NBA Playoff odds: Bet on 2024 NBA Playoffs online

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Spring weather -- and NBA playoff basketball -- are upon us.

Current NBA playoffs odds favor the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets to meet in the 2023-24 NBA Finals. Continue reading to learn how to bet on the NBA playoffs online, collect some essential playoff betting tips, and find the best online sports betting sites to get in on NBA playoff betting.

Current NBA Playoff odds

See below for live NBA playoff odds at legal online sportsbooks. You'll get live odds from all scheduled games below as each series is set. Click on any odds to claim the posted sign-up bonus and get started.

NBA Playoff odds to watch

Following are a few of the teams that have NBA Championship odds worth keeping an eye on:

Boston Celtics (): Along with the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston boasts a NBA-most 17 championships, but the Celtics only have hung one banner (2007-08) since the mid-1980s. Jayson Tatum and the current talented crew could change that as they finished the regular season with the league's top record (64-18) and entered the playoffs with the best net rating (+11.7).

Denver Nuggets (): MVP-favorite Nikola Jokic and the defending champs bettered their regular season winning percentage of a season ago but just missed landing the Western Conference's No. 1 seed. Still, the Nuggets are the clear West favorites and are a legit threat to capture the league's first back-to-back titles since the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors.

Oklahoma City Thunder (): The Thunder surprised by earning the top seed in the highly-competitive Western Conference at 57-25, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Co. are the youngest No. 1 seed in NBA history. OKC backers can certainly find current NBA Finals odds value, but will the Thunder keep exceeding expectations or will their collective postseason inexperience spell an early playoff exit?

NBA Playoff betting 2024: What to know

Here are the key details to keep in mind when betting on the NBA playoffs:

NBA playoff moneyline bets

Moneyline betting is as simple and straightforward as it gets. You just pick a team to win a game and book your bet at the current odds. Here’s an example:

Team	Moneyline odds
Milwaukee Bucks	-130
New York Knicks	+150

The Bucks, as indicated by the minus (-) sign, are the favorites here. At -130 odds, bettors have to bet $130 for the chance to net $100. Bettors get paid if they win the game by any score.

The Knicks are underdogs here, as the plus (+) sign indicates. At +150 odds, a bettor would net $150 on a $100 wager if the Knicks pull off the upset.

NBA playoff spread bets

The spread serves as a handicap, evening the odds between two teams. It is essentially a number of points that a bettor must factor into the final score.

The favorite gives away points and the underdog gains them, but the betting odds on both sides are usually fairly even because of the spread. Here’s an example:

Team	Spread
Milwaukee Bucks	-6.5 (-110)
New York Knicks	+6.5 (-110)

A bet on the Bucks nets $100 for a $110 wager, but they need to win by 6.5 points. Obviously, a team can’t win by 6.5 points, so in reality, that means the Bucks need to win by 7 in order to “cover”.

Conversely, a bettor placing a wager on the Knicks needs them to lose by no more than 6.5 points. Again, that means as long as they lose by no more than 6, they cover and the bet wins.

NBA playoff over/under or total bets

Bet on the total number of points in a game and whether it will be more (Over) or fewer (Under) a line that the sportsbook sets. For example, a bettor could wager on the Over or the Under on 249.5 points in an NBA Playoff game at -110 odds on either side.

Over bets win if the two teams combine to score 250 points or more. Otherwise, Under bets win.

NBA playoff prop betting

Team and game props

These are bets on things that happen in a game but don't necessarily involve the outcome of that game. Some team and game prop examples:

Team to score first basket
Winning margin
Will game go to overtime
Will final score be odd or even

Player props

Player props are where you bet on an individual player’s performance. Here are some of the stats you can bet on:

Points
Assists
Rebounds
Three-pointers
Turnovers
Blocks
Steals

You can also bet on combinations of these stats and whether a player will record a double-double or triple-double.

NBA playoff parlay betting

Parlay betting is about combining two or more bets. You have to win every bet that’s part of a parlay to get paid, and the difficulty in doing that pushes the odds up. Sportsbooks like BetMGM and the Caesars Sportsbook app will offer specific parlays and allow you to build your own.

For example, you might bet on the Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat all to win at total odds of +500. Of course, all three teams must win for you to win the parlay.

You might also bet on a same-game parlay of

Jimmy Butler over 28.5 points
Total over 238.5 points
Miami winning

at total odds of +450. Again, you must win all three bets to win the same-game parlay.

