The 2025 NBA conference finals are coming to an end. The Oklahoma City Thunder closed out the Western Conference finals Wednesday, and the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers are potentially a game away from wrapping up their series.
The No. 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder took a commanding 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals against the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves before getting blown out in Game 3 at Target Center. But the Thunder bounced back to win Game 4 in a back-and-forth battle before winning the series in Game 5 in dominant fashion Wednesday.
In the East, the No. 4 seed Indiana Pacers took a 2-0 lead against the 3-seed New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. But the Knicks rallied on the Pacers’ home court in Game 3 after a fourth-quarter surge from Karl-Anthony Towns. The Pacers responded by taking Game 4 at home and will head back to New York on Thursday with a 3-1 series lead.
Our NBA insiders break down their biggest takeaways from the matchups and what to watch going forward.
Jump to a series:
Pacers-Knicks | Timberwolves-Thunder
More coverage:
Schedules and results | Offseason guides
Western Conference
Game 5: Thunder 124, Timberwolves 94
When the Thunder made the NBA Finals for the first time in 2012, it was safe to assume it would be the start of a run. Then James Harden had a contract dispute and was traded. Then Kevin Durant hurt his right foot, and Russell Westbrook hurt his right knee.
It’s been 13 years, with plenty of heartache as stars left and a full-scale rebuild.
On Wednesday, Oklahoma City took nothing for granted as the youngest team in the NBA celebrated winning its first trophy as a group. The team will want so much more heading into the Finals but also understand the moment.
“Nothing is promised,” a vanquished Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “When you’re in the moment you’ve got to go for it. They’re positioned to go for it right now.”
The right now is important. Indeed, the Thunder feel like they have a runway. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has gotten two MVP trophies in the past week, noted the youth in the team’s core. But Finch’s words are meaningful, too.
The Thunder approached this series with urgency. They approached the season with urgency. The way they will approach the Finals — with 80 wins in 98 games this year — is a certainty. — Brian Windhorst
Biggest takeaways for the Thunder:
Behold the power of the Thunder at their best.
It would be difficult to be more dominant than Oklahoma City was during the first half. As usual, it started with a swarming, smothering effort on the defensive end. The Cancun weather will feel nice and cool after what the Thunder put the Timberwolves through while building a 33-point lead, forcing 14 turnovers while holding Minnesota to 12-of-38 shooting.
The Thunder’s trio of stars all scored in double digits by the break. Gilgeous-Alexander (20 points, five assists) accounted for 32 points in the first half, matching the Timberwolves’ total. Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren each added 15 points.
The second half was simply a stage setter for the Western Conference finals trophy presentation.
It won’t be the last trophy the Thunder hoist this season if they can play at this level during the Finals. — Tim MacMahon
Biggest takeaways for the Timberwolves:
Minnesota was in this same spot a year ago — trailing 3-1 in the Western Conference finals heading into Game 5 — and the game was over before it started, with the Dallas Mavericks leading 35-19 after the first quarter.
Wednesday was somehow worse.
The Wolves trailed 26-9 heading into the second quarter in Oklahoma City — it was the fewest points in any postseason quarter in franchise history. Anthony Edwards scored six; the rest of the Minnesota roster combined to muster just three more on 1-for-15 shooting.
Even though Minnesota did fight back from down 25 points to beat OKC in overtime during the regular season, this one was over by halftime. The Wolves were down 65-32 at the break, with more turnovers (14 — the most in any half this year, regular season and playoffs included) than made field goals (12). When the Thunder pushed their lead to 37 in the second quarter, it was the largest deficit the Wolves faced all season, edging the 36-point hole they found themselves in against the New York Knicks in December.
It was a bitter end to a Cinderella run for Minnesota, one of the hottest teams in the league for months, which made it as far as it did as the No. 6 seed in the ultra-competitive West. From March 2 through the start of the conference finals, Minnesota went 25-6. Then, in five games against the Thunder, the Wolves lost four of them, including three at Paycom Center by a combined 71 points.
If the Thunder are going to be the team Minnesota has to get through to win the West for years to come — and it certainly appears that way — the Wolves have their work cut out for them.
Their young tandem of Edwards and Jaden McDaniels was a level below the Thunder’s Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams in this series. And with contract decisions to be made on Julius Randle, Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker this summer, their effectiveness — or lack thereof — against Oklahoma City has to be considered. — Dave McMenamin
Finals Game 1: Pacers or Knicks at Thunder (June 5, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC)
What to watch:
Regardless of whether the Indiana Pacers finish off the Eastern Conference finals or the New York Knicks complete a comeback from down 3-1 in the series, Oklahoma City will enter the Finals with home-court advantage and as the overwhelming favorite.
The Thunder won 17 more games than the Knicks and 18 more than the Pacers, and while that’s not definitive — both East teams have taken down 60-win teams in the conference semifinals, and the 50-win Denver Nuggets gave Oklahoma City its toughest test to date — that’s a huge head start.
The Thunder swept both East finalists 2-0 in the regular season and will have the rest edge because their series started a day earlier. If New York can extend the series, all the better for Oklahoma City, which didn’t have to push hard in the conference finals because of repeated blowouts (including the Timberwolves’ lone win).
Gilgeous-Alexander was the only Thunder player to average more than 34 minutes against Minnesota. By contrast, three Pacers and five Knicks have topped that mark thus far in an East series filled with close games, including overtime in Game 1.
