2025 NBA playoffs

The 2025 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2024–25 season. The Oklahoma City Thunder, led by the reigning MVP and scoring leader Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, finished the season with a league-best 68–14 record, giving them the first seed in the Western Conference. The Eastern Conference's best record was held by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who finished with a 64–18 record under their star Donovan Mitchell. The defending champion Boston Celtics, with their scoring duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, clinched the second seed in the Eastern Conference with a record of 61–21. The Thunder, Cavaliers, and Celtics were widely seen as the championship contenders heading into the playoffs. The tournament began on April 19 after the conclusion of the play-ins.

In the first round, the Cavaliers swept the eighth-seeded Miami Heat, who had just made it through the play-in. The Celtics defeated the seventh-seeded Orlando Magic in five games, while the third-seeded New York Knicks, led by Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, took six games to dispatch the sixth-seeded Detroit Pistons. The fourth-seeded Indiana Pacers, with Tyrese Haliburton, defeated the Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Milwaukee Bucks, the fifth seed, in five games after Haliburton's game-winning shot in game 5. The Western Conference saw the Thunder sweep the Memphis Grizzlies, while the seventh-seeded Golden State Warriors defeated the second-seeded Houston Rockets in seven games. The sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves, led by Anthony Edwards, overcame the Luka Dončić-led Los Angeles Lakers in five games, and the Nikola Jokić-led fourth-seeded Denver Nuggets defeated the fifth seed, the Los Angeles Clippers, in seven games.

The second round, the conference semifinals, saw Haliburton's Pacers upset Mitchell's Cavaliers in five games, while the Knicks unexpectedly defeated the Celtics in six games after Tatum suffered an Achilles tendon rupture. The Thunder–Nuggets series went to seven games, with the Thunder prevailing, and the Timberwolves defeated the Warriors in five games after Golden State's star Stephen Curry had an injury. In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Pacers unexpectedly triumphed over their rival Knicks in six games, while the Western Conference Finals saw the Thunder defeat the Timberwolves in five games.

The 2025 NBA Finals was expected to be an easy victory for the Thunder, who had won 18 more games than the Pacers, but at the end of the first six games, the series was tied 3–3, requiring a decisive game seven, the first in the Finals since 2016. The Thunder won the game 103–91 after Haliburton tore his Achilles tendon in the first quarter. Gilgeous-Alexander was named Finals MVP after averaging 30 points per game (ppg) during the playoffs. The Thunder's championship was their first since 1979, when they were known as the Seattle SuperSonics. The Pacers' postseason run, which included five 15-point comebacks and four game-tying or game-winning shots by Haliburton, is considered one of the most surprising in NBA history.