Darius Garland and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are stars, but still just parts to well-rounded No. 1 seeds worthy of contender status.
There’s always a sobering reality when a team spends six months proving it is better than everyone else, then needs two more to erase all doubt.
Such is the case of the top seeds in the Eastern and Western Conferences, both of which won 60-plus games, ripped multiple winning streaks that stretched into the teens, placed a boot on the necks of several of its closest competitors … and will enter the 2025 NBA Playoffs still trying to stamp their authenticity as potential champions.
Why Oklahoma City and why Cleveland?
Well, why not?
The biggest strike against them, and really the only meaningful one, is that neither has been there and done that. As in, won anything of significance with its current core of players and coaches. There are steps to this championship process and their sneakers prints are missing on the top rung of the ladder.
That is understood. The Thunder lost in the West semis against the Mavericks last season despite holding the top seed. The Cavaliers lost in the second round a year after losing in the first. And yet, maybe because of those setbacks or better yet growing pains, both Oklahoma City and Cleveland have … paid their dues, perhaps?
Anyway, the next two months — or less if they stumble — will reveal the truth. As of right now, at this very moment, there’s one truth: The other 14 postseason teams will not have arrived here in the dominating fashion of OKC and Cleveland, lending evidence that the East and West championships will run through those cities.
The case for Oklahoma City
Can OKC realize its NBA championship hopes in the 2025 playoffs?
A year ago, the Boston Celtics ruled the NBA from opening night to Game No. 82. They won 64 games and finished 14 games ahead of the No. 2 team in the East, the Knicks. They had a point differential of plus-11.4, the only NBA team in double figures.
So what happened next? You know — another banner was raised in the Garden. The Celtics were never seriously threatened and took care of business in the postseason.
Why bring this up?
To explain how the Thunder took all of that and went next-level with it this season.
Oklahoma City became the seventh team in NBA history to win 68 games. The Thunder’s cushion between themselves and the second seed in the West was 16 games — the widest in NBA history.
Speaking of history, the Thunder outscored opponents by 1,055 points, also the best ever.
They had 51 wins by double-digit margins.
They went 29-1 against the East, the lone loss coming on the road in overtime in Cleveland, the top team in that conference.
From every imaginable metric, OKC was a boss in 2024-25, flexing against teams with losing records and punishing those with winning marks. OK, so the Thunder lost in the Emirates NBA Cup championship game. So they weren’t perfect.
But still, let’s be real.
“It’s a special group of players that operate in a special way,” said OKC coach Mark Daigneault. “They deserve special things to happen to them. There’s obviously more opportunities ahead of us … they play the way you want a team to operate.”
Keep in mind that OKC’s big men, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, weren’t healthy together for the most part until February. The Thunder managed decently without them. That’s reflective of a team that compensates, endures and refuses to embrace excuses, a team that, as good as it appeared, had another gear once whole.
Here are the ingredients of this regular season Goliath:
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Every serious contender needs a Kia MVP candidate, someone who forces the opposition to game-plan and/or shiver. Gilgeous-Alexander is That Guy. From a scoring standpoint, he has no peer in the league; the NBA scoring leader gets buckets from everywhere on the floor.
Like, 72 straight games of at least 20 points? More 50-, 40-, 30-point games than anyone this season?
“The great players make great feats look routine,” Daigneault said.
But it’s the both-ends impact of Gilgeous-Alexander that inspires OKC. He finished second in steals and fourth in stocks (steals plus blocks). Speaking of that end of the floor …
• Defense. OKC brings what wins championships. This team gets stops and surrendered just 107 points during the season, second only to the Celtics. And again, the Thunder went a good portion of the season without one of their rim-protecting bigs.
They did have someone else, though:
“I remember the first time I played against Lu Dort,” said Lakers coach JJ Redick. “I had never heard of him before. I was like, `Who is this guy?’ He plays so hard. He guarded me for a little bit and I was like, ‘Jesus, man. This guy is sick.’”
• The emergence of Jalen Williams. He became the laboratory rat for OKC’s player development, someone who worked his way to becoming a respected player and an All-Star.
Williams helped out generously on the glass when OKC was without Hartenstein and Holmgren, and improved offensively enough to become a solid compliment to Gilgeous-Alexander.
• Depth galore. The Oklahoma Panhandle is shaped a lot like OKC’s bench and stretches just about as long, too. This team sends platoons into the game and the drop-off in talent isn’t very noticeable, if at all.
Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe, Cason Wallace, Jaylin Williams, all have chipped in with a respectable level of production when needed. Speaking of that: OKC made a big trade splash last summer in getting Alex Caruso … and he’s ninth on the team in average minutes played. When a defensive ace like Alex Caruso qualifies as a luxury more than a necessity, that explains the rotation very well.
• Size matters. Hartenstein and Holmgren have worked well in their first season together in the time they’ve been healthy. That’s why OKC opened the wallet for Hartenstein last summer. He has the muscle to handle bigger centers and allow Holmgren to roam further from the rim.
