The pieces are in place for this to be a very compelling NBA postseason, with a mix of a new guard as the top seeds in both the East and West while a repeat threat is more than real in Boston and the duo of LeBron James and Luka Doncic try to go on a deep run to a title.
The conferences? They really could not be further apart in terms of parity on paper. The West has a chance to be wild with MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder trying to show they are in fact made for the moment of a title run, Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green charging Ime Udoka's Rockets into a new chapter of postseason basketball, LeBron getting on a pursuit for a fifth ring at the age of 40 with Doncic trying to return to the Finals, a fascinating series between the Nuggets and Clippers, Anthony Edwards looking to recreate magic in Minnesota while Steph Curry seeks to keep the Warriors alive.
In the East, so much feels like the top-seeded Cavaliers and reigning champion Celtics are on a collision course, with the 3rd-seeded Knicks going a combined 0-8 against Cleveland and Boston. While the Pacers are coming off a run to the Eastern Conference Finals and could test the Cavs and the Bucks have Giannis Antetokounmpo to lead the way, neither feels like a team that can be taken seriously to come out of the East. My take: until someone takes the throne from a fully healthy Boston, it's theirs to lose.
With that, let's get you set for the NBA Playoffs with the six storylines that I am paying close attention to as we hit postseason basketball!
Can LeBron and Luka produce a title run?
The Lakers won 18 of 28 to close the regular season after acquiring the 6-foot-6 superstar from the Mavericks, who has averaged 28.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 7.5 assists per game for the purple and gold. The move, which was as wild of a trade that we have seen in NBA history when LA sent Anthony Davis to Dallas as part of the 3-team deal with the Jazz, has led the Lakers to raise their play in a variety of ways.
For starters, having Doncic and James together, with LeBron posting 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game in his 22nd season, has made LA's offense become quicker in tempo and seen members of the supporting cast get more opportunities to score. Austin Reaves is a prime example of that, increasing his scoring average to 20.2 points per game along with 4.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists per contest.
In JJ Redick's first season, the Lakers have actually become a better defensive team as well from a statistical standpoint since acquiring Doncic, rising to the top 10 in points allowed per game. With a two-way X-factor in Rui Hachimura, who's shooting over 41% from 3-point territory, not to mention a key defensive piece in Dorian Finney-Smith as the sixth man, the Lakers have enough to go on a run provided they can find a defensive answer for Anthony Edwards and the sizzling Timberwolves, who enter the playoffs having won eight of their last 10 games. But I like Los Angeles to win its first round series and have a good shot in the second round against a Rockets team that can be offensively challenged at times.
The door is open and there's a reasonable pathway for the Lakers to get to the NBA Finals. It may seem crazy, but with a superstar duo like Luka and LeBron, why not?!
Can anybody stop the Boston Celtics?
After going 16-3 in the playoffs last year en route to the franchise's first title since 2008, Boston enters the 2025 postseason having won 27 of its last 34 games and 16 of 18. They shattered the NBA single-season 3-pointers record previously set by the 2022-23 Warriors at 1,363, delivering 1,457 triples on the campaign. They've been mostly healthy on the road to the 2-seed, with Kristaps Porzingis missing the most time of anybody due to recovery from a foot injury along with Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown missing some time, but everybody should be good to go for the postseason.
The Celtics are second in offensive efficiency and fifth in defensive efficiency. They have one of the best duos in the league and one that now has championship experience in Jayson Tatum and Brown, the veteran presence of Al Horford and a pair of guys who embrace their respective roles in the best way possible with Holiday and Derrick White. If Boston does have to go through Cleveland in the conference finals, they've got this going for them:
In four regular season meetings with the Cavs, Tatum averaged 33.5 points, 10 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.5 blocks, and 1.3 steals on 45% from the floor and 41% from 3-point range. If they stay fully healthy, Joe Mazzulla's team has had the mindset of making history and delivering Boston its first back-to-back titles since Bill Russell's Celtics accomplished the feat in 1968 and 1969. They look more than primed for another run.
Is this it for the legendary Golden State Warriors? Could Curry and Butler find playoff magic?
Losing three of their final five games in the regular season and looking rather predictable offensively in a home loss to the Clippers on Sunday to get knocked into the play-in tournament, it felt like a sign that the Golden State Warriors' era of greatness is over. Let's face it: Curry is 37. Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green are 35. The best days of this dynasty run are well in the rearview mirror, especially when considering the fact Golden State is just fighting to get into the playoffs.
That said, winning 12 of 13 games from Feb. 13 to March 15 made it look like Golden State could be a legitimate dark horse in the postseason and with the way Curry can turn it on, delivering some insane moments in the midst of a classic with the Clippers on Sunday, it's not out of the question that Golden State could still be a threat and certainly wouldn't make the Rockets comfortable in a first round series. This Warriors team does not have great depth and they got exposed defensively in a big way against Los Angeles on Sunday, giving up a combined 72 points to Kawhi Leonard and James Harden.
But if Playoff Jimmy can show up and help will this team with Curry, who's to say something special couldn't happen? Golden State is still such an intriguing storyline because of what the franchise has accomplished over the last decade.
Will the Knicks find an answer for Cade Cunningham? Just how much pressure is on Tom Thibodeau?
Let's face it: New York had much higher expectations than what this season has brought, with the Knicks really not appearing to have much of any avenue to an Eastern Conference crown because they look quite outmatched by Boston in a potential 2-3 series. But before they even get to that point, the 6th-seeded upstart Detroit Pistons await.
