The setup: Pick every playoff matchup winner before the playoffs start. Compete with your fellow NBA & Other Basketball posters. Win their respect with your prognostication wizardry.

There are 3 rules:

#1: Pick the winner of each round as well as the number of games that they will win the series in.

#2: Have all your picks either posted here or DMed to me by Saturday, April 19th at 12 PM - this is when the first game starts.

#3: You get 1 point for every first round winner, 2 points for every second-round winner, 3 points for every third-round winner, and 4 points for picking the winner of the Finals correctly. You get an additional 1 point for each series where you pick the winner AND the # of games they win the series in. You don't get the 1 point bonus if you pick the right # of games, but your pick loses the series.

I'll be out of town on the 19th, but will set up a Google Sheet with everyone's picks on Sunday the 20th so everyone can track.

One more note: Obviously the field isn't really set yet, because we still have 10 vs 9 and then that winner vs Memphis and Hotlanta to see who gets 8th. I'm going to assume that everyone is picking OKC and Cleveland in the first round, but by all means, wait until the matchup is set to send your picks and your # of games.

Good luck. PM me or respond here with questions or if I screwed something up, which is highly likely.



Here are the all the matchups if you just want to copy/paste it here or DM me with your winners. You can't edit your picks after Saturday at noon. If I see you've left something out or copy/pasted wrong, I'll contact you.


First Round - EC
#1 Cleveland vs. #8 TBD
#2 Boston vs. #7 Orlando
#3 New York vs. #6 Detroit
#4 Indiana vs. #5 Milwaukee

First Round - WC

#1 Oklahoma City vs. #8 TBD
#2 Houston vs. #7 Golden State
#3 LA Lakers vs. #6 Minnesota
#4 Denver vs. #5 LA Clippers

Second Round - EC
#1/#8 winner vs. #4/#5 winner
#2/#7 winner vs. #3/#6 winner

Second Round - WC
#1/#8 winner vs. #4/#5 winner
#2/#7 winner vs. #3/#6 winner

Third Round - EC
Second Round Winner vs. Second Round Winner

Third Round - WC
Second Round Winner vs. Second Round Winner

Finals
EC Champion vs. WC Champion

Not sure many people will venture out of their safe spaces to do a pick em anymore.

First Round - EC
#1 Cleveland vs. #8 TBD - Cleveland in 4
#2 Boston vs. #7 Orlando - - Boston in 5 since they sometimes lose focus
#3 New York vs. #6 Detroit - Looking forward to this. I think it goes 7 and when in doubt, I think about who the Networks want to see advance.
#4 Indiana vs. #5 Milwaukee - Bucks in 6.

First Round - WC

#1 Oklahoma City vs. #8 TBD - Dallas could stretch it out to 5 or more, but picking today, OKC in 4.
#2 Houston vs. #7 Golden State - I dread watching GSW complain and get calls, but I think Houston is better and wins in 6 after dropping game 1.
#3 LA Lakers vs. #6 Minnesota - LAL in 5
#4 Denver vs. #5 LA Clippers - Clippers are really good, and could rep the West, but I don't trust Kawhi's health, nor Harden. It's just a matter of when it all falls apart. Still, I'd rather see Clippers vs OKC, so Clippers in 6

Second Round - EC
#1/#8 winner vs. #4/#5 winner - Believeland in 5
#2/#7 winner vs. #3/#6 winner - Boston in 5

Second Round - WC
#1/#8 winner vs. #4/#5 winner - Wish I knew on Clippers health, so OKC safer pick in 5.
#2/#7 winner vs. #3/#6 winner - Houston in 7.

ECF
Second Round Winner vs. Second Round Winner - Boston in 6 over Cavs

WCF
Second Round Winner vs. Second Round Winner - OKC in 5

Finals - Celtics in 7

2 of the play in teams have draft picks riding on the game.

Heat & Grizzlies retain their 2025 draft picks if they lose, but for drafting purposes, it may be best for Heat to win.

The different draft scenarios for tonight

Ties will be broken by a drawing

Sacramento keeps their own if 1-12 pic.twitter.com/BjQfNvgJkG

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) April 18, 2025

Draft pick implications: Miami Heat

If they reach the first round

🏀 2025 1st to OKC
🏀 2027 top-14 protected 1st to Charlotte (unprotected in 2028 if not conveyed)

If they lose in the play-in

🏀 They retain their 2025 first
🏀 2026 unprotected 1st to OKC
🏀 2028 unprotected…

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) April 16, 2025

First Round - EC
#1 Cleveland vs. #8 TBD - Cleveland in 5
#2 Boston vs. #7 Orlando - Boston in 4
#3 New York vs. #6 Detroit - New York in 6
#4 Indiana vs. #5 Milwaukee - Milwaukee in 7

First Round - WC

#1 Oklahoma City vs. #8 TBD OKC in 4
#2 Houston vs. #7 Golden State Houston in 7
#3 LA Lakers vs. #6 Minnesota LA Lakers in 6
#4 Denver vs. #5 LA Clippers Denver in 6

Second Round - EC
Clevland over Milwauke in 5
Boston over New York in 5

Second Round - WC
OKC over Denver in 6
LA Lakers over Houston in 7

Third Round - EC
Boston over Cleveland in 7

Third Round - WC
OKC over LA Lakers in 5

Finals
OKC over Boston in 6

Russell Westbrook in the 4th quarter:

Made layup at 3:37 (93-92)

Made layup at 2:52 (95-94)

Made three at 0:24 (98-96)

He’s the first player in the PBP era (1997) to have three made shots in the final 4:00 of a playoff 4th quarter that took his team from trailing to leading. pic.twitter.com/IlQt4yohha

— Jake Coyne (@TheStatSquatch) April 19, 2025

Mavs fans looking at Nico’s “Defense wins championships” comments

pic.twitter.com/AGNXGq0eTT

— Sean (@IDontSingh1) April 19, 2025

Did not predict this happening

And to think, we almost lost Inside the NBA... pic.twitter.com/Uk1BnPTgLp

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 22, 2025

Iowaggie said:

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Did not predict this happening

And to think, we almost lost Inside the NBA... pic.twitter.com/Uk1BnPTgLp

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 22, 2025

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Whenever I see Kenny, Charles, and Shaq, as great as they are, I always marvel at the fact that 2 of those guys are inner-circle all-time, and Kenny owned them both in the playoffs.