Because of the “H” Factor — Hartenstein averaged 10.7 rebounds and Holmgren 2.2 blocks — OKC is bringing the level of quality size that gives them an edge over most of the playoff field.
From a dominance standpoint, OKC is perhaps the strongest team to have earned the No. 1 seed in recent history, if not all time.
Now we await the postseason carryover.
The case for the Cavaliers
Darius Garland discusses his upbringing, the Cavs' historic start to the season, and the challenges he's overcome throughout his career.
Everything was in place for the Celtics to stretch their East rule through a second straight season, but the Cavs were having none of that. Cleveland took control from the jump with a season-opening 15-game win streak and never looked back.
They added a franchise-record 16-game win streak in spring and then a 12-gamer, and these were stretches where the Cavs were simply unchallenged for the most part. When they were, they ignored the pressure of close games and took control in the moment of truth.
Cleveland split 2-2 with the Celtics — more on that in a bit — and were a handful for everyone else in the East except for the Atlanta Hawks (for some reason). When the 64-win season was secured, it beat all Cavs teams in franchise history not anchored by LeBron James.
Kenny Atkinson arrived last summer and awakened the contender within this team — to this point, at least. The new coach challenged the Cavs to be better in every phase, and the results are reflected in the standings.
“We’re grittier than I thought in the beginning,” said Atkinson. “There’s the rhetoric that we’re skilled and move the ball and play good offense, and that’s good, but we have a toughness about us. That’s where I’ve turned with this team. You don’t get 64 wins without being tough and showing our grit.”
Here’s why playoff teams shouldn’t be so casual about Cleveland:
• Clutch guards. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell are each other’s biggest fans. And you can tell, because in close fourth quarters, they trust each other with the ball. That’s a level of respect that give the Cavs options in such occasions.
In the playoffs, opposing teams must pick their poison, because while many players shy away from those situations, Mitchell and Garland gravitate toward them. They want the ball. But they’re willing to share it, too.
• Mobley’s moment. Evan Mobley, on some nights, can be the Cavs’ most important player. His defense is elite; the ability to guard three positions and make stops on the perimeter is what sets him apart from others his size, tools that could see him winning the league’s top defensive award.
“Guys my size, my agility, my wingspan, you don’t really see that,” Mobley said. “There’s nobody close to that … people don’t even go up against me.”
He’s also a better offensive threat (18 ppg), someone who earned his way into getting plenty of touches on a team already boasting Garland and Mitchell. At 55% shooting, Mobley prevents opposing defenses from doubling up those guards.
Greg Anthony and Steve Smith explain why Evan Mobley is 1 of several key players to watch in the East playoffs.
• A gutsy midseason trade. Rarely do 60-win teams swing a trade along the journey. They usually don’t need help, and even if they do, they often lack the guts to gamble with chemistry and a new face.
The Cavs, however, made the forceful decision to strengthen themselves, risk be damned. And what a choice: De’Andre Hunter, by all accounts, is a “missing piece” who could be a playoff difference-maker. He’s an ace defender who could be matched up against Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown, and a reliable scorer if the Cavs need a bucket.
• Much improved. One reason the Cavs surrendered a pair of rotational pieces (Caris LeVert, George Niang) for Hunter is the emergence of Ty Jerome. The 6-foot-5 guard has shown to be efficient (51%) and dependable off the bench, and he’s dropping career-high averages across the board.
Now, a word about the elephant in the room. The Cavs will enter the postseason being followed by the imposing shadow of the defending champions. The Celtics are healthy, just as deep and are battle-tested. OKC finished a regular season where nobody in the West was in their rear-view mirror. Cleveland did not.
Yet, it goes both ways: Unlike last season when they cruised, the Celtics themselves are fully aware of the obstacle before them and the high level of the threat.
The No. 1 seed belongs to the Cavs for a reason — or reasons.
So, what could prevent them from playing in June? Not much.
“The talent level is obvious,” Atkinson said. “Now, do they have the belief at a championship level? Do you really believe you can beat Boston? Do you really believe you can beat beat Indiana. Do you really believe you can be a conference finalist?
“That’s a first step. We can only answer that when we’re faced with it. That’s probably the lingering question. As far as talent, chemistry, deep bench, we’ve got it all. So it’s really going to be the mental, to believe we can go to that next level.”
That goes for Oklahoma City, too. The tombstones of dozens of No. 1 seeds lie in the NBA graveyard — teams that never sipped champagne or realized their potential.
The NBA playoffs are a different beast. You must prove yourself four times in each round. You also must realize that sometimes it’s the hottest team, not necessarily the best team, that raises the trophy.
Oklahoma City and Cleveland, however, just finished dropping some delicious hints in their respective conferences over the last six months. Two more might not be asking too much.
* * *
Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Warner Bros. Discovery.
