1 Fix for Every NBA Playoff Team Still Standing
The 2025 NBA playoffs are now down to six teams after the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors were eliminated in the conference semifinals.
Even for the teams still alive, there are adjustments that need to be made.
Whether it be a change to the rotation, a stylistic alteration, a renewed emphasis on a certain aspect of the game or another factor, these are the fixes every remaining NBA playoff team needs to make.
Boston Celtics: Eliminate Isolation Ball
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The Boston Celtics are going to have to alter their DNA a bit if they want to stay alive in what's now a 3-2 series deficit against the New York Knicks.
The Celtics are the No. 1 isolation team this postseason, in large part due to Jayson Tatum's NBA-high 8.3 iso possessions per game. With the six-time All-Star sidelined with a ruptured Achilles, Boston's focus needs to be on ball movement that leads to open shots instead.
Losing Tatum is devastating, although changing the way this team plays may be for the best. Despite running a heavy amount of isolation (14.7 percent of their total plays), the Celtics averaged a measly 0.86 points per possessions (26.7th percentile among all playoff teams), shooting just 33.3 percent.
In their Game 5 win over the Knicks without Tatum, we saw a glimpse of what this team needs to do to come back in this series.
Jaylen Brown had 12 of Boston's 27 assists (compared to 17 for New York), helping fuel 127 points for the team. More ball movement helped lead to more open shots, resulting in a 22-of-49 mark from three (44.9 percent).
With Brown, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Jrue Holiday and others, the Celtics can still be competitive without Tatum if they keep up with this change in style of play.
Denver Nuggets: Keep Stars Fresh For the 4th Quarter
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In a pivotal Game 5 against the Oklahoma City Thunder where the Denver Nuggets had the chance to go up 3-2 heading back to Colorado, fatigue was clearly a factor in the fourth quarter.
The Nuggets beat the Thunder in each of the first three quarters and entered the final frame up by six points.
Head coach David Adelman chose to play both Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray the entire fourth quarter, with Jokić not getting a single break after halftime.
The result? While Jokić still put up strong individual numbers (13 points in the fourth), Murray struggled (four points on 1-of-6 shooting) and the Thunder outscored the Nuggets 34-19 overall, erasing what had previously been a nine-point Denver lead.
We already saw Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick play the same starting five for the entire second half in a loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves earlier this postseason, a strategy that essentially ruled even LeBron James ineffective by the fourth quarter.
Obviously, Adelman wants the best player in the world on the floor. Jokić even led the NBA in swing rating (plus-23.1) once again.
Coming off a grueling seven-game series against the Los Angeles Clippers and a regular season where Jokić played a career-high 36.7 minutes a night across his 70 games, Adelman has to give his three-time MVP a break at some point in the second half to keep him at his best when the game matters the most.
Indiana Pacers: Improve Rebounding Woes
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There's not much to fix for the red-hot Indiana Pacers after the team completed a gentleman's sweep of the No. 1-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.
Indiana moved the ball extremely well on offense (69.0 assist percentage, No. 1 among all eight second-round playoff teams), nailed 42.1 percent of its threes (also first) and used a 10-man rotation to wear down a banged-up Cavs squad.
Perhaps the Pacers' only noticeable weakness was on the glass, especially when giving up second-chance looks to the Cavaliers.
Indiana currently ranks dead-last among all second-round playoff teams in both offensive (21.0 percent) and defensive (66.2 percent) rebounding prowess.
The Pacers don't have a lot of strong individual rebounders and Turner gives up a lot of his own chances by spending so much time on offense on the perimeter.
Rebounding will need to be a team effort in the Eastern Conference Finals and beyond, especially if the New York Knicks get by the Boston Celtics. The combination of Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson could present some problems given their size and strength.
Indiana should continue to utilize a large rotation against its future opponents, wearing them down over the course of a best-of-seven series.
Minnesota Timberwolves: Rediscover Defensive Identity
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The Minnesota Timberwolves await the winner of the Oklahoma City Thunder-Denver Nuggets series after taking down the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors thus far this postseason.
The Wolves should be doing most of their prep work on the Thunder, though, with OKC up 3-2 in the series and a heavy favorite to advance.
As good as Minnesota has been defensively, it will need to be far better if the Thunder get past Denver.
The Wolves are a respectable third in defensive rating this postseason (106.8 rating), although the Lakers were playing without a true center and head coach JJ Redick was wearing out his starters in the second half of games. Stephen Curry played just 13 total minutes against the Wolves before exiting the second-round. series with a hamstring injury.
Despite being Steph-less, the Warriors still managed to hang 110 points on Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert and company in the final two games of the series, including a 38-point fourth quarter in Game 5.
Minnesota could afford to be sloppy at times against a short-handed Golden State team, yet it will be punished should this happen against a Thunder team that ranked No. 3 overall offensively in the regular season.
OKC's defense has remained elite as well, meaning this potential series could turn out to be a low-scoring slugfest.
If the Wolves' aren't defending at the level they're capable of, they won't reach the NBA Finals.
New York Knicks: Avoid Foul Trouble
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A 3-1 series lead against the Boston Celtics has now shrunk to 3-2 in favor of the New York Knicks.
With the Celtics now playing without superstar Jayson Tatum following a ruptured Achilles, the Knicks handicapped themselves in a Game 5 loss after both Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson got into foul trouble during the game.
New York can't give up this kind of star advantage, especially since the Knicks only use a seven-man rotation already.
Towns got in foul trouble in the first half, limiting his impact especially against a small Celtics frontcourt that was without Tatum and eventually had to bench Kristaps Porziņģis who "couldn't breathe," according to head coach Joe Mazzulla.
Brunson had five fouls by the end of the third quarter when the Knicks were trying to mount another improbable comeback, yet picked up a sixth and final one with over seven minutes left in the game.
Given this was the first time Brunson has fouled out in his 60 playoff games, this hopefully shouldn't be an issue moving forward.
The Indiana Pacers await the Knicks in the conference finals, though, and are arguably the deepest playoff team left standing. If Brunson, Towns or any other impact starter for New York continues to get into foul trouble, the Pacers' depth will consume them.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Bigger is Better
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Signing Isaiah Hartenstein to a three-year, $87 million contract last summer raised some eyebrows around the league, although the addition of a second big man next to Chet Holmgren has proved to be invaluable now.
Facing off against a mountain of a man in three-time MVP Nikola Jokić, OKC has relied on Hartenstein's size and strength to make things as difficult as possible.
According to NBA.com's tracking data, Jokić is shooting 53.5 percent overall with Hartenstein as the primary defender, a noticeable drop from his regular-season mark of 57.6 percent. When the 213-pound Holmgren is on Jokić, the 6'11", 284-pound center is making a whopping 68.0 percent of his shots. Even Holmgren's massive 7'6" wingspan hasn't been enough to deter Jokić.
No one player in the NBA is stopping Jokić. His offensive game has flourished from all three levels, although Jokić's bread-and-butter will forever be using his size and strength to gain position as close to the basket as possible before using his incredible touch around the rim or finding an open shooter.
OKC needs to keep Holmgren away from one-on-one matchups, choosing to use Hartenstein (or even Jaylin Williams) instead.
