NBA playoffs 2025: key stories and questions for what is coming

After the regular NBA season, we put under the magnifying glass the most interesting themes to follow closely in postseason.

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And one day, the regular NBA season. We are just days after the beginning of the Playoffsthe instance that separates the men from the legends. And with small adjustments to define, we will present the argumentary lines to follow in postseason.

What do we have to do? What can we not miss? Here, the best moment of the year.

Pass and see.

The validity of LeBron and Luka’s magic

Doncic’s transfer to Lakers It is one of the most shocking and surprising of all time. Now, in the first round they will cross with the Minnesota Timberwolves, which reminds us of the lapidary crossing Luka Magic in the three -point line against Rudy Gobert (Now you see me, now you don’t see me) in the clash of the last postseason between Dallas and Minnesota. We are not sure what to think about the team of JJ Redick, of great season in the substitute bank. Are they the fearsome team that defends and suffocate or the one that reaches the closing of the games exhausted? Without Anthony Davis In painting, Jaxson Hayes, Until today an average intern, and Dorian Finney-Smith, timely reinforcement before the exchanges deadline, charge a transcendental value, especially without the ball in their hands. We could keep talking about Doncic, the mega crack that makes everyone play, we could also add the conversation to Austin Reaves of great present, but the truth is that we have to stop in LeBron James. What he has done with 40 years contradicts all the forecasts and manuals of logic. With him they are one thing, without him another very different. We will see how far the physicist gives him, but his health and conditioning is the Great topic to follow in Hollywood.

Do cavaliers collapse in the east?

This is, without a doubt, another plot to follow. Kenny Atkinson’s team It was the revolution of the season. He went from being a good team to be the best in the east. With weapons, basketball and justice. Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen They were the poker of notables, but the valuable thing was the structure around. A team with all the lyrics. Now, in the last regular season, doubts began: they won six of the last ten games. That said, a data from Sig Illusiona: they won 26 games in the Clutch this season, drawing the maximum of a team (Rockets, 26). With the best attack of the entire NBA (121.9 points per appearance), this means that it is a team that, in situations of tension, responds. Third time they reached the 60 triumphs as a franchise in a season, the Cavaliers will seek to confirm all the good done in the 82 regular serial matches.

The Thunder arrives like a flatterer, but in playoffs he still did nothing

This is the maxim that defines skeptics. But of course, it seems more an illusion than a concrete reality, because Oklahoma City won 68 games in the season and 54 were by double digit, the maximum in the history of the NBA. Everything would seem to indicate that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander It will be the MVP of the season, but here the expectation of curse begins: will it be another winner of the prize that can escape his channel chances? It remains to be seen. The Thunder played much of the season without Chet Holmgren And still imposed on his rivals with suffocating defense and rhythm, two group characteristics that fit the young blood that composes his squad (25.3 years of average). In fact, they have the best defensive efficiency of the entire league, allowing only 104.7 points every hundred possessions. With several rising players (Jalen Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein, etc), the Thunder won 17 of its last 20 games. Crazy. The only worrying thing is that three of those defeats arrived against potential players from playoffs in the west: Nuggets, Rockets and Lakers. That said, they seem to be the best, but they must prove it.

Be careful with the Warriors: they have experience and can go from less to more

The last game of regular series against clippers It was a dagger to hope, but be careful: they are not out of play, much less. The subject is as follows: a Stephen Curry, Best shooter in the story and Top Ten player of all time, Jimmy Butler is added than in playoffs always light the knob to make a difference. The Warriors lack a weight inmate and forces a veteran Draymond Green to constant overexed, because Kevon Looney At times it is insufficient and Jonatan Kumina is one day and no. In spite of everything, nobody wants to face Golden State in a postseason instance. Seventh? Eighth? It remains to be seen. Of course: Rockets and Thunder default La Margarita waiting for a favorable future. And that promising future, both believe, is not with the Warriors in front. The danger stalks and is steps from Golden Gate.

Anthony Edwards and Ja Morant are spectacular, but … can they do more than that?

A while ago we published The spectacular ranking at AM850.com. In that select list, Morant was first and second Edwards. It could have been the other way around and it would have been just the same. Today, Ja has gone viral on social networks for his greetings to the wind with imaginary weapons, but at the game level, he only participated in 50 games this season with the Grizzlies and the team, already without Taylor Jenkins in the substitute bank, navigates in constant irregularity. The case of Edwards is overcoming regarding Morant: he finished the course with the greatest number of triples scored in the season (320) and put the Timberwolves, already without Karl Anthony-Towns in the ranks, in the seventh position. Aim? Brink the Lakers to return to the first planes. Antman is an extraordinary player, but he has to devote himself to playing without speaking. He still doesn’t understand, but he doesn’t add anything. In that, both Morant and Edwards, both superatletas, must mature. The next step in their careers will occur with facts, not with words.

The Celtics, the best team that few speak

There is a common place in the NBA: Boston will compete until the end. Nothing ensures anything, but it is the generalized thinking in the corridors of the League. Because the reigning champions retained the core of the champion team (Derrick White, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford) and With experience they have everything at hand to repeat. Payton Pritchard lYou will Joe Mazzullafar from shrinking the rotation, he extended it. Well thought out. It worries, in the universe of details that are the playoffs, the injury that brown and the physical inconsistency of Porzingis. Even so, and despite several misfortunes, Boston prepared for this moment and is the great favorite in the east.

Nuggets have the best player in the world, but sail in their own internal crisis

Of the internal war between Michael Malone and Calvin Booth, there were no winners. On the contrary, they both lost, because they were removed from their position. Nuggets have a Nikola Jokic Wonderful, three times MVP and in the top 3 of four different categories (points, rebounds, assists and robberies). A true madness. Denver’s sin is that the rotation is short (Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, Jokic and Russell Westbrook from the bank, With something from Peyton WatsonBy Andre Jordan and company) and that Murray is not the star we once met. Booth wanted to include more young rotation, Malone not losing talents of the champion team like Bruce Brown Jr. and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, And that resulted in an implosion within the franchise. Result, fourths ended in the West, but with a hell wardrobe. Denver attacks well (fourth best offensive efficiency) and defends poorly (twenty -second defensive efficiency). To win, you have to join the pieces, join them and go with a common goal. It sounds difficult, but with Jokic, nothing is impossible.

Bucks and Clippers arrive with the best NBA streak to the first round

No one is seeing these two teams, but completed a regular dream season, with eight consecutive victories. One in the east, the other in the west. On the Milwaukee side, without Damian Lillard outside of thrombosis in his right calf, Giannis Antetokounmpo It is destroying everything with chilling numbers. He is not doing it alone: Brook Lopez, Kyle Kuzma, Kevin Porter Jr., Bobby Portis. One for everyone for one. Bucks await for the recovery of their star base, but they have supplied it with attitude and character: they will play against the Indiana Pacers without field advantage, but I would not be surprised to see them at least in a second postseason round. The clippers, on the other hand, are dangerous: the key is in the recovery of Kawhi Leonard. He played only 33 games in the current course, but in the last ten games he averaged 26.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists. If we add its defensive value, the contribution of an inspired James Harden and the best season of the last years of Norman Powell, We are facing a fearsome team. Ah, I forgot: Ivica Zubac. How many NBA contenders have such a determining pivot? The series against Nuggets is emerging to be the best of the first round.