2025 NBA Postseason Thread - It's The Offs Baby

My preseason pick was OKC, so I'm sticking with it. But the C's are the defending champs and the most experienced, so they should still be considered the favorite until proved otherwise.

celtics and thunder def seem better than the other teams but who knows thats why they play the games also jaylen browns knee might be fucked

offs time baby. the nba second season. the one that matters. all the marbles. where careers and made. where chumps are exposed. this is it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JKDedKQ5Zo

voted warriors due to fan duties but the celtics will win the 2025 nba playoffs.

jaylen's knee won't matter for the first two rounds

quick flight to germany and he'll be fine

it has been reported that he received an injection

take it to the juiceman thread

nagging injuries like this are usually manageable early in the playoffs when there are more off days but if this is the type of injury that needs longterm rest or a clean up procedure or something then i could see it becoming an issue when they're playing every other day

nuggets will win the NBA playoffs

jaylen situation feels like one of those ones where we get into the ECF and in game 3 or 4 he is randomly horrible then the next game he is able to lock in but then the one after he kinda looks ineffective and broken down again and you just feel like you have no idea what player you're getting until the games start. feel like we've seen this kinda rhythm happen w/ players like butler, donovan mitchell recently off the top of my head

weird year for jaylen in general, raw numbers way down.

hes been pretty bad recently not moving well but its unclear how much of that was just coasting/taking easy on the knee

one thing that worries me about this celtics team is jaylen and jrue had down years but it was somewhat covered up by other guys having good years the problem is some of those guys are pritchard and kornet who arent necessarily prime playoff contributors, on the other hand maybe zinger will actually play in this years off

really hope we get a game that will be known in the future as "The Payton Pritchard Game" at some point, feels like a reasonable ask. "The Luke Kornet Game" less so but a man can dream

there was a kelly olynyk game so anything is possible

I honestly think Kornet will be a bigger factor in the playoffs than Pritchard.

if zinger and horf are both playing there might not be many minutes for him unless they go with a lot of two big lineups, i would like to see him get a chance tho hes been so good

I love hoops, haters are nincompoops, Luka to LeBron alley-oops...Lakers in 5

xp

right, I can definitely see him getting a fair amount of playtime if Jaylen Brown and/or Al Horford's minutes are limited.

i’m sorta bought into the theory that the NBA is an unprecedented physical grind that makes repeating extremely difficult. i think it was on a recent hoop collective they were talking about how after game 7 of denver minny last year the nuggs guys were talking about how they were worn down and the t wolves just wanted it more. and then you pair that with some of the minor red flags you can find w/ boston as lagoon has outlined

speaking of unprecedented grind, i am conflicted about whether i want the knicks to flame out and fire thibs or persevere against the pistons and see the 4th playoff series win by my favorite team in 20 years.

probably the latter but the former does sound weirdly freeing

that is a tough call, maybe thibs will be fired even if they win a series

is he in the hot seat?

i’m sorta bought into the theory that the NBA is an unprecedented physical grind that makes repeating extremely difficult.

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, April 15, 2025 4:06 PM (seventeen minutes ago)

champ hasnt made it past the second round in five years or smthn

i know people think knicks-pistons should be competitive but the idea of the knicks losing is just crazy to me. that would be a catastrophic outcome after last offseason. if you had told knicks fans at the start of the season they were fully healthy and lost to the pistons in round 1 they would have burned the city down

anyway, i think we can assume that the knicks are locked into most of this core for the next 2-3 years minimum so they probably need to take their lumps against boston to see where the pain points truly are and what they can do to fix some of it. if boston does have to start trading some guys bcuz of the second apron then it’s possible this knicks team could beat them a few seasons down the line. but it probably starts with them getting their asses kicked

that would be a catastrophic outcome after last offseason.

This is why it needs to happen.

is he in the hot seat?

― lil $CHUB (Spottie), Tuesday, April 15, 2025 3:22 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

ny reporters in the know like stefan bondy have bandied about the possibility of thibs being let go if they flame out in the first or are uncompetitive in the second

i wouldn't be mad at a thibs firing, they need a coach who will tailor his system to the personnel and not stubbornly stick with his philosophy no matter what.

makes sense

not the biggest thibs fan but i think hes done pretty well with this group 5th in offense 13th in defense, not sure how much more youre going to wring out of them, the defensive effort could maybe be better they might be tired of his voice lord knows i am and i can just kinda hear it through the tv

the lack of competitiveness against the real best teams in the league is a concern. they were, what, 0-12 vs the big three? you gotta win at least one of those, man

the starting lineup now has a negative net rating, too, which is remarkable.

yeah i mean theres just flaws in the roster that good teams can exploit pretty easy

not the biggest thibs fan but i think hes done pretty well with this group 5th in offense 13th in defense, not sure how much more youre going to wring out of them, the defensive effort could maybe be better they might be tired of his voice lord knows i am and i can just kinda hear it through the tv

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 2:54 PM (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the 13th in defense thing is a bit of a mirage — there’s a big logjam from basically 12th-24th only being separated by a couple of points/100. all those teams in the middle have traded places a lot over the past month.

