Fun Facts & Red Flags – Game 1 Edition
Eight Game 1s are complete! Game 2s start tonight with Knicks/Pistons
Long time no see! I set out to put together these fun facts halfway through the season but then got caught in what might have been the busiest month of my life.
Now that the Raptors’ season is over & things have calmed down for the most part, let’s try again.
The 2025 NBA Playoffs are here & we just went through a weekend of Game 1s. Home teams were 6-2 in Game 1s this weekend. Historically, teams that win Game 1s in a best-of-seven series have won the series 75.2% of the time.
EAST FIRST ROUND
1 vs. 8 – Cavs/Heat – Cavs win 121-100
Cavs won the first game of their series 121-100, putting the Heat away after outscoring them 34-21 in the fourth. We’re calling this the Ty Jerome game after he went off for 28 points on just 15 shots. Jerome scored 16 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter, scoring or assisting 24 of the Cavs’ 34 points in the fourth.
Fun fact: Ty Jerome had never had a 25-point game before this season. He’s done it seven times this season, including his 28-point game on Sunday night.
Jerome’s 28 points were the third-most in a Playoff debut in Cavs franchise history, behind LeBron James’ 32 points in 2006 & Kyrie Irving’s 30 points in 2015. It was also the most points off the bench in a playoff game for the Cavs since Daniel Gibson had 31 against the Pistons in 2007.
The Cavs are much, much more talented than Miami, that can’t be disputed. But the Heat are in the playoffs because of the number of times their defence has saved their lack of offence. Heat were fourth in the league in defensive rating over the final 15 games of the season.
Against the Cavs in Game 1, they gave up 121 points in just 85 possessions. A 142.4 defensive rating is their worst in any game this season.
Red flag: Single-game on/offs are meant to be used with a grain of salt but the Cavs shot 51.7% from three & 55.2% from the field when Tyler Herro was on court in Game 1. They shot 21.4% from three in 11 minutes with him off court.
2 vs. 7 – Celtics/Magic – Celtics win 103-86
Orlando was up 1 at halftime in game 1 on Sunday, a lead that lasted all of 30 seconds to start the third quarter. Magic started the third with back-to-back turnovers & finished the quarter with 6 turnovers & 6 made field goals. Celtics outscored the Magic 30-18 in the third & 55-37 overall in the second half, never giving up the lead after they took it early in the third.
Fun fact: Boston finished the game shooting 43.2% from three, shooting better from three than Orlando did from the field (42.0%). Hilarious stat, Magic shot 5-for-16 on second chance opportunities.
Derrick White scored a game-high 30 points, his third career 30-point game in the Playoffs. White averaged 10.8 points & shot 39.4% on 4.5 three-point attempts in his first two postseasons with Boston. He’s averaging 17.4 points & shooting 41.6% on *8.7* three-point attempts in the playoffs since then.
Celtics are 45-13 all-time when White scores 20 or more points, regular season & playoffs.
3 vs. 6 – Knicks/Pistons – Knicks win 123-112
Pistons were up 8 with just over 9 minutes left in the fourth quarter in Game 1 on Saturday. Then, the Knicks went on a 21-0 run over a span of 4 minutes & 27 seconds. Knicks held the Pistons to 0-for-10 shooting over their run!
Pistons were up 91-83 after three quarters in their first playoff game since 2019. 12 minutes away from winning a playoff game for the first time since 2008.
Fun fact: Pistons have now lost each of their last 15 playoff games, extending the longest playoff losing streakin NBA history.
The Pistons roster has only played a combined 252 career playoff games though, the least experienced playoff team in the East. Five of the nine Pistons that played on Sunday played the first playoff game of their career.
Jalen Brunson scored 12 of his 34 points in that fourth quarter & the Knicks shot 70.8% from the field in the quarter.
Knicks outscored the Pistons 40-21 in the fourth, tied for their largest fourth-quarter differential of the season. Knicks came into the playoffs with the sixth-worst fourth quarter net rating in the NBA, 0.4 points worse than any playoff team this season.
4 vs. 5 – Pacers/Bucks – Pacers win 117-98
The good news for the Bucks is that they’re set to get Damian Lillard back this week. Everything else from Game 1 is bad news for Milwaukee. Everything came easy for the Pacers in their 19-point win (except maybe for Haliburton), a game they led by as much as 28 in.
Pacers gave up just 3 points off turnovers, their second-fewest in a playoff game in franchise history. They scored 22 points on the fast break, to the Bucks’ 5.
Ok not everything was easy for the Pacers, with Tyrese Haliburton shooting 23.1% from the field & going 0-for-7 from three. Fun fact: Saturday marked just the third time Indiana has won a game, regular season or playoffs, with Haliburton shooting below 30% from the field. They improved to 3-22 in those games.