With 44 wins under first-year head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, a 30-win turnaround from last season that marks the sixth-highest turnaround in NBA history, Detroit enters the playoffs having not won a playoff series since 2008. The franchise has only made the postseason twice since 2009, so the atmosphere in Detroit will be wild after the first two games of the series at Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, the Knicks have lost three of their last four games and lost their final three meetings of the regular season to the Pistons.
If Jalen Brunson and New York are going to avoid disappointment, it comes down to Thibodeau and his staff finding a better formula to defend Most Improved Award frontrunner Cade Cunningam. The fourth-year pro has averaged 30.8 points, 8.3 assists and 5.0 rebounds in the four meetings with New York this year, shooting 56% from the floor while going 13-for-25 from 3-point territory. It's going to be on OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges to take on the assignment and find a way to slow down the 23-year-old. But the bigger picture for the Knicks is the fact that they traded for Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges to build on where the organization has been heading and the fact is, this team has been disjointed especially against the heavyweights this season.
We know that the playoffs are a different animal, but if the Knicks were to ever lose this series against Detroit, changes are likely to be made in the organization. The pressure is on New York.
The Nuggets/Clippers series has several fascinating storylines.
It's still wild to fathom that Denver Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke fired Michael Malone and Calvin Booth with just three games left in the regular season, which begs the question of what we can expect from this team in the playoffs after such a hectic change. On the other side of their first round matchup, they're getting a 5-seed that is one of the hottest teams in the league. The Los Angeles Clippers are my dark horse of the postseason, having won 18 of their last 21 games with a fully healthy Leonard and Harden. Throw in a steady veteran in Norman Powell, who's averaging over 20 points per game, along with stalwart defenders Kris Dunn and Derrick Jones Jr., and Ty Lue's team is really difficult to face because they can string stops together with their length and athleticism.
Get this: the Clippers have the league's fourth-best defense in efficiency and over their 21-game surge to enter the postseason, they had the best offense in the league with 122.2 points scored per 100 possessions. But, you can't discount a team on the other side that, even though they've been through a lot of drama, has a 3-time MVP in Nikola Jokic.
The matchup between him and Ivica Zubac should be fun to watch, but for Denver to make a run and win this series, they need the best from Jamal Murray. Dealing with a hamstring issue in recent weeks but coming back before the end of the regular season, how Murray holds up when the Clippers attack him as a defender and whether or not he can score at a high rate as Jokic's sidekick. There's also the dilemma for David Adelman of what to do with Russell Westbrook's minutes, but at the end of the day, if Murray isn't at his best level, I think it's going to be hard for this Nuggets team to take the series. Still this one could go six or seven games and could very well be the best of the first round.
Will either 1-seed break through and reach the NBA Finals?
This is a huge postseason in Cleveland and Oklahoma City. For the Cavs, hiring Kenny Atkinson was a genius move by their organizational brass and we've seen the evolution of Evan Mobley into the best defensive player in the league, Darius Garland continue to make progress, the acquisition of DeAndre Hunter help this team and certainly the stardom of Donovan Mitchell only continue. For Mitchell, this postseason offers the best window he has had to snap a drought that's seen him never reach the conference finals. If he can't get there this year, it's going to lead to more questions about him and the personnel on the Cavs even after a 64-18 campaign.
But this team has pieces that have grown, not to mention the addition of Hunter. He's a really good defensive weapon for Cleveland to put on Tatum or Brown if the Cavs see the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. Mobley's versatility is limitless as a guy who can guard a variety of positions, not to mention the fact that he's averaged 18.5 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game this season, taking his offense to the next level. The X-factor: Ty Jerome, who's become Cleveland's consistent sharpshooting option at 44% from downtown while averaging over 12 points per game.
The big question: Can Garland exorcise past playoff demons, avoid getting exposed defensively and join Mitchell in crunch time situations? This is a big postseason for the 25-year-old to deliver for a franchise that has bet on him.
Conversely, Sam Presti has built something really special with the Thunder, who are led by my pick for MVP, Gilgeous-Alexander.
A year after the No. 1 seed was shocked by the Mavericks and eliminated in the West Semis, head coach Mark Daigneault and this team have refocused and made history, becoming the seventh team in NBA history to win 68 games with a 16-game cushion between them and the second-best team in the West, the Rockets. While SGA has been the best player in the league on the top team, this team's depth is real and acquiring Isaiah Hartenstein to complement what Chet Holmgren does has made for the two of them becoming a really difficult duo to face. Hartenstein's physicality allows Holmgren to play more of a natural position for him and to free up to the perimeter.
With the second-best scoring defense in the league, allowing just 107 points per game, along with a Swiss Army Knife in Jalen Williams' development, there's a lot to like about this team. But can all of this success translate to the playoffs? Is Gilgeous-Alexander made for a run to a title? The pressure is on this organization to avenge last year's playoffs disappointment, but this roster is stocked with depth, defense and superstar power to be the last one standing.
My Finals prediction: Celtics over Lakers in 6 Games
Boston shows why they are the gold standard of the league once again, with Tatum and Brown outlasting LeBron and Luka while the hot shooting of Payton Pritchard proves to be too much and the Celtics repeat for the title for the first time since the 1960s.
John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him at @John_Fanta.
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