After a year, they’re back. After a year of on and off-court drama, insane trades, baffling front office decisions, and player crashouts, we have once again reached the climax of the NBA season.
The Playoffs.
Let’s go through all of the playoff serieses that we know, and potential later-round matchups, and try to determine, once and for all, the 2025 NBA Champions.
The only place to really start is the Eastern Conference, and let’s go straight to our 1 seed-vs-8 seed matchup, the Cleveland Cavaliers vs either the Miami Heat or Atlanta Hawks. Due to my doing this post before we even know which team they’re facing, you probably know how I feel about this matchup. The Cavs are on a tear this season, with their 64-win campaign being tied for the second-best record since the 2018 Rockets, bested only by this season’s OKC Thunder, who we’ll get to later.
The Ohio team is fronted by an incredibly balanced big three, with star man Donovan Mitchell backed by Darius Garland and Evan Mobley. With a great surrounding core, they’re going to be a championship contender without a doubt. Meanwhile, we have the Hawks and Heat. The Hawks are one of the league’s leading treadmill teams and, let’s face it, won’t have much of a shot against these incredible Cavs. The Miami Heat, who are looking to get their third consecutive 8 seed, are more interesting, as 2 years ago, they were in this situation, and did beat the 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks as the 8 seed, before proceeding to then beat the Knicks and Celtics on their way to the finals in an incredibly underrated fairytale run. However, they lost their star man, Jimmy Butler, who forced his way out the most Jimmy Butler move ever, in return for just Andrew Wiggins’ big fat contract. I’d favour Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro’s Heat to beat out Atlanta, but neither are a match for the Cavaliers, who win in 5.
Next, we go to a matchup where we actually know both teams playing. I know, crazy, right? It’s an interesting one, as we see 2-seed and defending champions, the Boston Celtics, against one of the younger and more interesting teams in the league, Paolo Banchero’s Orlando Magic. The Third-year vet is backed by players such as fourth-year vets Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs, and Sophomore Anthony Black. For all watchers of European Football reading this, of which there’s hopefully a few, this team reminds me of Barcelona a few years ago, a team that was incredibly exciting to watch, but just needed top-level experience to truly succeed and go far. I expect this Magic team to look equally as exciting, but I can’t sugarcoat this series.
The Boston Celtics have had another unbelievable season, despite being unable to defend their Eastern Conference crown. The double-act of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have once again delivered, with Derrick White and Kristaps Porzingis, when healthy, being all-star level starters for this team. This series will be interesting, the absence of Jalen Suggs will also hinder Orlando greatly, and we’ll see the Celtics win, in 5 games.
We now go to our Eastern Conference 3v6 matchup, the New York Knicks against the Detroit Pistons. While every logical part of my body says the Knicks should have this win easily, maybe even sweep the Pistons, who’ve leaped like a salmon out of water and punched well above their weight, but something in me says that the Pistons have a decent shot in this series. They shouldn’t. Star man Cade Cunningham hasn’t even played a playoff game in his career yet. 2-man Jalen Duren won’t be available until game 6 of the series, if they make it that far. But Playoff basketball is far from logical.
On the Knicks’ side, they have a very deep team, featuring Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, and a great bench core. The Knicks really can surprise some teams and go far, but I think that they’ll be given a run for their money by the Pistons. I think that the Pistons have just suffered for too long, and this is the year that they’ll give their fans that hope for the future. Whether they should have hope or not, I won’t say, but I think that after some incredibly hard fought games, the Knicks take it in 7.
We close out the Eastern Conference’s first round by going to our 4v5 matchup, the Indiana Pacers against the Milwaukee Bucks. With the age of some of these Eastern Conference teams, the Bucks have started to look old. Believe it or not, Giannis is turning 31 this year, and Damian Lillard will turn 35. This may be one of the last seasons that the Bucks could be in contention for the title, and they’ve just got a massive boost, as Damian Lillard has come back from blood clots at a record pace.
Meanwhile, the Pacers aren’t spring chickens anymore, either. They’re certainly not the Magic. While star man Tyrese Haliburton is still just 25, Pascal Siakam is 31 now, Myles Turner 29, and they just seem to be lacking that individual quality to get by the Bucks. While it’ll be another hard fought series, the Bucks are going to win in 6 games.
