With three days remaining in the 2023/24 National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season, the teams that will have extended seasons have already been decided, but there is still the possibility of jostling some of the placings between now and Sunday.

The play-in tournament will kick off the NBA postseason from Tuesday, April 16 to Friday, April 19, with the teams that finish seventh to 10th in the standings, in each respective conference, and these last four qualifying teams will battle for the seventh and eighth play-off spots.

Each conference’s No 7 team will host the No 8 team and the winners secure the No 7 seed in the play-offs, while the losers will get another opportunity to earn a play-off spot. Each conference’s No 9 team will host the No 10 team and the winners will advance to the final stage of the play-in tournament, while the losers would be eliminated from play-off contention.

The losers of the No 7 vs No 8 matchups will then host the winners of the No 9 vs No 10 matchups in each respective conference. The winners secure the No 8 seed in the NBA play-offs for the respective conference, while the losing teams are eliminated from play-off contention.

If the play-offs were to begin today, the seventh to 10th spots in the Eastern Conference would be occupied by the Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks, respectively, while in the Western Conference, the Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors would fill those slots. However, some shuffling could take place this weekend and the placings could shift in either direction.

But, while the NBA professionals are still battling for positions to move into the business-end of their season, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball season concluded less than a week ago, with the women’s tournament producing a champion with a perfect season.

A perfect season is a sports season, including any requisite play-offs, in which a team finishes undefeated. The feat is extremely rare at the professional level of any team sport but has occurred more commonly at the collegiate and scholastic levels in the United States. Across the world, there have been many perfect seasons for many teams, but most of those have seasons with less than 25 games, which makes the feat more gainable.

The University of South Carolina women’s team (the Gamecocks) capped off their stellar season last Sunday evening with their third national championship, after defeating the women from Iowa State University (the Hawkeyes), 87-75. The Gamecocks have not lost since the Hawkeyes beat them in last year’s final four and went 38-0 for the season. The South Carolina women won their games by nearly 30 points per game and became the 10th team to run the table since the introduction of the women’s NCAA Tournament in 1982, the last perfect season being in 2016 by the University of Connecticut.

In the National Football League (NFL), the 1972/73 Miami Dolphins became the first — and only — team to record a perfect season, when the regular season consisted of only 14 games. They finished the season 17-0 (including postseason games) and defeated the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII.

In 1934, the Bears played a 13-0-0 regular season and became the first NFL team to complete an undefeated regular season without tied games but lost the 1934 NFL Championship Game against the New York Giants. The 1942 Bears finished 11-0-0 but again lost the NFL Championship Game, this time against the Washington Redskins.

The 2007/08 New England Patriots became the first and only team under the 16-game schedule (used from 1978 to 2020) to finish the regular season undefeated. The Patriots won their divisional and conference play-off games, but the New York Giants pulled off a dramatic upset in Super Bowl XLII, spoiling the opportunity for a perfect season.

In North America’s three other major professional sports leagues — Major League Baseball (MLB), the NBA, and the National Hockey League (NHL) — it is practically impossible for a team to finish with a perfect season, due to the fact there are a large number of regular season games — 82 in the NBA and NHL, and 162 in MLB. The Women’s NBA season has been between 28 and 40 games long, and it has never produced a perfect season.

Basketball leagues outside the NBA tend to be much shorter, thus making a perfect season more achievable. The 2015/16 Golden State Warriors (73-9) have the best ever regular-season record in the NBA, breaking the 1995/96 Chicago Bulls record (72–10); however, the Warriors would end up infamously losing the 2016 NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Many teams have achieved an unbeaten domestic season with zero losses, but with several draws. Most famously, in the 2003/04 season, football club Arsenal regained the English Premier League without blemish in the loss column. Over the 38 games played, their league record stood at 26 wins, 12 draws and no defeats, which earned them the moniker, “The Invincibles”.

In women’s football, Italian club Juventus become the first to win the Serie A with a perfect record (22-0-0) in the 2020/21 season, unprecedented in Italian men’s or women’s football history, and the following season, FC Barcelona did the same in Spain’s Women’s Primera Division with 30 wins from 30 games.

There will likely never be a perfect season in the NBA, but some mouthwatering games are on tap this weekend and the play-in tournament promises fireworks next week. Sit down, strap in, and brace for impact.

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NBA 2023/24 Champion

Team Odds

Boston Celtics 2.80

Denver Nuggets 4.10

Los Angeles Clippers 8.60

Milwaukee Bucks 11.00

Oklahoma City Thunder 16.00

Phoenix Suns 21.00

Dallas Mavericks 24.00

Minnesota Timberwolves 26.00

Philadelphia 76ers 27.00

Miami Heat 35.00

*Only Top 10 odds shown (see website for full list)

Note: Odds are subject to change