NBA Play-In Tournament: Oddsmakers Predict Who Wins Respective Matchups

The 2022-23 NBA regular season has come to pass, and with the six top seeds in both the Western and Eastern Conferences locked in, all eyes are now focused on the play-in tournament.

With the seventh and eighth-seeded teams from both conferences set to determine who locks in the seventh spot, oddsmakers have made it known who has the best odds of winning the two-game slate for tonight.

According to Bet365 on Covers.com, the seventh-seeded Miami Heat enters its matchup with the No. 8 Atlanta Hawks as minus-210 favorites with the latter being plus-175 underdogs.

The Hawks and Heat have both performed under expectations this season, most particularly the latter after making a big trade for Dejounte Murray in the offseason, but there is reason to believe that this matchup can go either way.

With regard to the Erik Spoelstra-coached Heat, they would appear to be a matchup nightmare for the Hawks as they have won three of their four regular-season matchups.

However, the Hawks have made those last two games a bit more competitive under the guidance of Quin Snyder on the sidelines, and Atlanta can certainly dissect their way through the Heat's tough interior defense care of Bam Adebayo with mid-rangers and three-point bombs.

It is another classic tale of offense versus defense playing out in the eyes of basketball fans, but the Hawks cannot count out the Heat's Jimmy Butler when it comes to such a high-stakes game.

As for the Western Conference's seventh-versus-eighth-seeded Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves, Bet365 has the former as minus-360 favorites with the latter as plus-280 underdogs.

The reasoning for oddsmakers to make such odds is simple: the Timberwolves were in shambles after their game against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Rudy Gobert lightly punched Kyle Anderson in the chest during an altercation over a timeout, while Jaden McDaniels broke his hand punching a wall out of frustration.

This leaves them with just Karl-Anthony Towns as their lone big man to try and stop Anthony Davis from dominating down low as Rudy Gobert has been suspended for his actions while Naz Reid has been ruled out for the season due to a scaphoid fracture in his left hand against the Phoenix Suns on March 29.

Minnesota will need to come together as a team on defense in the hopes of stopping Davis and LeBron James from going off while finding ways to make Anthony Edwards' life a little bit better on offense.

This makes the matchup lean heavily in favor of the Lakers, but based on the Lakers' hot-and-cold offense at times, anything can still happen and it makes this matchup something that fans cannot miss.

For the teams that lose this matchup, they will have another shot at making the playoffs as the eighth seed will be determined in a play-off between them and whoever wins the nine-versus-10 matchup on Tuesday, April 12.