i was surprised it was that high

knicks have gotten better on that end since the return of mitch rob

yeah hes crucial wonder if well see the twin towers lineup

it’s the ins which means trae young is on my TV

he is the play-in god

go hawks

yeah this one’s over

cmon hawks

trae young’s hair situation above the neck continues to be a matter of national concern

no one can explain it

hawks are letting me down

Down 20 to the magic. These combined shooting percentages yuck

hawks are letting me down

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 5:14 PM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

magic are starting cory joseph man, I really wouldn’t worry

theyre just a physical team they play hard hawks are nicer you want hawks

hawks closing the gap hawks baby

agree that's usually a flagrant, maybe just a moment of playoff grace from the refs

Oh man that was bad injury

ok yeah the refs have been pretty bad in both directions

I think I like obi toppin now. Guy gets out on the break

Oh man that was bad injury

― lil $CHUB (Spottie), Saturday, May 31, 2025 10:07 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

looked like a dislocation

that stupid high ass bounce in game 1

rip knicks good run close series giving away that first game killed them

yeah

they were up 9 with 52 seconds left

energy level indys playing at this second half is extremely high good stuff

It really bings your bong

energy level indys playing at this second half is extremely high good stuff

― lag∞n, Saturday, May 31, 2025 10:28 PM (twenty-four seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's going to be interesting to see what they can do to shai if they keep playing like this

brunson is just not him sadly

pacers wore him down man knicks need more ballhandling

lol harlan "tyrese haliburton has gone mad"

last game for tnt

good bye forever reggie

this is pretty crazy, congrats to the pacers

thomas bryant and isaiah hartenstein, two guys that Michael malone refused to give minutes, will now be facing off in the NBA finals

pacers conf finals last year and finals this year as predicted by no one

running almost totally against the normal ways of building a contender

the keys to success is acquire as many 2020 draftees as possible

ive always said that

herb simon out there at age 90 barely hanging on to the trophy but otherwise killing it

All of the poser knicks fans leaving the bar making room for me byeee

siakam over hali idk about that

yeah that's a bit surprising

pacers conf finals last year and finals this year as predicted by no one

― lag∞n, Saturday, May 31, 2025 10:38 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oklahoma City Thunder 10
Boston Celtics 7
Cleveland Cavaliers 2
Chicago Bulls 1
Golden State Warriors 1
Milwaukee Bucks 1
Minnesota Timberwolves 1
Indiana Pacers 1
Los Angeles Lakers 1
LA Clippers 0
Dallas Mavericks 0
Houston Rockets 0
Sacramento Kings 0
Atlanta Hawks 0
Orlando Magic 0
Memphis Grizzlies 0
New York Knicks 0
Detroit Pistons 0
Denver Nuggets 0
Miami Heat 0

:o

i stand corrected lol

thibs just said the knicks finished in the top three

last i checked the nba didn't have a top 3 but sure

they should have a consolation game

knicks/wolves one time for all the marbles (that have not been reserved for the eventual champion)

I thought all of the 4th qs would look like that, Knicks played the series way closer than I thought they would, I think Knicks were +6 for the series until tonight. So funny that the unsolvable puzzle for the Pacers was Mitchell Robinson, thank god he wasn't ready to put in 35min/game.

big pacers fan now lets go YES'CERRRRRRS

amazing time to be a pacers die hard

ive always said the pacers will win the 2025 nba playoffs

kinda cool we have a couple pacers fans on here congrats micah and compu exciting times

lol everyone cussing on tnt

respect to that pacers team, can't be mad

Even when it was close the Knicks looked a lot more shambolic and seemed like they had to work harder for each bucket.

thibs is starting look like a bizarro mike d'antoni, always a floor raiser by trying this one weird trick (thibs : grinding starters into dust :: MDA : shoot all the time, fuck defense) but not enough flexibility to succeed in the playoffs

good season so far

the knicks are going to have a hard ceiling while playing kat and brunson. the pair of them are just so cooked on the pnr. you can't expect to win in todays playoffs that way

interesting that the last two teams to come out of the east were also the teams best equipped to play five out

its a shame the pacers get to play one of the best teams ever in these finals and not last years mavs

this will be the best coaching staff that okc have faced so far. and the pacers match up with them pretty well. though that cuts both ways of course

turner is going to be key this series
-can he pull hartenstein out of the paint
-can he defend sga without fouling - this will probably be the mismatch that sga looks to attack
-can he set screens without dort drawing fouls on them

There were at least two stretches during the series where the Knicks went off during their Brunson-less minutes, I feel like there's a layer of very capable Knicks offensive units that will never play more than five minutes together. The rotations were so tight all series that I think Pacers were caught off-guard by some of those Game 6 lineups, sucks for the Knicks they have zero chemistry. Knicks had done such an amazing job over the past 3-5 year to build a non-trash team; last year's acquisitions weren't the worst decisions but even at the time, starting your all-in clock with another flawed star and losing 5 1st Rd picks is a big gamble. W/e I'd go nuts watching Thibs coach my team, I do feel like Knicks fans are getting somewhat short-changed.

Pacers' margins are going to be really thin; if Nesmith's ankle is still balky, I don't think Pacers will have the perimeter defense to keep up. Extremely curious to see what the Pacers identify as Thunder's weakness on defense. Carlisle gets a lot of mileage out of attacking the weakest defender when Pacers slow down, really good chance Pacers could be flummoxed and we see a lot of iso Siakam and tons of midrange.

Also wonder what happens if Pacers' cheapo fast-break points dry up because Thunder's transition defense is more effective, and Pacers then need to make up the extra 5-10 free points a game somewhere else. Might end up being a big series for Mathurin if Pacers have to get more points in the halfcourt.

Let's Do This