NBA playoffs 2023 - The stars, stats and storylines that matter most this postseason

The NBA postseason is here, with 20 teams still fighting for the 2022-23 title.

And after a campaign of blockbuster trades, record scoring numbers, the end of a historic playoff drought and a wild race to the finish to decide play-in tournament seeding, who is going to win this thing?

The No. 1-seeded Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets sure hope home-court advantage throughout the postseason helps. (Having MVP-caliber big men doesn't hurt, either.)

The defending champion Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics, the teams that battled in last season's NBA Finals, took drastically different roads back to the postseason. Golden State, thanks to some bizarre home-road splits, snuck into the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference. Boston cruised to the second-best record in the NBA behind All-Star wings Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown; the Philadelphia 76ers, who boast the MVP favorite in Joel Embiid, weren't far behind in the Eastern Conference.

Meanwhile, no squads transformed their postseason outlooks better than the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Lakers. Phoenix sits at No. 4 in the West, but it became a popular Finals pick after acquiring superstar Kevin Durant at the trade deadline. The Lakers remade their roster at the deadline and finished with the NBA's second-best record after the All-Star break.

WednesdayBulls at Raptors, 7 p.m.Thunder at Pelicans, 9:30 p.m.

FridayWest play-in game, time TBD

*All times Eastern

More: Playoff schedule, news, more

And then there are the dark horses, such as the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Sacramento Kings — who made their last trip to the playoffs before the iPhone was invented.

It's sure to be a thrilling ride to the Finals. Here's everything you need to know to get started,