NBA 2024-25: May Madness

In my last piece here on TRB Sports, I said that all signs pointed toward a historically great Conference Semis and remainder of the 2025 NBA Playoffs as a whole given the matchups and the fireworks that we'd already seen in the first round. And what do we have so far in Round 2?

Absolute cinema.

For the first time in NBA history, home-court advantage has been swiped and stolen in all 4 second-round series.

For the first time in NBA history, road teams have started out 5-0 in the Conference Semis.

If nothing else, this speaks to the insane parity that exists in the NBA today as we continue to get further and further removed from the "superteam" era. Upset central!

You actually have to go all the way back to Saturday to find the last victory by a home team in these playoffs: Denver's Game 7 win to close their first-round series vs the Clippers.

If you include Golden State's Game 7 win @ Houston on Sunday, road teams are currently on a 6-game winning streak this postseason.

Warriors/Wolves | ... But At What Cost?

In that streak, the Warriors have both the first and most recent win, following GSW's Game 1 win in Minnesota, 99-88. Golden State looked like their usual dominant defensive selves; they've been incredible on that end since acquiring Jimmy Butler III, ranking #1 league-wide in defensive efficiency since making the deal for him on February 6th. They held Houston to 89 points on Sunday night; they held the Wolves to 88 last night.

But the Warriors' win was as bittersweet as it gets, as Steph Curry left the game in the 2nd quarter and was quickly ruled out for the remainder of the night due to a left hamstring strain.

With basketball fans around the globe on pins & needles awaiting the results of Curry's MRI this afternoon, here's the prognosis as reported by ESPN senior NBA insider Shams Charania:

I'm far from a doctor, but I've watched enough sports to know that there's fewer injuries I'd least want to suffer in the midst of a playoff run than a hamstring pull. They're nagging and annoying. They get better and then get worse again. They require a significant amount of rest BEFORE you're even able to get to the rehab process.

Curry has already been ruled out for Game 2, and while it's the best-case scenario that it's only a Grade 1 sprain, I wouldn't be expecting to see him in Thursday's Game 3 either. I won't speculate past that, but it's a frustrating setback for a Warriors team that's looking more & more primed to make another run to the Finals with each passing game.

What's also frustrating is that if you're as big a fan of Steph's patented "Curry Flurries" as I am, it looked like we were headed towards another one of those special nights from No. 30.

In just 12 minutes of action before departing, Curry had already put up 13 points with 3 three-pointers made. His final three of that stretch: a beautiful step-back rainbow of a shot on the left wing from about 27 feet out was both a thing of beauty and vintage Steph.

The Warriors held a 10-point lead when Curry went out. Golden State remarkably pushed that lead up to 23 in the immediate moments following the injury, behind timely threes from Draymond Green (he went 4-10 from three on the night) and Game 7 hero Buddy Hield, who built on his 9-three performance last game with 5 more threes last night.

Jimmy Butler was instrumental closing out the Warriors' dub down the stretch in the 4th. Jimmy struggled with his shot (7-20 FG) on the night overall, but he just has a knack for making the right play every single time in close-and-late situations.

He pulled down 11 boards and dished out 8 assists on the night, none more timely than a pass to Hield for a left wing three that made pushed GSW's lead back up to 13, stifling a furious Timberwolves' 4th quarter rally for good.

Butler and Hield, by the way, have to be the obvious choices for Hollywood's next buddy comedy movie casting.

For as much praise as we gave Anthony Edwards in the previous piece; for as much anticipation that NBA fans had for the Edwards/GSW matchup considering Edwards' past comments about Draymond and Steve Kerr's reported comments about Edwards ahead of his 1st overall selection in the 2020 Draft -- Ant-Man laid an egg in Game 1 -- no way around it.

1 point -- one singular point at halftime -- is beneath a man of Ant's talents. As the alpha dog on the team, it sent a terrible tone for his "wolfpack" ... and Wolves HC Chris Finch echoed those sentiments postgame.

It was an uneven, flat performance by the Timberwolves all the way around, in fairness to Ant. But two things can certainly be true. The group follows after the leader, and Ant did not set the best example for his teammates to follow at all early on. But also in fairness to Ant, he's only 23 years of age. You don't wanna know what I was doing at 23. I certainly wasn't expected to be a leader of a locker room full of grown men.

Nuggets/Thunder | It's Hoop, Not a Math Equation

Game 1 of this highly-touted series didn't disappoint, to say the least.

OKC controlled Monday's game throughout, even jumping out to a 14-pt lead in the 3rd quarter. Duh, that's what historically dominant 68-win teams do.

