The chaos of March Madness kicks off this Friday, with 4 Play-In games (similar to the NBA Play-In Tournament) get things rolling Wednesday.

March Madness has finally arrived!
North Carolina embarrassingly missed the tournament this year, becoming the 1st Preseason Number 1 to miss the tournament in almost 50 years (and with a field this big that is not good for one of the biggest college basketball programs in the country!). A tough one to take for a North Carolina fan...

The NBA has talked about a mid-season tournament, and that in itself would be a fun concept to defeat the mid-season wall.

In our NBA March Madness Bracket, the top 6 seeds from both conferences, as well as the 4 Play-In teams from each conference are in, giving us a field of 20 teams.

Milwaukee are the Number 1 overall seed in the tournament, with Boston the 2 seed, Denver the 3 seed and rounding out the top 4, the Philadelphia 76ers.
The highest seed will always play the lowest remaining seed in this tournament.

1st Round:
Milwaukee and Boston as the Top 2 seeds receive a 1st round bye, Milwaukee will also receive a Round 2 bye.

Denver (3) v Chicago (20): Chicago only just scraped in ahead of the Pacers in this
tournament, and will be shown the door immediately, with Jokic and co. routing the Bulls. DENVER WINS.

Philadelphia (4) v Toronto (19): This is a very tough 4 v 19 match up for Philly, but in the end Joel Embiid has his way with the Raptors. PHILLY WINS.

Sacramento (5) v OKC (18): This is going to be a fun one to watch, as it’ll be first to 120 wins! KINGS WIN.

Memphis (6) v Utah (17): As has been the case with the previous match ups, the top seed moves on (Ja Morant playing). MEMPHIS WINS.

Cleveland (7) v Atlanta (16): The Cavs are probably the most under rated 7 seed here, and they beat the doors off an Atlanta team yet to find their identity. CAVS WIN.

Brooklyn (8) v Dallas (15): Kyrie and Dallas are the first double digit seed to get the win in this tournament. Kyrie revenge game! DALLAS WIN.

New York (9) v Minnesota (14): New York Knicks basketball is alive and well! If there’s any team’s fans to get this team deep in the tournament, it’s this one. KNICKS WIN.

Phoenix (10) v Golden State (13): In the opening round of the tournament?! By far the game of the tournament and one which will no doubt go down to the wire. Kevin Durant will have the final say in this one, as he knocks out his former team! SUNS WIN.

Miami (11) v LA Clippers (12): Just like the 10 v 13 game, this one will be one that can very easily go either way. Too much Paul George and Kawhi Leonard to get this Clippers team into the next round though. CLIPPERS WIN.

2nd Round:
Boston (2) v Dallas (15): What a way for the Celtics to kick their tournament off with a huge match up against the Mavs dynamic duo of Luka and Kyrie. This one will be tight, but the Celtics will have just a little too much Tatum and Brown to get this win and move on. CELTICS WIN.

Denver (3) v LA Clippers (12): Talk about tough, wow! Denver have shown to be a thorn in the Clippers side for a long time now. I don’t see this ending any time soon, as Jokic gets his way once again over Kawhi and PG. NUGGETS WIN.

Philadelphia (4) v Phoenix (10): This is not a match up Philly want to see. Phoenix are by far the best double digit seed heading into this tournament, and they’ll show us all why with a big win here. SUNS WIN.

Sacramento (5) v New York (9): The two Cinderella fan bases of the tournament clash here in a battle between 5 and 9. If only we had this match up further down the track! Knicks fans will be dancing in the aisles in this one, with Randle and Brunson bringing this team to glory! KNICKS WIN.

Memphis (6) v Cleveland (7): There’s something about this Cavs team that has them tournament tough. They have a Villanova tournament feel about them. A tough gritty team that’ll do whatever it takes to win a title, and they get one step closer with a win over the young grizzlies here. CAVS WIN.

Part 2 of the tournament will continue tomorrow!
Cheers,
Bauky