The NBA's final 4 is set: Thunder,
Knicks, Wolves and Pacers remain, and parity reigns again
[May 19, 2025]
By TIM REYNOLDS
The parity era continues in the NBA.
The New York Knicks haven't won an NBA championship since 1973. The
Indiana Pacers won their most recent title that year — in the ABA.
The Oklahoma City Thunder franchise has one title in its history,
that coming in 1979 when the team called Seattle home. And the
Minnesota Timberwolves have never even been to the NBA Finals.
Meet the NBA's final four.
When Commissioner Adam Silver hands one of those teams the Larry
O'Brien Trophy next month, it'll mark a league first — seven
championship franchises in a seven-year span.
There hasn't been a back-to-back NBA champion since Golden State in
2017 and 2018. From there, the list of champions goes like this:
Toronto in 2019, the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, Milwaukee in 2021,
Golden State in 2022, Denver in 2023 and Boston last season.
It's the longest such run of different champions in NBA history;
Major League Baseball, the NHL and the NFL have all had longer ones,
and not too long ago, either.
But for the NBA, this is different. The league wanted
unpredictability, especially after four consecutive Cleveland-vs.-Golden
State title matchups from 2015 through 2018.
And things have been highly unpredictable since. No matter what the
Finals matchup is this year, the NBA will be seeing 11
conference-champion franchises in the span of seven seasons.
“We've still got eight more wins to achieve our ultimate goal,”
Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “We've still got two more series.
We're only halfway there.”
The season is over for 26 of the NBA's 30 clubs. But the fun stuff
is just starting.
Conference finals start Tuesday
The Western Conference finals — No. 6 seed Minnesota vs. No. 1 seed
Oklahoma City — begin Tuesday night in Oklahoma. The Eastern
Conference finals — No. 4 seed Indiana vs. No. 3 seed New York —
begin Wednesday night in Manhattan. The Wolves lost the West finals
last year; the Pacers lost the East finals a year ago.
“You've got to have big dreams,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.
“You don't know how often you're going to be in this position.”
Indeed, the championship window for teams doesn't seem to be staying
open as long as it did in the past.
Boston was a huge favorite to win its second straight title; the
Celtics didn't get out of Round 2, in part because they couldn't
hold onto big leads and in part because Jayson Tatum ruptured his
right Achilles tendon in that series with the Knicks.
“Upset or not, whatever it is, we beat a great team,” Knicks guard
Jalen Brunson said. “They obviously lost a huge piece ... but
they're still a great team.”
Damian Lillard tore an Achilles tendon in Round 1, ending
Milwaukee's hopes. Cleveland, the top seed in the East, bowed out in
Round 2 against Indiana after a slew of Cavs were dealing with
health issues. Stephen Curry strained his hamstring; that was all it
took to doom Golden State's chances in Round 2 against Minnesota.
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Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) celebrates after
the team's win against the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 in the Western
Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs, Sunday, May
18, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)
“He's our sun,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said.
“This is a solar system. He's our sun.”
And now, the NBA solar system is about to see new star holding the
trophy.
The next one
There is nobody left in these playoffs who has been an NBA Finals
MVP. Not even close.
In fact, there are only seven players left — Indiana’s Pascal Siakam,
Aaron Nesmith and Thomas Bryant; Knicks teammates P.J. Tucker, Cam
Payne and Mikal Bridges; and Oklahoma City’s Alex Caruso — who have
appeared in a Finals game. And most of those appearances didn't add
up to much; Siakam is the only player left in these playoffs with
more than 100 Finals points.
So, who will the next Finals MVP be? Maybe Shai Gilgeous-Alexander,
the Canadian guard and likely MVP from the Thunder? The “Mr. Clutch”
award winner, Brunson from the Knicks? Anthony Edwards, the presumed
next face of the league from the Timberwolves? Tyrese Haliburton,
the dazzling guard and Olympic gold medalist who keeps getting
overlooked by everyone outside of Indiana?
None of them would be surprise choices.
“Our ultimate goal isn't just the Western Conference finals,"
Gilgeous-Alexander said. “You've got to go through there to get
there.”
Who has the edge?
If the NBA’s final four was its own league this season, taking just
the head-to-head results between those four clubs would suggest the
Thunder are the clear favorite.
Oklahoma City went 6-2 against the other three conference finalists,
while New York and Indiana both went 3-4 and Minnesota went 3-5.
The Thunder swept the Pacers and Knicks, and the Pacers swept the
Timberwolves.
As far as the head-to-heads going into the conference finals,
Oklahoma City and Minnesota split four meetings — with the
Timberwolves outscoring the Thunder 475-472 — while the Knicks went
2-1 against Indiana, with all three games decided by at least 11
points.
“You can feel good about it, feel however you want to feel about
it,” Haliburton said of getting to this point. “But at the end of
the day, we’re not done. We know we all have a bigger goal at mind.
Our goal wasn’t just to get to the Eastern Conference finals and be
done. Our goal is to win a championship.”
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