{"id":137073,"date":"2025-04-30T15:15:46","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T19:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=137073"},"modified":"2025-04-30T15:16:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T19:16:23","slug":"biggest-surprises-nba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/30\/biggest-surprises-nba-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"The 3 Biggest Surprises Of The Playoffs So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 NBA playoffs are fully underway and have not disappointed. Four series are already over, but we are still in the middle of four extremely exciting matchups. The Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder still look like the teams to beat, but the Cavaliers, Warriors, and Timberwolves are also looking pretty dangerous. Let’s take stock of the playoffs so far and look at what have been the biggest 2025 NBA Playoff surprises.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The 3 Biggest Surprises of the Playoffs so Far<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Nuggets Aren\u2019t Dead Yet<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When the Nuggets ended their season on a slide and fired their coach and GM just days before the playoffs started, things weren\u2019t looking good. Then they drew the red-hot Los Angeles Clippers as a first-round opponent<\/a>. Even with home court advantage, many believed that the Clippers would beat the Nuggets, who simply haven\u2019t looked very formidable this season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Clippers took a 2-1 lead, it looked like the series might be over. The Nuggets were banged up with multiple minor injuries, and the Clippers seemed to be too solid for the frazzled Nuggets. However, Nuggets never backed down and are now up 3-2 in the series. You can never count out a Nikola Jokic-<\/a>led team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lakers Look Weak Despite Their Star Power<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Both Luka Doncic<\/a> and LeBron James<\/a> have looked incredible in multiple games these playoffs and are certainly two of the best players in the world. Still, when they teamed up in the middle of this season, many were expecting the Lakers to dominate once the lights shone the brightest. Instead, the Lakers find themselves with their backs against the wall facing an elimination game<\/a> against the Minnesota Timberwolves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of this isn\u2019t James or Doncic\u2019s fault. The Lakers don\u2019t have enough help from their supporting cast. The Timberwolves are showing that their depth and size are too much for the Lakers to handle and have a great chance at shocking the NBA with a first-round victory. Still, Luka and LeBron being eliminated in the first round would be a huge surprise.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Pistons are for Real<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Detroit Pistons might not be title contenders. At least not yet. Still, as one of the worst teams in the league last season, they were one of the best stories of the regular season. However, many believed that their feel-good story would end in the playoffs. The Pistons were huge underdogs in their first-round series against the New York Knicks. The Pistons are now heading home down 2-3 with a chance to force a huge Game 7 in New York.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the Pistons’ great play this series has been behind their star Cade Cunningham<\/a>. He has been rock solid all series long, leading the Pistons on offense and making big contributions on the defensive end. Cunningham\u2019s ascension to stardom hasn\u2019t been a huge surprise. That being said, nobody was expecting him to have this much success in just his first playoff series ever. He is averaging 25.4 points, 8.8 assists, and 8.6 rebounds in his first five playoff games. The Pistons may not win this series, but they have been a positive playoff surprise.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2025 NBA playoffs are fully underway and have not disappointed. Four series are already over, but we are still in the middle of four extremely exciting matchups. The Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder still look like the teams to beat, but the Cavaliers, Warriors, and Timberwolves are also looking pretty dangerous. Let’s take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":137078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,20,10,26,62],"tags":[3965,38,1133,72],"class_list":["post-137073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nuggets","category-pistons","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nikola-jokic"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137073"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137080,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137073\/revisions\/137080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}