Let’s switch tone now, and transfer over to the Western Conference. We start with the 1-seed OKC Thunder against either the Memphis Grizzlies or Dallas Mavericks. I have more faith in these two teams than in the Hawks or Heat, but not too much more. The Grizzlies are still looking for revenge for the failed 2-seed year in 2023, and still have a very solid team with Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., but just don’t have the playoff killer instinct. Meanwhile, the Dallas Mavericks are desperately looking to validate their decision, which regardless of how this season turns out, may be the most remembered moment for the whole league this season, to trade Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis and peanuts. However, I’ll go for the Grizzlies to beat the Mavs, because of Kyrie Irving’s torn ACL, and for the fact that the Mavs deserve no playoff basketball for that smoothbrained decision.
Meanwhile, The Thunder are here, as one of the league’s best teams in a long time, on paper. With a staggering SIXTY EIGHT (68) wins, they come into these playoffs with the best regular-season record since *that* 2016 Warriors team who got 73 wins, and before them, nobody’s had a better season since the 1997 Chicago Bulls, yes, the MJ Bulls. This team certainly has some elite company with the joint-sixth best record in NBA history, but they need to prove their placement with playoff success. They’re led, of course, by a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander having an MVP year, but with an incredible, and young, surrounding core. SGA is just 26, but is an elder statesman among third year vet Jalen Williams, sophomore Chet Holmgren, 25-year old Lu Dort, and an average age of just 24 years old across the entire roster. Let’s face it – the Thunder are going to beat whoever they face in the first round. Their overconfidence may cost them a couple of games, but they’ll win it without ever really looking like losing it. Thunder in 6.
However, this is where it gets interesting. If I told you that a two-seed would face a seven-seed, that one team would have Steph and Jimmy Butler and another would have Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun, you’d think the team with Steph and Jimmy would be the two seed, but it isn’t. Out of nowhere, the Houston Rockets have propelled themselves to the 2-seed, and will face the 7-seed Golden State Warriors, running off fumes from their long-gone dynasty era. After years of seemingly-iffy draft selections, the Houston Rockets have finally seen their selections become worth it, with selections such as Amen Thompson, Jalen Green, and Alperen Sengun coming into their own.
However, I have a prediction that will surprise many of you. While the Rockets come into this series as massive favourites, I feel that they’re simply just too inexperienced as of yet. While I’ve been saying this a lot so far, I believe experience will be a major factor in these playoffs. It’ll be an incredibly hard-fought series, and I believe that the Warriors have one more run in them. Warriors in 6.
We now come to one of the most interesting matchups of the entire first round. The Los Angeles Lakers, spurred on by the unexpected arrival of Luka Doncic to pair with Lebron James, facing off against the Minnesota Timberwolves, who are still a very good team, even without Karl-Anthony Towns. It was a very baffling trade, and if they hadn’t made it, I would have picked them pretty comfortably over the Lakers. However, with Julius Randle in the place of Towns, it’s going to be a very close series. The Timberwolves will want revenge over Luka Doncic for last year’s conference finals, while the Lakers will be looking to capitalize on the limited time that Lebron and Luka have together as a now 40-year old Lebron likely won’t have many more years at the top level, and with Luka’s contract expiring in 2026, he may choose to go elsewhere.
In the end, I think that this will be our second 7-game series. Minnesota still have Anthony Edwards, and a star-studded defensive lineup that will push the Lakers all the way to the end. Maybe game 7 will even go into overtime. However, I believe that the Lakers will still be able to get by the Timberwolves, but just. Lakers in 7.
For our last game of the first round, we have the Denver Nuggets, now without head coach Mike Malone, against the Los Angeles Clippers. A couple years ago, this could have been a 1v8 matchup, but now, it’s incredibly close. Neither team is very young, but there’s quite a lot going on in both sets of locker rooms. For the Nuggets, the shock firing of head coach Mike Malone this close to the postseason has certainly put a spin on the postseason. I also feel that the help around Nikola Jokic isn’t where it should be anymore, as many Nuggets stars such as Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr haven’t stood out since the championship run in 2023.
On the other side of the equation, the Clippers are on a great run. They’re fully healthy, and around an older star pairing of Kawhi Leonard and James Harden who are still proving themselves capable of performing at a high level, are Ivica Zubac and Normal Powell, performing at career-best levels, and even matching the contribution of the stars. The Clippers finally seem like they have a project. I predict a shock Clippers win in 5 games, destroying a Nuggets side that’s just all over the place.
While for most people, this is the end of their predictions article, for me it’s just the end of the first part. In a few days, I’ll put out a part two, finishing my predictions, starting from my second round matchups – Cavs/Bucks, Celtics/Knicks, Thunder/Clippers, Lakers/Warriors – and saying who I think will be the NBA Champions. Until next time.