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Milwaukee is just 2.5 games behind the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Central, yet Cleveland is an extremely strong favorite to win the division at -500 — as if one small skid can’t flip these standings.

Listen, I get it, the Cavs have been playing great basketball, and the Bucks have not. But I have a hard time believing one of the title favorites entering the season won’t hit a switch at some point. I’ll take Milwaukee at these odds.

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Dallas’ odds to win the division aren’t extremely long, but they still trail the New Orleans Pelicans’ -200 odds. The thing is, only one of these teams was active at the trade deadline, and that was the Mavericks.

Both teams were playing well going into the break, but the Mavericks were a tick better, tying the league’s longest active winning streak of six games. Not to mention they have the best player between these two teams in Luka Doncic — arguably the two best players, including Kyrie Irving. At just a game behind the Pelicans, and with the momentum Dallas has, these odds could flip soon. I would jump on them now.

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Right now, it’s basically the Boston Celtics versus the field in the East, with Boston holding +120 odds to win the conference. So, this is less about favoring Miami over Boston, and more about giving the field a chance and liking the defending East champions at these extremely long odds.

As long as the Heat have Erik Spoelstra, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, it’s hard to completely rule them out. And they may even have a mental edge over Boston, New York and Milwaukee after eliminating them all from last year’s postseason.

AP Photo/Darren Abate

I may be in the minority here, but I feel like if the Western Conference standings at the end of the year remain as they are now, with the Minnesota Timberwolves first and the Oklahoma City Thunder second, Finch should win COY over the Thunder’s Mark Daigneault.

Daigneault is currently a slight favorite at +195, and I totally get it. OKC has been amazing, going from a non-playoff team last season to a likely top-four seed this year. But let’s not forget the Timberwolves only finished one seed higher than OKC last year. Their leap has been just as pronounced. And though Finch can’t get credit for elevating a young team in the way Daigneault has, he should get credit for making the Rudy Gobert trade look more reasonable.

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If the Timberwolves don’t hold on to win the Western Conference, I think the Clippers are the biggest threat to uproot them, and the odds reflect that. Minnesota is the No. 1 seed favorite at +160, but the Clippers have the next best odds.

I’ll gladly take my chances with the team full of future Hall of Famers. They only have two games to make up in the standings, and they have two games remaining against Minnesota this season.

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The correct answer to this yes (-700) or no (+500) bet might come down to whether Joel Embiid can return and be effective down the stretch of the season, which none of us can know right now. But as things stand now, the Sixers are 3-9 in their last 12 games and down to No. 5 in the East, with the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat breathing down their neck.

If they don’t turn things around, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them fall into the play-in tournament field, at which point they better hope Embiid returns.