2025 NBA Playoffs: Chaotic finish to regular season sets stage for intriguing matchups

It’s been preached about from atop Olympic Tower for years now and, finally, the NBA can open its eyes because this wasn’t a dream.

“82 games, 82 games, 82 games” — whether it was commissioner Adam Silver, deputy commissioner Mark Tatum or executive vice president Joe Dumars, those words kept ringing. And they were heeded. Whether it's the NFL-style parity Silver has so desired that’s come to fruition in the regular season and not just the championship round, or the mere madness of team building, the last week of the NBA season was downright chaotic.

The last day delivered an overtime thriller between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers, as the Clippers, who won 124-119, continued their quiet resurgence over the past two months, finishing with 50 wins to tie the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets for third-most in the West.

The Clippers have gone back to being the overlooked stepchild of a franchise after years of not meeting high expectations, and yet, they’ve been stalking everyone since Kawhi Leonard returned to finish the season with a vengeance.

This is what happens when so much attention is extended to other places, then augmented by some of the wildest, most unexpected decisions in NBA history. The Nuggets — the Clippers’ opponent in Round 1 — cleaned out their top decision-makers with just days remaining in the regular season, firing head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth.

They outdid the boldness of the Memphis Grizzlies, who fired head coach Taylor Jenkins a short period before, perhaps a sign of parity creating some unrealistic expectations for franchises who felt they were stuck. Not stuck in the dreaded middle ground of being good but not good enough, or the middle ground of bad but not terrible enough for a top draft pick, but 50 wins good — which is seemingly a baseline when evaluating championship contenders.

One supposes that’s where the beauty of this NBA season lies. The Warriors were sprinting toward 50 wins before sputtering in the final week, dropping a shocker to the lottery-bound San Antonio Spurs and being sent to the Play-In Tournament due to the loss to the Clippers.

So, while it’s conceivable the Warriors of Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler meet up with the Luka Dončić-LeBron James (or reverse that) version of the Los Angeles Lakers in Round 2 — a ratings bonanza — it’s also possible they miss the postseason altogether if they lose to the Grizzlies at home and then to the winner of the Kings-Mavericks game three days later.

All because of 82 games, 82 games, 82 games.

Last season, the top seed wasn’t determined until the last day, when the Oklahoma City Thunder beat Dallas — trouncing the Mavs, actually, to keep pace with the Denver Nuggets at 57-25 and taking the No. 1 spot on a tiebreaker. Funny how it didn’t matter, that beating, because Dallas exacted the win that mattered in the second round, upsetting the Thunder in six.

Those top three seeds were separated by one game. This time, the muck was all in the middle and, thus, all the more compelling.

Every night it felt like the games had huge playoff implications, every night it felt like the standings were flip-flopping. Teams couldn’t afford to chill for long stretches because objects in mirror were a lot closer than they appeared.

It was an entertaining yet exhausting finish to the regular season, and the question remains: Who has the stamina, the energy to take it to another level after two full months of playoff-level basketball and stakes?

Those surging Warriors, 23-8 after trading for Butler, were in play-in territory before making their move — and they're still in it after, but as a far more dangerous team. They’ll point to an early March loss to the Nuggets without Nikola Jokić as one to lament, as well as the aforementioned one to the Spurs that prevented them from perhaps claiming the third seed and home-court advantage.

The Clippers, subsequently, 18-3 in their past 21 and winners of their past eight, can point to Leonard’s return to relevance as the catalyst, with James Harden keeping them afloat in the meantime. Impossible to nitpick, but their 103-101 loss to Oklahoma City in late March stands out, a game Leonard didn’t play.

The Lakers have seemingly put out three different teams this season — their LeBron James-Anthony Davis squad that was good but didn’t feel great, then the post-trade team that didn’t yet feature Dončić that was a terror on defense because the Lakers had to be, and finally, this fully formed squad that seems ready for a playoff run.

They’ve survived losing seven of 10 in the past month without fully capsizing, in large part because of that fortified defense and a coach in JJ Redick, who won’t get much Coach of the Year love but will likely be recognized as one of the game’s top-level tacticians before too long.

It’s impossible not to go through lulls and spells during 82 games. It’s natural for all, but a true test is in stamina, in the flexibility of rosters, and building enough positive equity to push through the inevitable turmoil sure to come your way.

That’s how the Nuggets secured at least one home-court series, that’s how the champion Boston Celtics weathered more injuries this year than last year’s romp and yet emerged with 61 wins — three shorter than last season. The Celtics feel like a sensible selection to get back to June, even if they won’t have a home-court series against the Cleveland Cavaliers should the two meet in the East finals.

That fortitude is how the Indiana Pacers shook off 40-plus games of sluggishness to win 50, same with the forgotten-about Milwaukee Bucks who’ve rarely been fully healthy since winning a championship in 2021, but have a healthy Giannis Antetokounmpo for once headed into the playoffs. They just won’t have the services of Damian Lillard to start, as he’s still recovering from a blood clot. A rematch of last year’s first-round series with the Pacers could be as compelling as anything we’ve seen in the West, but it won’t gather much attention to start.

Oklahoma City and Cleveland cruised to the top spots in their respective conferences, but neither enters the postseason as anyone’s big, bad bully. They’ve done the best job of staying the course and, mostly, flat-out dominating competition for the entire season.

Some believe the schedule is too long, but it sets the table for the most important time of year. And while this feels highly unusual, so many teams packed in and removing the illusion of the year-to-year connective tissue to follow, what’s been birthed is intrigue.

All of which will be paid off in the coming weeks.

Sleep well — if you can.