But here's what was so fascinating about this series going into it: Denver has one of the more historically dominant players in NBA history -- a three-time MVP and 1x champion who is arguably the greatest offensive talent the Association has ever seen in Nikola Jokic. He is the ultimate equalizer in a series like this and that was on full display in G1.

Ho-hum, nothing to see here! Just another obscene Jokic stat-line. The Joker put up 42 points, 22 rebounds, and 6 assists (!!), despite some ramped-up physicality defensively from OKC that might've gotten to Jokic a little bit.

Despite Jokic's greatness, I already mentioned earlier that Denver still had to make a significant uphill climb from 14 points down just before the 4th got underway and needed a literal miracle to steal Game 1.

While every NBA franchise attends the Church of Analytics these days, OKC is one of the franchises that marries themselves to advanced stats the most. It's a huge reason why they've been able to build this juggernaut of a team.

But it was their obsession with the math and subsequent departure from common sense that cost them Game 1.

After a Jokic three at the 1:07 mark made it a 115-114 OKC lead, the two teams traded misses until 0:13 left, where OKC secured a defensive rebound and had their main man, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, at the line, where he predictably made two free throws to extend the Thunder lead to 3.

Here's where late-game strategy comes in.

When their team holds a three-point lead in the final seconds, NBA coaches are left with two options:

play defense straight up and try and force a miss (but also run the risk of giving up a game-tying three) ...

or foul to force the other team to the line for a shot at TWO points, instead of allowing a three-point attempt.

OKC head coach Mark Daigneault has notoriously always been one to opt for fouling up three, as many other NBA coaches are.

OKC coach Mark Daigneault during the 4th quarter of Nuggets/Thunder Game 1. | IMAGE CREDIT: SAM HODDE / GETTY IMAGES

I don't have an issue with OKC's strategy. I'm one that prefers that my team foul up three, typically. But it depends on other factors.

Do I have a good foul-shooting team, generally?

Have my guys been making their free throws tonight?

Are my inbounds plays efficient enought at getting the ball to my best pressure FT shooters?

I have a major issue with how OKC chose to execute that strategy.

Let's revisit the Game 1 scenario. 13 seconds left, and OKC chooses to foul Jokic up 3. Jokic makes both foul shots.

Jokic is subbed out for defense, but SGA still gets loose for a dunk on a tremendous inbounds play. Lead back up to three, and Denver's out of timeouts to get the best offensive player in the game in Jokic back on the floor.

Instead of exploiting this, OKC immediately (and robotically) fouls Aaron Gordon... behind halfcourt? I can guarantee Denver wasn't going to opt for a 3/4-court heave to tie the game, but whatever. Gordon sinks both free throws as Jokic checks back in.

As OKC inbounds again, up 119-118 now, this time Denver's ball denial on SGA is excellent. The ball gets thrown in instead to Chet Holmgren, who's had a rough night overall... but he's 2-2 from the line! He's also a 75% free throw shooter -- below league-average but still a great mark for a 7-footer.

Here's the problem with playing the math game: it doesn't account for human error.

Holmgren clanks BOTH free throws, former OKC great Russell Westbrook races the ball up the court and finds Gordon above the three-point arc on the left wing. Cash.

Aaron Gordon converts his second impossible game-winner of his playoff run, and Denver, in every sense of the word, steals Game 1.

OKC's Chet Holmgren, who missed two pivotal FTs moments prior, was late on the contest of Aaron Gordon's game-winner in Game 1 of the West Semis.

A crushing loss for OKC, but they're still the favorites to make it out of this round and onto the Conference Finals. My concern is more towards Holmgren.

In my piece on last year's Mavs/Thunder second round series, I detailed Holmgren's struggles physically in that one. He's 7 feet tall, but he's barely over 200 pounds, skinny as a beanstalk. His light frame was a major reason why OKC targeted center Isaiah Hartenstein this summer; to guard physical bigs so Holmgren wouldn't have to. But on possessions where he was left to wrestle with Jokic, it seemed like... assault.

He's not magically going to add 25 pounds of muscle in the middle of a playoff series, so we'll have to see how OKC schemes and adjusts to guard Jokic in tonight's Game 2. Although, with the Joker, there's only so much you can really do.

East Semis: Did Somebody Say Late-Game Collapses & Silly Strategies?

You know, I get the sense that the Celtics didn't really respect the Knicks before the conclusion of Game 1.

How could I possibly come to this conclusion? Well, if it wasn't the sweep Boston pulled off vs New York in the regular season...

If it wasn't the 20-point lead the Celtics built early in the 1st half...

It was DEFINITELY Boston's 3rd quarter shot diet, in which 19 of their 20 shot attempts (!!!) were threes.

