There are only four teams remaining in the NBA playoffs and they will battle it out in the Eastern and Western Conference Finals to keep their championship hopes alive and advance to the NBA Finals.
The Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves will face off in the Western Conference Finals, while the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers will square off in the Eastern Conference Finals.
For the Thunder, they are coming off a seven-game series in the second round against the Denver Nuggets that they were able to clinch in Game 7 at home on Sunday afternoon.
It will be a quick turnaround for Oklahoma City as they will host Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against Minnesota on Tuesday night.
Magic Johnson, an NBA legend and member of the Los Angeles Lakers, made his series prediction prior to Tuesday night’s start.
“I have the New Knicks beating the Indiana Pacers and the Minnesota Timberwolves beating the Oklahoma City Thunder to advance to the NBA Finals,” Johnson posted on X ahead of the two series.
This is a bold claim by Johnson, especially on the Western Conference side as he is not going with the favorite to win the series but instead picking the Timberwolves to upset the Thunder.
The Thunder have undoubtedly been the best team this season, but they will face the Timberwolves in a difficult game, particularly because Minnesota has the rest advantage going into the series.
Minnesota was able to defeat the Golden State Warriors is five games in the second round of the playoffs where it took Oklahoma City seven games to get past Denver.
The Thunder are the favorite to represent the West in the NBA Finals because of their amazing depth outside of their star trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren. The Timberwolves will be the team with more rest.
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