2023 NBA In-Season Tournament bracket: Odds, picks, predictions, best bets by basketball model on 86-50 roll
Written by CBS SPORTS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on December 1, 2023
Looking for a new wrinkle that would add some grandeur to the early portion of the season, the 2023 NBA In-Season Tournament has largely been viewed as a success so far, and the intensity should kick up a notch with single-elimination play beginning on Dec. 4. After the group stage, where the league was split into six groups of five and played four games round-robin style, there are now eight teams left in the 2023 NBA In-Season Tournament bracket. In the East, the Bucks, Pacers, Celtics and Knicks made it out of the group stage to the knockout rounds while it was the Lakers, Pelicans, Kings and Suns coming out of the West.
Boston is the +300 favorite in the 2023 NBA In-Season Tournament odds and other contenders include the Bucks (+340), Lakers (+550) and Suns (+650). First-round play will take place on Dec. 4/5 with the higher seed hosting while the semifinals and finals will take place on Dec. 7 and 9, respectively, in Las Vegas. Before making any basketball picks or 2023 NBA In-Season Tournament bracket predictions, be sure to see what SportsLine’s advanced computer model has to say.
The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every NBA game 10,000 times and has returned well over $10,000 in profit for $100 players on its top-rated NBA picks over the past five-plus seasons. The model enters Week 6 of the 2023-24 NBA season on an 86-50 roll on all top-rated NBA picks dating back to last season, returning more than $3,000. Anyone following it is way up.
Now, it has turned its attention to the 2023 NBA In-Season Tournament bracket and locked in NBA picks for every NBA matchup. Head here to see every pick.
Top 2023 NBA In-Season Tournament predictions
One of the surprising NBA In-Season Tournament bracket predictions from the model: It is fading the Celtics as the favorites to win it all at 3-1. Boston has made it to at least the Eastern Conference finals in five of the last seven seasons but heartbreak at the hands of the Heat last season prompted the front office to make some significant changes.
The Celtics brought in Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis to supplement a core that already includes all-stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The early results have been impressive, with Boston going 14-4 over its first 18 games to lead the East. However, the Celtics had to grind out a victory in Toronto and then suffered a 17-point loss in Orlando during the middle portion of their group-stage run.
Boston was fortunate to draw a Chicago squad that had already been eliminated in their final matchup of the group stage and needed every bit of a 27-point win to edge out the Magic and Nets on point differential in Group C. Now they’ll have to visit a hungry Pacers squad in the first round and the model says that the Celtics only win that matchup 50.5% of the time. It also says Boston only wins in 18.7% of simulations, falling well short of the odds implied at +300. See which other teams to pick here.
How to make 2023 NBA In-Season Tournament bracket picks
The model has made the call on who wins every other game in the 2023 NBA In-Season Tournament bracket, and it thinks one double-digit long shot is an incredible value to win it all. You can only get every pick for every game at SportsLine.
So who wins every game in the 2023 NBA In-Season Tournament? And what double-digit long shot is a surprising value to win it all? Check out the 2023 NBA In-Season Tournament bracket below, then visit SportsLine to see which teams win all from a proven computer model that has returned well over $10,000 since its inception, and find out.
2023 NBA In-Season Tournament brackets, schedule, odds
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2023 NBA In-Season Tournament schedule/bracket:
(All times Eastern)
Monday, Dec. 4
Quarterfinal: Celtics at Pacers, 7:30 p.m.
Quarterfinal: Pelicans at Kings, 10 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 5
Quarterfinal: Knicks at Bucks, 7:30 p.m.
Quarterfinal: Suns at Lakers, 10 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 7
East semifinal: TBD vs. TBD at Las Vegas, time TBD
West semifinal: TBD vs. TBD at Las Vegas, time TBD
Saturday, Dec. 9
Final: TBD vs. TBD at Las Vegas, 8:30 p.m.
2023 NBA In-Season Tournament odds:
Celtics +300
Bucks +340
Lakers +550
Kings +550
Suns +650
Pelicans +1200
Pacers +1300
Knicks +1400