The Bucks’ end was filled with red flags, but none were redder than the Bucks’ starters combining for 50 points on 43 shots. Oh wait, Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 36 of their 50 points & took 23 of their 43 shots, meaning non-Giannis starters combined for 14 points on 5-for-20 shooting.
Red flag: Kyle Kuzma played 22 minutes & had 0 points, 0 rebounds & 0 assists, making him just the 9thplayer in NBA playoff history to have a 0/0/0 game in 20 or more minutes.
WEST FIRST ROUND
1 vs. 8 – Thunder/Grizzlies – Thunder win 131-80
Cool, cool, cool, a 51-point win in THE PLAYOFFS. OKC’s 51-point win was the fifth-largest margin of victory in NBA playoff history & the largest in a Game 1 ever. We hadn’t even had a team win by 40+ to start a postseason since Orlando beat Boston by 47 in the first round in 1995.
They won by 51 points even with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring 15 points on 13 shots. They led by as much as 56 in the game (!!!). Thunder killed whatever “rust” conversations were happening with their Game 1 dominance, especially as a team that set the NBA record for largest point differential in a season at 12.9.
Thunder led by as much as 35 in the first half, the third-largest lead in the first half of a playoff game in the play-by-play era. They held the Grizzlies to just 80 points on 109 possessions, the best single-game defensive rating by a team in the playoffs since the Spurs held the Grizzlies to 68 points on 94 possessions in 2016.
The Grizzlies fired head coach Taylor Jenkins with 9 games left in the regular season & reports said the Grizzlies’ offence led to his firing. The defence needed to be questioned a little more – they went from the 7thbest defensive rating in the league before the break to 18th after the break. They also haven’t beat a top-5 seed since February 2nd, which was also the last time they beat a team ranked top-12 in offensive rating.
2 vs. 7 – Rockets/Warriors – Warriors win 95-85
Playoff Jimmy arrived in the Play-In & it doesn’t seem like he’s ready to go anywhere. Jimmy Butler’s averaging 31.5 points, 7.0 rebounds & 6.0 assists this postseason, shooting 56.4% from the field & 3-for-6 from three.
Despite scoring 22 points off 22 offensive rebounds & taking 11 more shots than the Warriors, Rockets couldn’t capitalize on winning the possession battle. They shot 39.1% from the field & 20.7% from three, plus they gave up 25 points off 17 turnovers.
Red flag: Houston’s only efficient offence came from Alperen Sengun, who finished with 26 points on 18 shots. The Rockets’ backcourt of Jalen Green & Fred VanVleet combined for just 17 points on 7-for-34 shooting (20.6%). Jalen Green is averaging 5.3 points on 20.5% shooting in 4 games since the Rockets locked up the 2-seed on April 8th. Checking out for the final few, meaningless games of the season is okay, but not if you’re not able to check back in for the playoffs.
Rockets were eliminated by the Warriors in 4 of their last 6 playoff appearances before this season.
On the other hand, the Warriors let their 23-point lead get to cut down to 4 with just over 2.5 minutes left in the fourth. Jimmy Butler scored 6 of the Warriors’ 11-2 run to get the game back to double-digits. Warriors played the second-most games that were within five points in the last five minutes this season. They were 9-4 in clutch games after Butler made his debut, after going 16-16 in clutch games before him.
3 vs. 6 – Lakers/Timberwolves – Timberwolves win 117-95
Despite coming in as the 6-seed, Timberwolves owned the second-best net rating of any West team this season. They finished the year 24-17 on the road, tied for the fourth-best road record in the league.
Down 7 after the first quarter, Minnesota blitzed the Lakers 38-20 in the second quarter & then held them to just 17 points in the fourth. They opened the playoffs with a 20-point win for the second consecutive postseason. They made 21 threes, most in a playoff game in franchise history.
Luka Doncic scored 37 points in his Lakers playoff debut, the most by a Laker in a playoff debut since Shaq had 46 in 1997. Unfortunately, non-Doncic/James Lakers combined to score just 19 points.
4 vs. 5 – Nuggets/Clippers – Nuggets win 112-110 in overtime
Clippers blew a 15-point lead to the Nuggets in Game 1, blowing a 15+ point lead in the playoffs for the first time since they did it against the Nuggets in Game 5 AND 6 of the second round in 2020.
Denver came into the playoffs with the worst defensive rating of any team these playoffs but locked in clutch time, holding the Clippers to just 6 points over the final 4.5 minutes of regulation. Denver never trailed in overtime either, after leading for just 3:12 of regulation.
Fun fact: Denver is 4-4 in the last 8 playoff games that they’ve trailed by 15 points or more. They lead the NBA in double-digit comeback wins since the start of the 2023 playoffs.