NBA Championship Odds and Star Predictions for Every Team Still Standing

Following the Houston Rockets' Game 7 victory, we're down to eight teams left in the NBA's bubble near Orlando, Florida.

And each of those eight has at least an outside shot at winning it all. To be sure, some are safer picks than others, but any of these eight outlasting the others wouldn't be shocking.

FanDuel's sportsbook drew a pretty clear line between what it believes to be the true contenders and the rest, though.

The Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat and Boston Celtics all have relatively similar odds to secure the championship. To actually do so, their stars will need to find another gear.

And if those other four teams want to buck the odds, their top players may need their "Dirk Nowitzki in 2011" moment.

The Houston Rockets barely survived their seven-game series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but they may match up a bit better with the Los Angeles Lakers.

In the regular season, point guards and shooting guards outperformed their Lakers counterparts (and by a significant margin in the case of 1s). The Rockets, of course, get the bulk of their production from those two spots.

L.A. can at least deploy Danny Green against Harden, but it'll have a serious matchup problem with Westbrook.

The 2016-17 MVP has struggled mightily in the playoffs of late—over his last three postseasons, he has an abysmal 47.5 true shooting percentage and a staggering minus-14.6 net rating swing—but this series could be exactly what he needs to break out.

Alex Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope could both spend plenty of time on Russ. And with the way Houston's micro-ball philosophy spreads the floor, he should be able to get by either routinely.

Championship Odds: +1100

Shoutout to the Denver Nuggets for outlasting the Utah Jazz in a grueling seven-game series in which Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell combined to average 67.9 points.

Their reward? The well-rested Los Angeles Clippers.

The Clips are probably the biggest reason for Denver's odds, but the quick turnaround probably didn't help.

If the Nuggets want to prove the oddsmakers wrong, they'll need a monster series from Nikola Jokic (and even that might not be enough). Consider this a prediction he'll do his part.

In Game 7 against Utah, Murray looked gassed. He scored 17 points on 21 shots, a far cry from the hyper-efficient play of his first six games. Jokic picked up the slack with 30 points and 14 rebounds in the closeout.

Somehow, his averages of 26.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 3.1 threes were quiet.

With Murray set to be defended by the likes of Patrick Beverley, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, expect Jokic's production to get a little louder.

Ivica Zubac has the size to bang in the paint with Jokic. Montrezl Harrell will fight on every possession. But neither is anywhere near as skilled or impactful on defense as Rudy Gobert.

Jokic will get his. If Murray approaches the level he found against Utah, the Nuggets will have a shot at an upset.

Championship Odds: +3600

There is still time for a miraculous comeback, but FiveThirtyEight's projections aren't too keen on the defending champion Toronto Raptors.

Down 2-0 to the Boston Celtics, the system gives Toronto just a 11 percent chance to win four of the next five.

That's understandable, and not just because of the cold, hard math. Boston appears to have significantly more star power. Jayson Tatum has been, by far, the best player in the young series. And Toronto's regular-season leading scorer, Pascal Siakam, is shooting just 34.4 percent from the field.

Expect that trend to continue for however long this matchup lasts.

Siakam was quietly below average in both effective field-goal percentage and true shooting percentage this season. And his inefficiency will be under a microscope against one of the best defenses in the league.

Boston finished the season fourth in points allowed per 100 possessions in part because of all the switchable defenders it has on the roster.

Siakam's combination of size and athleticism can be a problem for some teams, but the Celtics have Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and even Daniel Theis to bother him.

Championship Odds: +1900

Following their 116-114 nail-biting victory Wednesday, the Miami Heat now lead the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks 2-0 and have a 79 percent chance to advance, according to FiveThirtyEight's projections.

At this point, predicting a Heat victory in the series might even be lukewarm. We'll turn up the heat a little bit and say that Jimmy Butler will outperform likely MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo over the course of the series.

There are a few ways to determine that, but we'll settle on game score, which Basketball Reference defines as a "rough measure of a player's productivity for a single game."

