1-1 format. In other words, the team with the better record plays the first two games at home, the next two on the road and then alternates between home and road games until one team comes up with four wins. There is no reseeding in the NBA playoffs.
Championship Odds, Round 1 Matchups
| No. 1 Golden State Warriors | 2-1 | No. 2 Cleveland Cavaliers | 9-4 |
| No. 6 San Antonio Spurs | 7-2 | No. 1 Atlanta Hawks | 13-1 |
| No. 3 Los Angeles Clippers | 16-1 | No. 3 Chicago Bulls | 14-1 |
| No. 2 Houston Rockets | 20-1 | No. 4 Toronto Raptors | 66-1 |
| No. 5 Memphis Grizzlies | 25-1 | No. 5 Washington Wizards | 80-1 |
| No. 4 Portland Trail Blazers | 40-1 | No. 6 Milwaukee Bucks | 200-1 |
| No. 7 Dallas Mavericks | 50-1 | No.7 Boston Celtics | 200-1 |
| No. 8 New Orleans Pelicans | 150-1 | No. 8 Brooklyn Nets | 200-1 |
| No. 1 Golden State vs. No. 8 New Orleans | No. 1 Atlanta vs. No. 8 Brooklyn |
| No. 4 Portland vs. No. 5 Memphis | No. 4 Toronto vs. No. 5 Washington |
| No. 3 Los Angeles vs. No. 6 San Antonio | No. 3 Chicago vs. No. 6 Milwaukee |
| No. 2 Houston vs. No. 7 Dallas | No. 2 Cleveland vs. No. 7 Boston |
A complete bracket can be found at NBA.com. Odds courtesy of Odds Shark and updated as of Thursday, April 16 at 2 p.m. ET.
The oddsmakers have spoken: The San Antonio Spurs are once again one of the most dangerous teams in the hunt for the Larry O'Brien Trophy. While it may seem impossible that the aging trio of Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker can still be competing for NBA championships, let alone garnering such favorable odds as a sixth seed, the newest star on the block, Kawhi Leonard, has all the right stuff to sway a series.
Long known for his prowess on the defensive end, Bleacher Report's Stephen Babb identified his emergence as a two-way star as the key to the Spurs' success this year:
"Beginning with a 22-point outing against the Phoenix Suns on Feb. 28, Leonard topped the 20-point mark in six consecutive games for the first time in his young career. Earlier this month, he tied his career high of 26 points in consecutive games—games in which he played just 24 minutes apiece.
Things have been going well, with averages topping 19 points per game in March and April. Leonard made 53.1 percent of his field-goal attempts during the former and an even gaudier 57.3 percent with one game remaining in the latter. That's crazy efficiency for a guy who suddenly gets the lion's share of his buckets from the mid-range and beyond.
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The other top team in the West in terms of odds is the Golden State Warriors, who hardly need an introduction at this point. Led by the sharpshooting Stephen Curry on offense and anchored on defense by Swiss-Army knife Draymond Green and center Andrew Bogut, this team can play at a sustainable, championship-caliber level at both ends of the floor.
Their first major impediment to championship hardware is Davis, an incredible all-around big man who averaged 24.4 points, 10.2 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game in the regular season.
"I played against him in college, and he's gotten a lot better," said backup center Festus Ezeli, via Carl Steward of the San Jose Mercury News. "He's a great inside player, but he can step out now and make his shot. He can take contact now and finish. He's evolved his game. And of course, defensively, he's a problem. It's going to be an interesting matchup for us."
The Hawks may have taken the top overall seed in the Eastern Conference, but Cleveland appears to be the team most favored to emerge as conference champion. While the Hawks' quick-passing offense can be a beautiful, balletic thing to watch at times, the team lacks significant star power.
Even though the whole "Spurs East" concept appears to be a sound championship formula, Atlanta doesn't quite have a player with a game as complete as that of Duncan—save for perhaps Paul Millsap, but only to a lesser degree—or as crafty as Ginobili driving through the lane.
Cleveland is chock full of stars, from the once-in-a-generation talent that is LeBron James to Kevin Love to former No. 1 overall pick Kyrie Irving. Say what you will about new-to-the-NBA head coach David Blatt, but this team has the talent to dispatch any team in the East in short order.
Should the Cavs stomp through the Eastern Conference bracket, they could very well face a Western Conference foe with several more playoff games on the odometer, considering how tough each team has proved to be this season.
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