The 2025 NBA playoffs are set. We saw parity within the regular season. That should lend itself to some great playoff matchups in both the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference.
I will start with this thought. I have the defending champion Boston Celtics coming out of the East and the Oklahoma City Thunder coming out of the West. Later in these pages at a later date I will pick a winner. To be honest, I have not watched much NBA basketball so I do not have a good feel on who will capture a title. Here are some more thoughts.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are the top seed in the East after posting a 64-win regular season. But the Celtics landed close behind in the No. 2 spot. I read that no team has repeated since the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018, making this one of the longest droughts without a repeat champion in NBA history. So this tells me to take OKC to win it all. That is, if you are a trend bettor.
The West was dominated by the Thunder and the Houston Rockets. Houston is another young team that may not be ready to make a deep run. Houston does own the NBA’s best defense so it could emerge out of the West. And should not count out LeBron and the Lakers now that they have Luke Doncic.
Boston is my pick out of the East because they are the best three-point shooting team in the NBA and have the best player in the conference in Jason Tatum. And everyone knows that three-point shooting is what the NBA is all about. If Tatum and the rest of the Celtics stay healthy, a second straight title easily could be theirs.
My sleeper pick out of the East are the New York Knicks. The Knicks are really good. They’re in the midst of their best season in more than a decade. Problem is, New York has an 0-8 record this year when facing Cleveland or Boston.
It will be tough for anyone to get past OKC in the West. The Thunder improved significantly after becoming the youngest No. 1 seed in NBA history a year ago. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has emerged as the MVP favorite by leading the league in scoring.
My sleeper out of the West are the Denver Nuggets. They have the best player on the planet in Nikola Jokic and still possess basically the same roster that won the NBA title two years ago.
Stay tuned for the next few months for more. Yes, the drawn out NBA Playoffs last for two months. Enjoy, for this is the time of the year when NBA players actually play hard.