5 Essential NBA Playoff betting tips

Here are a few things worth thinking about when you’re betting on the NBA playoffs:

1. Home court advantage plays a big role

The home team wins close to 65% of NBA playoff games. That means it’s an inherent advantage to back the home team in single-game bets and the team with the home-court advantage in series bets. That being said,

2. All-Stars and MVPs can come in clutch

Players win games, and it sometimes seems as if NBA stars can will a team to victory. If you’re looking for a team to bet on, look for the one with the most All-Stars and MVP candidates, as these are often the players who can get you a win.

Almost every NBA championship team over the past decade has had at least one former or current NBA MVP on the roster.

3. Follow the Game 3 rule at your own risk

NBA playoff betting experts will tell you that when a team loses the first two games of a series, it will almost always win the third game. However, heading into the 2023 NBA Playoffs, 11 of the past 22 teams down 2-0 won Game 3.

4. Top-three seeds are the strongest

Heading into the 2023 NBA playoffs, 72 of 74 NBA championship winners were a top-three seed. In other words, picking a lower seed to win the title is usually a bad idea.

5. Avoid fifth seed or below

The 1994-95 Houston Rockets are the only team in NBA history to win a title as a fifth seed or lower. They were No. 6 in the West that year.

Other teams seeded fifth or worse have reached the NBA Finals, but all except the Rockets have failed to win a title.

When do the NBA playoffs start?

The 2024 NBA regular season ends in early April. It's not uncommon for all 30 teams to be in action on the final day, perhaps with playoff positioning in the cards.

The play-in tournament commences soon after. The first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs tips off once the postseason field is completely set. The NBA Finals conclude in June.

How does the NBA play-in tournament work?

All told, there are three play-in games per conference.

Teams seeded 7-10 in each conference take part in the play-in tournament to decide who will enter the NBA playoffs as the conference’s final two teams.

The No. 7 seed plays No. 8 in a single game. The winner punches their ticket into the first round of the postseason. The loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 matchup gets another shot.

The loser of the No. 9 vs. No. 10 matchup is eliminated. But the winner of that game faces off against the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 matchup. The winner of this final game earns the conference’s last remaining postseason spot.

How do the NBA playoffs work?

The play-in tournament started in the 2020 NBA bubble and became a permanent part of the NBA playoffs in 2021. Essentially, the seventh- through 10th-place teams in each conference play one another for the No. 7 and No. 8 playoff seeds. After that, the first round matchups are set:

No. 1 vs. No. 8
No. 2 vs. No. 7
No. 3 vs. No. 6
No. 4 vs. No. 5

The winners of these seven-game series advance to the second round, or conference semifinals:

The winner of No. 1 vs. No. 8 plays the winner of No. 4 vs. No. 5
The winner of No. 2 vs. No. 7 plays the winner of No. 3 vs. No. 6

The winners of these seven-game series advance to the conference finals, and the winners meet in the NBA Finals. In each series, the lowest-seeded team gets the home-court advantage.

The home team gets games 1, 2, 5 and 7 at home.

How many teams make the NBA playoffs?

There are eight teams from each conference in the first round of NBA playoffs, making for a total of 16 in the playoffs. However, four additional teams also qualify for the play-in tournament, making the total 20 if you include that.

How many games are in the NBA playoffs?

Each playoff round features best-of-seven series. The NBA playoffs include 15 of these series. If each one went to a Game 7, the playoffs would include 105 games.

Plus, there will always be six games in the play-in tournament. That makes the maximum theoretical number of games in the NBA playoffs 111.

The first team to four wins in each series advances. With four rounds in the playoffs, a team must win 16 games to win an NBA title.

If every series the eventual champion played went to a seventh game, that team would have played 28 games on its way to the title. If the team started as the No. 9 or No. 10 seed, it would have also had to win two games in the play-in tournament.

That means the maximum number of games the NBA champions could have to play to win it all is 30.

More NBA playoff futures odds

With NBA futures odds, you can bet on various NBA playoff outcomes all year long. Here are a couple of other options beyond NBA playoff odds. Use the drop-down menu in the odds table above to see current odds at the best sports betting apps.

Conference winners: Bet on any team you like to win the Eastern or Western Conference. The odds are available almost all year long and fluctuate with how sportsbooks perceive each team’s chances of advancing to and winning the conference finals.
Championship winner: You can bet on any team you like to win the NBA Finals. NBA Finals winner odds are also available nearly all year long and change with a team’s perceived chances.