Honestly, if you had told anyone in November 2024 that the Indiana Pacers would be a single win away from an NBA title, they’d have laughed you out of the room. The 2025 NBA playoffs results were, in a word, chaotic. We watched a young Oklahoma City Thunder squad basically dismantle the league’s established hierarchy while the Eastern Conference turned into a complete bloodbath of injuries and massive upsets.
It was weird. It was fast. And for the first time since 2016, we actually got a Game 7 in the Finals.
The Thunder finally arrived (and they didn't miss)
Oklahoma City didn't just win; they dominated. They finished the regular season with a staggering 68-14 record, and that momentum carried right through the postseason. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) played like a man possessed, eventually taking home both the regular season MVP and the Finals MVP.
He's only the second player ever to win both awards and the scoring title by age 26, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Think about that for a second.
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The Western Conference path looked like this:
- First Round: A 4-0 sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies (including a historic 51-point blowout in Game 1).
- Semifinals: A grueling seven-game war against Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets. OKC trailed at times but won Game 7 with a 125-93 statement.
- Conference Finals: They bounced Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games.
By the time they reached the Finals, they were the second-largest betting favorites in the last 20 years. But the "easy" victory everyone predicted? Yeah, that didn't happen.
Why the Eastern Conference bracket fell apart
While OKC was cruising, the East was eating itself alive. The Cleveland Cavaliers entered as the one-seed with 64 wins, but they ran into a Pacers team that had finally found its defensive identity in January.
The biggest shocker, though, was the Boston Celtics.
Jayson Tatum suffered a devastating Achilles tendon rupture during the semifinals against the New York Knicks. Without their centerpiece, the Celtics folded in six games. This opened the door wide for the Knicks and Pacers. Indiana eventually took down New York in a six-game Eastern Conference Finals that was basically a masterclass in pace and space basketball.
The Finals nobody saw coming: OKC vs. Indiana
The 2025 NBA Finals was the "small market" series the media spent weeks complaining about. It was the smallest total market size in Finals history, featuring Indianapolis (22nd) and Oklahoma City (26th). But the basketball? It was incredible.
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Indiana entered as a massive underdog—there was an 18-game difference in regular-season wins between the two teams. That’s the largest gap since 1981. Yet, Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers refused to go away. They set a postseason record with five 15-point comebacks during the run.
Game-by-game breakdown:
- Game 1: Pacers steal it 111-110 in OKC. Haliburton hits a game-winning jumper.
- Game 2: OKC responds, 123-107. SGA drops 34.
- Game 3: Back in Indy, the Pacers win 116-107. The crowd was deafening.
- Game 4: OKC ties it up, 111-104. Chet Holmgren was a wall at the rim.
- Game 5: Jalen Williams explodes for 40 points. Thunder win 120-109.
- Game 6: Pacers blow them out 108-91 to force the first Game 7 in nine years.
Then came the heartbreak.
In the first quarter of Game 7, Tyrese Haliburton—who had been the heartbeat of that Indiana run—tore his right Achilles. It was a gut punch. Without their floor general, the Pacers fought hard, with Bennedict Mathurin putting up 24 points off the bench, but the Thunder's depth was too much.
OKC won 103-91, securing the first championship in the city's history (and the franchise's second overall, if you count the 1979 Seattle SuperSonics title).
Stat leaders and standout performers
Looking back at the 2025 NBA playoffs results, the numbers are kind of staggering. SGA finished with 688 total points, averaging 30.3 per game in the Finals.
But it wasn't just him.
Karl-Anthony Towns, now with the Knicks, led everyone in rebounds with 209. Haliburton, despite the injury in the final game, led the playoffs in assists with 197. We also saw some wild efficiency; Cleveland’s Jarrett Allen shot 72.1% from the field across nine games.
One of the most interesting "hidden" stats was the luxury tax. This was the first Finals since the salary cap era began in 2002 where neither team was a luxury tax payer. It's a huge shift in how teams are being built under the new CBA.
Lessons from the 2025 postseason
So, what does this actually mean for the league? For starters, the "superteam" era feels dead. We've now had seven different champions in seven years. That's the longest such stretch in NBA history.
Parity is here, and it’s mostly because of how teams like OKC and Indiana built through the draft and smart, surgical trades. Coincidentally, both teams traded Paul George years ago to get the pieces that led them here (SGA for the Thunder, and eventually Haliburton for the Pacers via the Sabonis trade).
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What to watch for next:
- The Injury Bug: Both Tatum and Haliburton are facing long recoveries from Achilles tears. This completely shifts the 2026 odds for Boston and Indiana.
- The OKC Dynasty? The Thunder are the second-youngest champions ever. With their chest of draft picks still intact, this might just be the start.
- Knicks and Cavs: Both teams showed they can win 50-60 games, but they lacked the closing power when the pressure ramped up. Expect big roster tweaks this summer.
The 2025 playoffs proved that regular-season dominance (OKC) can actually translate to a ring, but only if you have the mental toughness to survive a Game 7. It also proved that in the modern NBA, no lead is safe and no seed is "guaranteed" a spot in the Finals.
If you're looking to apply these insights to your own basketball knowledge or even your fantasy league for next year, focus on defensive efficiency jumps in the second half of the season. Indiana went from a .500 team to a Finals contender because their defense jumped to 9th in the league after December. That’s the metric that matters most when the lights get bright.