Celtics star Jayson Tatum shoots a three -- a sentence you could utter 15 times following Game 1's loss to the Knicks. He made 4 of them. | IMAGE CREDIT: CHARLES WELZENBERG / NEW YORK POST

It was a laughable display of basketball, an affront to James Naismith's great game. Even for the Celtics, who have become the new faces of the three-point revolution following after the Warriors' dynasty -- it was taken too far on Monday night.

The Celtics, who set the NBA all-time single-season record for the most three-pointers attempted and made this season, shot an NBA playoff-record SIXTY threes in Game 1. They missed 45 of those attempts, also an NBA record.

Jaylen Brown shot 1-10 from distance. Derrick White shot 16 threes and made 5 of them. Tatum missed 11 of his 15 threes attempted -- an even more flagrant statistic when you consider the Knicks' defensive scheme had mismatches like Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson switching on Tatum throughout the night. Instead of choosing to attack said mismatches, Tatum just remained in "chuck" mode.

That aforementioned third quarter of "yuck" swung the door wide open for a Knicks comeback. If you watched the Knicks' first-round series vs the Pistons AND also know that they employ legendary postseason scorer and this season's Clutch Player of the Year in Jalen Brunson, you knew that New York was going to see that open door and stampede right through it.

And that they did, going on an incredible run on BOTH ends of the court from midway through the third all the way through overtime to stun the Celtics, 108-105.

Now that the Knicks have certainly gotten the Celtics' attention, we'll see if Boston plays less like... dickheads in Game 2. For now, Mr. Naismith's still rolling over in his grave.

The best for last: Where the hell do you even start with Pacers/Cavs?

Safe to assume this image of Donovan Mitchell during Game 2 encapsulates every Cavs fans' mood right now.

Let me start here: what a finish in Cleveland last night!

The Pacers pulled off the latest improbable late-game comeback of the 2025 NBA Playoffs -- storming back from 20 points down (boy, every team's doing that these days) to stun the #1 seed Cavs 120-119 to take a stunning 2-0 lead in the series, despite 48 points poured in by Cavs star Donovan Mitchell, down 3 of his starters.

Indy actually trailed by seven -- 119-112 -- with 47 seconds to play. Then, more May Madness.

An Aaron Nesmith tip dunk. 119-114.

An offensive foul on Mitchell preceded a Pascal Siakam lay-in. 119-116.

A HORRIFIC pass by Max Strus on the inbounds. A Ty Jerome foul on a Tyrese Haliburton drive. Haliburton makes the first FT. 119-117.

Haliburton MISSES the second FT, but a Pacers offensive rebound leads to a Haliburton reset at the top of the key. And then: what else?

I don't think AI could even generate a sicker Game 2 defeat for the Cavs. With Garland remaining out with his toe injury, two more untimely injuries struck Cleveland ahead of Game 2, as Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley was ruled out with a sprained ankle as well as DeAndre Hunter with a sprained right thumb.

The Cavs still played a great brand of basketball, went up by 20, and threw that all away with a disastrous final minute.

I made a comment last piece about the Pacers' historic injury luck in the postseason. That isn't to denigrate what they've been able to pull off the last two postseasons at all.

One of the things I can't stand as it relates to NBA discourse are the incessant injury hypotheticals. "If [insert player here] was healthy, [insert team here] would've won."

Here's the two-sided truth of the matter as it relates the Pacers: In Round 1 last year, they faced a Bucks team that saw Giannis and Dame Lillard miss multiple games with injury. In Round 2, they faced a injury-riddled Knicks team that was down four prominent rotation players, and that's excluding Jalen Brunson's broken hand suffered in the second half of Game 7 of that series.

The Knicks, despite injuries, battled the Pacers to a tough 7 games in last year's East Semis. Both teams will have to pull off major upsets in the 2nd Round to meet for the second consecutive postseason.

Round 1 this year, also against the Bucks, saw Lillard miss the first two games of the series due to blood clot recovery and miss the final 1.5 games following a ruptured Achilles.

Now here in this year's Round 2, they've got a battered & bruised Cavs team in front of them.

That's one side of it. The other side? The Pacers play a breakneck brand of basketball that is so, so tough for opponents to defend. Despite getting swept by Boston in last year's Conference Finals, it can easily be argued that Indiana gave the Celtics their toughest playoff series on their way to the title.

They've also built that team perfectly around their star in Haliburton. They've got the size, the speed, and the defensive pieces that fit seamlessly around Tyrese, and they move like a well-oiled machine offensively when it's all clicking. We've seen it in two consecutive postseasons now.

And as a proud Knicks fan... I think that's enough credit to give the Pacers for one article. Excuse me while I go throw up.