SB Reacts: Who will advance in the NBA Play-In and beyond?

As of this writing, the NBA Play-In Tournament is halfway over. The Miami Heat play the Atlanta Hawks Friday night in the Eastern Conference matchup to determine the eight seed. The Dallas Mavericks play later that night in the Western Conference matchup which also determines the eight seed. FanDuel has Miami as a slight favorite and Dallas as a 6.5 point favorite.

Let’s see how the weekly SB React polls from fans earlier in the week compared to the results that we have. so far.

In the Eastern Conference, fans wisely bet that the Magic would emerge from the East Play-In, with the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks essentially tied for second. The Magic are in as the seventh seed and in the game tomorrow, FanDuel has Miami as a one-point favorite.

The Western Confernence Play-In race is much more interesting and the polling reflects that. While the Golden State Warriors did wrap up the seventh seed against Memphis, Dallas surprised fans Wednesday night by blowing out the Kings. Just 17% of respondents think Dallas can make it out of the Play-In and yet they are the favorites heading into the game Friday night, per FanDuel.

This Indiana Pacers-Milwaukee Bucks series is dead even, per fan polling, but FanDuel has the Pacers as -240 favorites. Giannis might score a billion, but I see why the Pacers are favored over a series.

The New York Knicks appear to be prohibative favorites against the Detroit Pistons in both the eyes of fans voting on these polls and the betting markets, with New York currently a -420 favorite. That’s wild to me. The Knicks are good, but that good? The Pistons deserve respect.

Now this is going to be a SERIES. Kawhi Leonard looks like the Terminator. Jokic is a machine, so a nearly split fan poll tracks. The Clippers are currently just -118 favorites. That line should be fun to watch game by game this series.

The fan vote here speaks to the star power of the Lakers but bettors also agree with LA as a -194 favorite. Game 1 will determine a lot insofar as how I feel about this series. I want both teams to lose.

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