By Donovan Gibbs, Sports Editor
The race for the Larry O’Brien trophy is off to an exciting start as the NBA Playoffs have gotten underway for the 2024-25 season. The first round of the playoffs officially wrapped up Sunday night, and the basketball world took notice of the physicality, budding rivalries and endless controversies.
The top seeds of both conferences started the postseason on a dominant note as the Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers won their first-round series in sweeping fashion.
The first-seeded Thunder took on the 8th-seeded Memphis Grizzlies, winner of the final play-in game in the West. Oklahoma City showed why they had the best record in the league this season, as in Game 1, the Thunder dismantled the Grizzlies 131-80 at the Paycom Center. The 51-point differential is the largest margin of victory in an opening game in playoff history. Thunder superstar guard and MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander played lights out throughout the series, averaging 27 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists throughout the four-game stretch, as Oklahoma City swept Memphis in 4 games.
The Cleveland Cavaliers outpaced the Miami Heat in their first-round series, winning each game by an average of 30 points and closing out the series with a 55-point victory lap. Donovan Mitchell stole the show offensively, leading the Cavs in scoring with 23.8 ppg on 47% from the field and 45% from three-point range.
The Boston Celtics showcased their championship pedigree as they went up against the 7th-seeded Orlando Magic. Boston breezed by the Magic in five games, including a game without star Jayson Tatum.
In Game 2, Tatum was inactive due to a wrist injury, and last year’s Finals MVP, Jaylen Brown, supplied the Celtics with 36 points, 10 rebounds in a 109-100 victory to head on the road with a commanding 2-0 series lead.
The young stars on the Magic didn’t hesitate to overcome the series deficit as Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero combined for 61 points in Game 3 to defeat the Celtics 95-93.
Ultimately, it would be Jayson Tatum closing out the series, putting up back-to-back incredible performances to close out the series and get Boston one step closer to a potential repeat as champions.
Another edition of the budding rivalry in the Midwest started up in the first round as the 4th seed Indiana Pacers went up against the 5th seed Milwaukee Bucks. A rematch of last year’s first round matchup ended in the same result as the Pacers eliminated the Bucks in 5 games.
This time around, it would be Bucks’ Damian Lillard who would be getting bitten by the injury bug, making a miraculous return from a Deep Vein Thrombosis injury that sidelined Lillard for the last two months of the regular season in Game 2. The Bucks guard was challenged once again as he tore his left achilles tendon in Game 3.
The stars were out in this first-round duel. Tyrese Haliburton averaged 17 points and 11 assists, Pascal Siakam also contributed with 19 points per game in this series for the Pacers.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was monstrous on both ends of the court for Milwaukee, averaging 33 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists, one block and one steal on 60% shooting from the field.
The Bucks would go out swinging in Game 5, as in the fourth quarter, Milwaukee went on a 9-0 run, turning a 5-point deficit into a 4-point lead. Tyrese Haliburton responded with a layup and free throws, followed by a dunk with ten seconds left to tie the game at 103-103.
Game 5 headed into overtime, and in the extra period, fans would see a back-and-forth affair between Haliburton and Bucks’ guard Gary Trent Jr, who finished the game with 33 points and 8 made three-pointers.
Tyrese Haliburton’s layup gave the Pacers a 119-118 lead, and with a chance to respond on the following possession, Gary Trent Jr. couldn’t handle the inbound pass. The costly turnover clinched the Pacers a spot in the second round for a matchup against the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Minnesota Timberwolves stunned the 3rd seed in the West Los Angeles Lakers, in 5 games. The Lakers, who were heavy favorites to win this series, had no answer for Timberwolves superstar Anthony Edwards.
Edwards left Crypto.com Arena in silence after his 22-point, 8-rebound, 9-assist outing. Jaden McDaniel’s 25 points and Naz Reid’s 23 points were also huge contributors to the victory in the opening game of the series.
Questions began to arise for the Lakers defensively as the size disadvantage between LA and Minnesota was starting to look like a major weakness for the Lakers.
Sophomore artificial intelligence major Taveon Wheeler viewed the lack of size and depth on the Lakers as their biggest flaw in this series loss.
“I knew going into the playoffs that the Lakers didn’t have a big man that could replace the impact lost in the Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic trade, but Jaxson Hayes didn’t do anything out there to help Luka or LeBron. The lack of support led to both of them having no energy in the 4th, and that was the Lakers’ downfall,” Wheeler said.
The newly formed duo of LeBron James and long-time Mavericks guard Luka Doncic was bombarded with a heavy amount of minutes during this series. This included game 4, where both star players played the entire second half.
The decision made by Lakers coach J.J. Reddick proved to be costly as the superstar duo combined for 7 points in the fourth quarter, in which the Lakers would lose 116-113. Anthony Edwards came up clutch, putting up a playoff career-high 43 points, with 16 scored in the fourth alone.