To this point in the series, Butler's average is 23.7. Giannis is at 18.6.

Of course, this doesn't prove Butler is necessarily the better player, but evidence may be mounting that his game is a bit more suited to the playoffs.

When defenses are locked in for every possession and geared entirely toward shutting off Giannis' drives, his lack of counters can somewhat neutralize his impact.

It's tougher to do that with Butler, who certainly didn't light the world on fire from three this season but has a solid in-between game and draws fouls as well as anyone.

Championship Odds: +700

Even without Gordon Hayward for much of the playoffs, Boston has looked like the most complete team in the East.

In the postseason, the ability to create something from nothing against consistently locked-in defenses is critical. And though this is looking down the road a bit, that should be an important aspect of a series between the Celtics and Bucks or Heat.

While Giannis Antetokounmpo is more physically dominant than Jayson Tatum and Kemba Walker, and Khris Middleton is a better shooter than all three, it's the Celtics who seem more reliable when working from scratch (and regular-season isolation numbers back that up).

For Tatum, specifically, the ability to both work off the dribble and shoot over the top of most defenders will make him the most important player in each of Boston's next two series (assuming it finishes off Toronto).

Whether he faces Giannis and the Bucks or Jimmy Butler and the Heat, Tatum will be tested by top-tier perimeter defenders. His star will continue to rise, though.

Regardless of who is in front of him, Tatum, currently averaging 27.2 points in the playoffs, will be the Eastern Conference Finals' leading scorer.

Championship Odds: +500

The Bucks are in real trouble, but it's hard to imagine this campaign ending without them making a series out of this second-round bout with Miami.

Despite being down 2-0, Milwaukee has enough talent to push this to six or seven games. But that'll take more help from the supporting cast.

With Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Jae Crowder, the Heat have done a stellar job of shutting down driving lanes and walling off the paint.

That has opened up the mid-range looks Khris Middleton likes to dribble into. And in two or three of the coming games, he'll knock down a bunch of those to go along with his usual threes.

In the end, he'll score more points on the Heat than Giannis Antetokounmpo. So far, he's only four up on his MVP teammate, but Miami's defensive scheme will widen that gap a bit.

Championship Odds: +700

Steven Adams couldn't make Houston pay for playing small, but Anthony Davis will.

Whether he's defended by PJ Tucker, Robert Covington, Jeff Green or some other micro-ball 5, Davis should be able to deploy his full scoring repertoire.

AD can score out of the post, from the mid-range and at the free-throw line. He's even 7-of-18 from three in the playoffs. But against this team, he should do loads of damage in the paint.

Against the Portland Trail Blazers, he averaged 29.8 points. Expect that mark to go even higher. One, because of his overwhelming size advantage. And two, because he only played 32.6 minutes per game versus Portland.

L.A. may have the advantage inside, but Houston should dominate the perimeter. That means this series will be close. And the more competitive it is, the more Davis and LeBron James will have to play.

Championship Odds: +300

There's a reason the Clippers now hold the best odds to win it all.

They have Kawhi Leonard, a superstar in his prime with two Finals MVPs on two different teams. They have Paul George, who finished third in MVP voting last season.

And they have a loaded supporting cast that includes two Sixth Man of the Year candidates (Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell), one of the best perimeter defenders in the league (Patrick Beverley), another postionless forward to deploy alongside Leonard and George (Marcus Morris) and a rock-solid starting center (Ivica Zubac).

Even their end-of-rotation guys have been red hot this postseason. Reggie Jackson, Landry Shamet and JaMychal Green have combined to shoot 50.8 percent from three. Jackson leads the team in made threes.

With their seemingly unrivaled combination of star power and depth, L.A. is a strong pick to win it all. And if it does, Kawhi will likely secure his third Finals MVP, an honor that would make him the first to do it for three different teams.

So far, he has 1.9 postseason wins over replacement player (value over replacement player times 2.7). The rest of the roster has 2.7. Even on a team as good as this, Leonard's outsized impact is impossible to miss.

Championship Odds: +230