2024 NBA Western Conference Odds - NBA Betting Lines

NBA Western Conference Betting Online

The Western Conference in 2023-2024 was extremely competitive and it was the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets finishing one game ahead of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Thunder won the tiebreaker against the Nuggets and Oklahoma City begins the 2023-2024 NBA Playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the West, but they are not favored to win the Western Conference. The Nuggets are the defending NBA champs and they will be the No. 2 seed and they begin the playoffs as the favorite to win the West.  The Timberwolves were a nice surprise this season and they are the No. 3 seed. Teams seeded fourth through tenth were only separated by five games so it should be a wild ride in the Western Conference Playoffs. Those teams in seeding order are the Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, New Orleans Pelicans, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors. The Pelicans, Lakers, Kings and Warriors are the four teams competing in the play-in round for the final two spots in the 2023-2024 NBA Playoffs.

NBA Betting Lines

NBA Western Conference First Round

1. Oklahoma City Thunder vs. 8. New Orleans Pelicans

2. Denver Nuggets vs. 7. Los Angeles Lakers

3. Minnesota Timberwolves vs. 6. Phoenix Suns

4. Los Angeles Clippers vs. 5. Dallas Mavericks

The Thunder are the top overall seed in the Western Conference but they are likely going to have a very difficult first round matchup. None of the play-in teams will be an easy out in the Western Conference. The Nuggets are in the same boat, but Denver has Nikola Jokic and they are not going to be afraid of anyone. The Thunder had a great regular season, but they still have to prove they can win in the playoffs. Oklahoma City is led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who is an MVP candidate.

Minnesota is the No. 3 seed but they will have a tough first round matchup against the No. 6 seeded Phoenix Suns. The Timberwolves have won just a single first round matchup in franchise history and this one won’t be easy. Minnesota has the front court of Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns and a star in Anthony Edwards. The Timberwolves will need Towns to show he is fully recovered from his knee injury. The Suns with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal will not be an easy out.

The other first round playoff matchup looks to be a good one between the Clippers and Mavericks. The Clippers have Kawhi Leonard and Paul George but the Mavericks have the incomparable Luka Doncic and his sidekick Kyrie Irving.

As was the case in the Eastern Conference, you can’t ignore the play-in teams in the Western Conference. The Lakers have the star power of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Warriors are former NBA champs with the trio of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, while the Pelicans have Zion Williamson and the Kings are led by De’Aaron Fox.

Conference Winners (2000)

Since Michael Jordan retired from the Chicago Bulls for a second time, the Western Conference has been the dominant conference. Teams from the West are 17-8 in the last 25 NBA Finals, and that should speak to overall dominance in the conference. However, three teams have been responsible for nearly all of that success (Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Golden State).

Conference Finals Results By Team

It’s incredible to see the difference in the success that the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers have had in comparison to every other team in the Western Conference. The Lakers have won the Western Conference a whopping 32 times, and they have made numerous runs thanks to some of the biggest starts in the game. George Mikan, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant all had a ton of success with this franchise.

The Golden State Warriors are a distant second in terms of most successful teams in Western Conference history. This is one of the oldest franchises in the NBA as they were part of the BAA as the Philadelphia Warriors, and they made it to the NBA Finals three times before heading to the West Coast. Golden State has now won the Western Conference six times in the last nine years, and the Warriors have claimed four NBA titles in that stretch. That has made them an undisputed dynasty under Steph Curry.

Obviously, there's some strange teams to see on this list as "Western Conference champions." The Atlanta Hawks have always played in the Eastern Conference, but the team that preceded them, the St. Louis Hawks, won four Western Conference titles. The Milwaukee Bucks used to be in the West, while the Detroit Pistons were in the West when they were known as the Fort Wayne Pistons.

Four of the five franchises that have never taken part in an NBA Finals are in the Western Conference. Memphis, Minnesota, New Orleans, and the Los Angeles Clippers have never won the West, and Sacramento’s only conference title came back in 1951 when the Kings were known as the Rochester Royals.

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