Rudy Gobert put the final nail in the coffin for the Lakers’ season as his career-high 27 points, 24 rebounds performance helped the Timberwolves eliminate LA 103-96.
The third seed New York Knicks, came into the postseason on a wave a success as they finished off a consecutive year of winning 50 regular season games and had the opportunity to silence some of the noise as they faced off against the sixth seed Detroit Pistons.
The young and scrappy Pistons made major strides, being the second team since the 08-09 Miami Heat to secure a playoff berth the year after having the worst record in the NBA. The Pistons’ turnaround has been molded by newly hired Head Coach JB Bickerstaff and franchise point guard Cade Cunningham having a breakout season in Year 3. The Pistons’ hard-nosed defense had many experts believing a potential upset was on the rise as they won the regular season series against the Knicks three games to one.
Those predictions were looking to become reality as the Pistons had the upper hand on the Knicks in Madison Square Garden during Game 1, ballooning an 11-point lead into the 4th quarter. The playoff experience of Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns came into the spotlight as the Knicks went on a dominating 21-0 run to close out the fourth quarter to win game 1 123-112.
Detroit remained unfazed as the Pistons responded in Game 2 with a 100-94 victory. Cade Cunningham had 33 points and 12 rebounds, and Dennis Schroder made the tiebreaking 3-pointer with 55 seconds left. The Pistons snapped their NBA-record 15-game postseason losing streak with the win.
Karl Anthony Towns would respond with a huge Game 3 performance after being oddly quiet in the second half of Game 2. In the first home playoff game in Detroit since 2008, Karl Anthony Towns scored 31 points, including 11 in the first quarter. Jalen Brunson put up 30 points, closing out the game with 12 the fourth quarter to help the New York Knicks hold on for a 118-116 win.
Game 4 went down to the wire and had a very controversial call at the end as Knicks’ Josh Hart was shown to make contact with Pistons’ Tim Hardaway Jr. on a potential game-winning 3-pointer. There would be no call given on the shot, but NBA officials reviewed the play and said there was a missed foul in the 2-minute report the following day.
Graduate student and Detroit native Donovan Hardin wasn’t pleased with the results, viewing that officiating mistake as series-altering.
“When the games go down to the wire, your role as a ref is to make a call on an obvious foul. Watching the replay of that sequence was disappointing because if a foul is called, the Pistons win that game and go back to New York tied 2-2 instead of down 3-1.”
The Pistons survived a heavily physical Game 5, winning on the road again and making the series 3-2. The Knicks would have to close out the series on the road, very similar to last year’s postseason in the first round against the Sixers.
The 2025 NBA Clutch Player of the Year, Jalen Brunson, showed the world why he won that award. Brunson scores 40 points in game 6, including a game-winning three-pointer off a smooth crossover against defender Ausar Thompson. The Knicks now have a tough road ahead as they face the Boston Celtics in the second round.
The first round of the NBA Playoffs would have two do-or-die Game 7’s. The first one was in a very back-and-forth Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers series. The battle between the 4 and 5 seeds in the West entailed a bunch of stars on the court. This marked the return of Kawhi Leonard, who played his first playoff series healthy as a Clipper since the 2022 season. Leonard averaged 25 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists throughout the series.
MVP hopeful Nikola Jokic was all-around the stat sheet for the Nuggets as he averaged a triple-double in the series. The Nuggets got much-needed support from Jamal Murray, whose 43-point performance gave the Nuggets a 131-115 victory in Game 5 to take the series lead 3-2.
There was also late-game heroics from Aaron Gordon, whose game-winning dunk at the buzzer had the Nuggets squeak past the Clippers 101-99 in Game 4. Gordon came up big time in Game 7 as his 22 points led Denver to a 120-101 blowout of the shellshocked Los Angeles Clippers.
James Harden of the Clippers had a miserable Game 7, putting up seven points on 2-8 shooting from the field. Harden has now lost a Game 7 on four different teams.
It will be the battle of the MVP leaders as the Nuggets will face off against the first-seeded Thunder.
The second Game 7 came as a surprise to many as the 2nd seed in the West, the Houston Rockets, took on an old foe in the 7th seed Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors have won the last 4 meetings against the Rockets in the playoffs and went up to an astounding 3-1 lead against the young second seed. The Rockets, led by veterans Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams, came up big in Game 6. VanVleet’s 29 points and six made three-pointers orchestrated the 115-107 victory for the Rockets to keep their season alive.
Game 7 will forever go down as the Buddy Hield game, as the Warriors guard made nine 3-pointers and scored 33 points. Stephen Curry scored 14 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and the Warriors advanced to the second round with a 103-89 victory in game 7.
The Warriors now face the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round.
With the NBA title still up for grabs, there are eight teams still alive and looking to cement their names in history.
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