I don't understand the NBA and the networks.

They have the choice of which have to put on NBA TV and which to put on TNT between OKC Memphis and the Clippers Nuggets, and they choose the two small market teams in the central time zone that has expectedly had two blowouts to put on TNT and the best 1st round series on NBA TV

As an aside, what happened to that Memphis offense that was carving people until?

Didnt clock over until the fourth last night but all I saw was a bunch of hero ball and pick and roll.

Morant got hurt when they were up by 300 and the rest of them couldn't do *****

The Original Houston 1836 said:

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Morant got hurt when they were up by 300 and the rest of them couldn't do *****

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The real MVP

Lu Dort in Game 3:

2 Points
1-5 FG
0-4 3PT
0-2 FT
Injured Ja

SOMEONE LET HIM KNOW THERE’S STILL 6 ROUNDS LEFT IN THE NFL DRAFT 🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/aXNDAl2Mex

— Hater Central (@TheHateCentral) April 25, 2025

Lu Dort has to be dirtiest player in the NBA 😒 pic.twitter.com/cSAVo7RMyq

— MFFL NATION (@NationMffl) April 25, 2025

And because of my dislike for watching Draymond in the Rockets series

Lu Dort when his team is losing pic.twitter.com/PEa78kpb5V

— Easy (@EasyCantMiss) April 25, 2025

Doc Rivers team isn't good enough to blow a3-1 lead, but when down 3 to 1 in a series, he can blow a 7 point lead with 40 seconds left.

Darvin Ham reached the WCF and didn't have Luka or "the best 3rd option in the game" at his disposal. pic.twitter.com/3W2h3Rc8Is

— Madril (@MadrilSmith13) April 27, 2025

Lakers last three 1st year head coaches:

* Frank Vogel: Won NBA title
* Darvin Ham: Made Western Conference Finals
* JJ Redick: Loss in the opening round of the playoff

Tough break for a guy who's only qualification for the job was "LeBron's podcast/wine drinking buddy" pic.twitter.com/VgVgPiBh9Z

— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) May 1, 2025

First time the Lakers have lost a first-round series when they were a top 3 seed.

lol. F the Lakers

JJ wasn't perfect by any means but they did win 50 games and got the third seed with a team that has completely remodeled its roster from opening night.

If you have LeBron playing the five when Gobert and Randle are on the floor at the same time, you have a big problem, literally and figuratively.

Obi Wan Ginobili said:

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First Round - EC
#1 Cleveland vs. #8 TBD - Cleveland in 5 - Close enough
#2 Boston vs. #7 Orlando - Boston in 4 - Close enough
#3 New York vs. #6 Detroit - New York in 6 - Could be proven right tonigh
#4 Indiana vs. #5 Milwaukee - Milwaukee in 7 - BIG MISS - Indy looks good

First Round - WC

#1 Oklahoma City vs. #8 TBD OKC in 4 - Cash, though Memphis didn't lay down and take in G3 & G4
#2 Houston vs. #7 Golden State Houston in 7 - Still Hope
#3 LA Lakers vs. #6 Minnesota LA Lakers in 6 - BIG MISS, Lakers suck and water is wet
#4 Denver vs. #5 LA Clippers Denver in 6 - My hatred of Kawhi fuled this pick, still might be right

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Look Out Below said:

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JJ wasn't perfect by any means but they did win 50 games and got the third seed with a team that has completely remodeled its roster from opening night.

If you have LeBron playing the five when Gobert and Randle are on the floor at the same time, you have a big problem, literally and figuratively.

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I really want to hear the justification for playing Maxi Kleber.

Go look at Kleber's game log.


January 25th, he played against Boston and broke his foot....as a member of the Dallas Mavericks.
A week later, Dallas's finest deals him with a couple other guys to LA.

[no games]

April 30th, Kleber is inserted in to Game 5 of an elimination game as his first game ever as an LA Laker.



I'm not a Darvin Ham guy, but if that guy made some of the decisions that JJ did, he would have been ridiculed.


Yes, the Lakers moved from 8th to 3rd place, but the difference between 3rd and 8th place this year was pretty small, and some might add that as part of the Kleber trade, they picked up a pretty decent player whose name I can't recall right now.

I would guess multiple reasons:
1) If he didn't play last night he wasn't going to play for another 5+ months; good faith measure?
2) no faith in his other bigs / sending a message to his other bigs
3) message to Pelinka to get him someone down low ASAP

Kleber wasn't any less effective than any of the other clowns they had that could have played. The guy they picked up after the failed Williams trade is worthless. Hayes can't do anything but dunk. Koloko is green.

Pistons have started the 4th on a 25-9 rampage and turned a 11-point deficit into a 5-point lead with 3:18 to play.

Knicks were up 103-92 with 8:52 to play and have been outscored 18-2 since.