<p>It’s the second round of the NBA postseason and the big-time basketball is delivering.</p> <p>The first round had a bit of everything. There were clean sweeps, there were implosions and there were battles right down to the buzzer in game seven.</p> <p>Now down to four teams in each conference, the race to stay alive is heating up and only the strongest and most savvy will move on from here.</p> <p>Who will it be? Check out the NBA Conference Semi-Finals below!</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h2>Western Conference</h2> <h3>Oklahoma City Thunder vs Dallas Mavericks Prediction</h3> <p>While the Thunder came into the playoffs as the number one overall seed, the gap between them and the rest is not as big as you think.</p> <p>After the Mavs finalized their team at the deadline, trading for star starters P.J Washington and Daniel Gafford to pair with stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving has seen them finish the season full of steam.</p> <p>Their next test, coming up against a youthful OKC side, led by Aussie ace Josh Giddey, with home-court advantage who just swept the Pelicans to advance.</p> <p>The Thunder have had the wood over the Mavericks this season, winning three out of the four regular-season meetings. However, both sides have been on the receiving end of a blowout head-to-head.</p> <p>A lot rests on the shoulders of the Doncic and Irving both expected to be guarded frequently.</p> <p>Thunder guard Lou Dort is coming off a series where he severely limited Brandon Ingram and will have his hands full once again with one of the greatest modern shooters to take care of.&nbsp; The Slovenian maestro though will fancy his chances coming up against Dort, who shot at 57.1% this season with Dort as his primary defender, averaging a total of 24.0 points, 13.5 assists, and 11.5 rebounds against Oklahoma this season.</p> <p>This is going to be a fun series with big stars making big plays. I expect the biggest stars though (Doncic and Irving) to give Dallas the edge and despite coming in as the fifth seed, they will get the job done in an epic series.</p> <p><strong>Tip:</strong> <em>Mavericks in 6</em></p>

<h3>Denver Nuggets vs Minnesota Timberwolves Predictions</h3> <p>The defending champions are riding a wave of momentum after comprehensibly disposing of the Lakers 4-1, as they continue their charge to back-to-back titles. But standing in their way might be their toughest challenge yet in the Timberwolves after they too swept the Suns in the first playoff round.</p> <p>The Nuggets will start as warm favourites despite the teams being tied 2-2 for battles in the season this year. The favoritism is franked by having the best player in the league on the floor and their form over the Timberwolves in last year's playoff series, taking it out in five matches.</p> <p>Last season's finals MVP Nikola Jokic likes playing the Timberwolves this season. He averaged 33.3 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 4.3 assists across the four matches this year and as always, looms as the decisive factor and number one on-court threat for Minnesota to combat.</p> <p>We should not dismiss the Timberwolves though who have weapons of their own.</p> <p>They’ve had the best defense in the league throughout the regular season and guard Michael Jordan, I mean, Anthony Edwards has risen to the occasion in the playoffs reaching new heights with his game. Edwards averaged 31 points, 8.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists in the sweep over the Suns.</p> <p>This one could go the very distance and be one of the all-time playoff series, but I think the Nuggets with that championship experience get it done.</p> <p><strong>Tip:</strong> <em>Nuggets in 7</em></p>

<h2>Eastern Conference</h2> <h3>Indiana Pacers vs New York Knicks Predictions</h3> <p>Post-season runs have been a rarity for the Knicks since the start of the 2010s, which makes the deeds of this team even more special.</p> <p>On the brink of a Conference Semi-Final playoff series starting at the Garden against the Indiana Pacers, The Knicks, led by star Jalen Brunson will face a stern test against a Pacers team loaded with Pascal Siakam, Myles Turner and Tyrese Haliburton.</p> <p>Both teams took six games to advance to the second round of the conference finals after the Knicks took out the 76ers and the Pacers outlasted the Bucks.</p> <p>Indiana holds the bragging rights over the Knicks with a 2-1 regular season record for this year, but we know that playoff basketball is a different game. Especially after the teams split their matches 1-1 after their mid-season trades.</p> <p>Get ready for a clash of styles. The Knicks prefer to play at a slower pace and work the ball methodically up the floor while Indiana wants to run track meets up and down.</p> <p>Indiana finished the regular season with the second-best offense and kept that pace in their opening-round playoffs win against the Bucks. But we expect the Knicks to have more weapons to throw at them.</p> <p>OG Anunoby guarded everybody from Tyrese Maxey to Joel Embiid in the last series and is likely to get a big job on former Raptors teammate Siakam this time around.</p> <p>A big swing in the Knicks' favour will be the Pacers lack of shooting power. Despite Siakam going out strong in the opening games against the Bucks (36 &amp; 37 points respectively), Only Andrew Nembhard and Myles Turner had strong outings deep into the series for the Pacers. So if they can coral the paint and force the ball into the poor shooter's hands, that’s where they will get the edge.</p> <p>Defence wins titles and will decide the winner of this series.</p> <p><strong>Tip:</strong> <em>Knicks in 6.</em></p>

<h3>Boston Celtics vs Cleveland Cavaliers Prediction</h3> <p>A complete contrast in how both these sides got here.</p> <p>The Celtics cruised through their series with the Heat in five games while the Cavs went the distance against the Magic.</p> <p>The Celtics should start as heavy favourites because of the extra day's break but will need to find some extra points due to Kristaps Porzingis’ calf injury which is likely to rule him out of the entire series.</p> <p>There’s an argument to be made that the Cavs have gotten this far on talent alone. The mixture of Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen, and Evan Mobley hasn’t gelled as well as they would have hoped for all year but has come up with the right combinations and chemistry when it is needed too.</p> <p>The Cavs' big men Allen and Mobley are banged up with a rib contusion and sore ankle respectively and the short turnaround won’t be friendly to them.</p> <p>The big question around the series is how do the Cavs score enough around the Celtic's defence?</p> <p>They managed to get one over the Celtics in the regular season, during their big winning stretch.</p> <p>They’re going to need their big guns to fire and get their three-point shooting percentage up because they will need to hit close to 100 points if they want to get close to the Celtics. It was something they didn’t do in five of their games against the Magic which will give the Celtics the incentive to run up the clock at all costs.</p> <p>Despite the missing piece of Porzingis, Boston has a clear edge and is our tip here to win this series. There will be a game where Mitchell inevitably goes off but the Celtics should be doing this one pretty comfortably.</p> <p><strong>Tip:</strong> <em>Celtics in 5</em></p>