Lastly, there’s the history at stake for Oklahoma City, seeking its first title since the franchise moved from Seattle in 2008. Gilgeous-Alexander could become the first MVP to win the title since Stephen Curry for the 2014-15 Golden State Warriors. No player has won MVP of both the regular season and the Finals since LeBron James went back-to-back with the Miami Heat in 2011-12 and 2012-13. — Kevin Pelton
Eastern Conference
Game 4: Pacers 130, Knicks 121
As Tyrese Haliburton sat at the postgame news conference inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse after Indiana’s second-half collapse in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, he did not hesitate to predict how things would look when his Pacers took the court against the New York Knicks in Game 4.
“I think a lot of our offensive struggles in the second half were due to me,” Haliburton said.
“I got to be better there. And I will be better in Game 4.”
It’s one thing to make a declaration like that. It’s another to not just follow through on it, but to do so emphatically.
As Haliburton led the Pacers to a 130-121 victory to move to within one win of returning the franchise to the NBA Finals for the first time in a quarter century, here’s all he did:
It was a virtuoso performance, the kind of conducting job few other players can do. After the way Indiana’s play tailed off in the second half of Game 3, it was a fitting way to regain control of this series.
There has been plenty of talk throughout these playoffs about Indiana’s ability to pull off one frenetic comeback after another; to play at a high-octane pace in a way no team has really ever been able to in the playoffs, when the game traditionally slows down; and to systematically mow through one of the game’s transcendent players in Giannis Antetokounmpo, dominate the 64-win Cleveland Cavaliers and potentially dismiss the Knicks in five games.
All of it, though, is only possible because of the brilliance of Haliburton. Yes, Pascal Siakam — who has a 26-point and 10-rebound showing in a Finals closeout game on his résumé — is a fabulous player, scoring 31 points Tuesday, the latest proof he’s a perfect partner with Haliburton. Yes, Rick Carlisle is a championship-winning coach, who has molded this franchise around a player he sought out as far back as draft night in 2020, when the Dallas Mavericks tried to move up to acquire him. Yes, the Pacers have surrounded him with two-way role players like Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith and Myles Turner, creating the ecosystem in which he could thrive.
But it’s Haliburton at the controls. The Pacers have gone from a fun, frisky team to one that is in the Eastern Conference finals for a second year in a row and on the verge of returning to the Finals.
It’s also exactly the kind of way the people in this basketball-crazed state want to see their hoops played: team-first, pass-heavy and with the ball finding energy and the open man constantly.
In the same way that Indiana’s likely Finals opponent, Oklahoma City, relentlessly pressures its opponents defensively for all 48 minutes of a game, Indiana does the same offensively. A team might be able to slow the Pacers down for a quarter, a half or a game, but Indiana’s bet is that a team can’t handle that over the course of a seven-game series.
No one has come close to it so far in these playoffs. And, after Haliburton’s latest incandescent performance, the Pacers are one win away from getting a chance to lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the first time in franchise history. — Tim Bontemps
Biggest takeaways for the Knicks:
The Knicks entered the fourth quarter of Game 4 in almost the exact same spot they did in Game 3 — down double digits. But rather than use those first few minutes of the final period to chip away, they looked lost defensively and briskly put the Pacers in the bonus with bad fouls, allowing Indiana to extend its advantage. Sure, New York mounted a tangible comeback threat in the final five minutes, getting the deficit to six. But the rough minutes to begin the fourth ultimately made the hill too tall to climb, and it left the Knicks staring down the wrong side of a 3-1 series ledger as they head back to New York for Game 5. — Chris Herring
Biggest takeaways for the Pacers:
With his father in attendance for the first time since the end of the first round, Haliburton put on a show from the opening tip. He nearly recorded a triple-double in the first half, racking up 20 points, 10 assists, 9 rebounds and zero turnovers — the first time any player has recorded such a stat line in one half of a conference finals game, according to ESPN Research. His fast start helped the Pacers establish a much quicker tempo in Game 4, which they continued throughout the game en route to seizing control of the series and putting Indiana one win from the NBA Finals. Haliburton finished with 32 points and a triple-double while getting the rest of the team involved to score 33 points on 14-of-22 (63%) shots off his passes. — Jamal Collier
Game 5: Pacers at Knicks (Thursday, 8 p.m. ET, TNT)
What to watch:
At least the Knicks won Game 3. No NBA team has overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series, while 3-1 comebacks have some precedent.
In theory, the Knicks should benefit from having two of the possible three remaining games at home — including a potential Game 7, if they can stretch the series that far. Out of 13 comebacks from 3-1 deficits in NBA history, eight have come from the team with home-court advantage, versus three from the road team. (The final two 3-1 comebacks came courtesy of the Denver Nuggets in 2020, when there was no true home-court advantage because of the Orlando bubble.)
Unfortunately, home court hasn’t been much of an ally for the Knicks recently. New York is just 3-5 at Madison Square Garden in the postseason, while the Pacers are a playoff-best 6-1 on the road, including two wins in New York last week.
One big question for coach Tom Thibodeau in Game 5 is whether he sticks with the Knicks’ new starting lineup, with Mitchell Robinson in Josh Hart’s place, or returns to the quintet he relied on all season, and which led the NBA in minutes played by a huge margin. Robinson has had a positive impact throughout the playoffs, but he might be running out of steam against Indiana’s high-octane attack. In Game 4, the Knicks were outscored by 20 points with him on the court, and New York closed without him in both Game 3 and Game 4.
To be fair, the Knicks haven’t found any lineup combination that can consistently win its minutes against Indiana. Thibodeau might be out of options, whether it’s Robinson, Hart or anyone else on his roster. — Zach Kram