The NBA Finals are set, and it will be the Oklahoma City Thunder versus the Indiana Pacers for the latest Larry O’Brien Trophy.
What about the others who didn’t get this far, though? Why are these two teams in the Finals and the others aren’t? That’s what we’ll aim to answer here as we examine every team that has been eliminated along the way.
Memphis Grizzlies: Outmanned and Outgunned
The Grizzlies were already at a major disadvantage facing the best team in the league. Their roster simply didn’t match up with the 68-win Oklahoma City Thunder with the latest MVP surrounded by the best shot-stoppers and ball-snatchers around.
The gap in rosters became extremely evident when OKC demolished them by 51 points in Game 1. Then, they laid waste to them again in Game 2— this time by 19 points. It only got worse for Memphis, too. Their centerpiece, Ja Morant, suffered an injury of horrifying magnitude in Game 3.
This killed any remaining spirit the Grizzlies had left. They blew a massive lead in Game 3 after the Morant injury, then their season ended two days later. However, Ja or no Ja, this Grizzlies team was simply not built to handle the best team in their conference.
Miami Heat: Iced From the Outside
If the Grizzlies were outmatched, the Heat were biblically outmatched. Their entrance into the postseason did nothing but validate those who believed the Play-In should be abolished entirely.
At essentially every single opportunity, the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers buried the Heat. They lost three of their four games by 20+ points. This included the single-worst performance in an elimination game by any team— a 55-point destruction in G4 in Miami. By the end of the series, the point differential was +122 in Cleveland’s favor. This was the worst in a playoff series in league history.
The Heat simply looked lost and misguided, which makes sense considering how they stumbled into the playoffs. Their former superstar, Jimmy Butler, asked out of town two months before playoff time, got his wish and tanked team morale. His presence undoubtedly would’ve helped, but even in that best-case scenario, the Cavaliers still held a seismic roster advantage.
Essentially, the Heat were dead on arrival.
https://twitter.com/ClutchPoints/status/1917219824897499330
Orlando Magic: No Magic from Beyond the Arc
The Orlando Magic won their Play-In game pretty convincingly to enter the playoffs. They even took a game off the defending champion Boston Celtics. However, here they are in this article.
So what went wrong in the other four games?
Simply put, the Magic couldn’t shoot. Over the course of their five-game scrap with Boston, they shot 26.3% from beyond the arc. Not only eons below league average, but well below their already dreadful 31.7% they averaged in the regular season. That 31.7% number was good for last in the NBA this year, in case anyone was curious.
No shooting is a death sentence against any team. Against the Boston Celtics, however? There’s not a strong enough descriptor for how much trouble a team is in.
Milwaukee Bucks: Drowned in Threes + One Big Pop
The Milwaukee Bucks were subjected to a flood of three-pointers from the Indiana Pacers. Indiana shot 39.3% from beyond the arc, and only shot under 35% once in the series. That one “off game” was, in fact, the one loss they took in the whole series. Milwaukee had no answers, and it was the catalyst for the team’s elimination.
It wasn’t the only thing, however.
In Game 4, Damian Lillard tore his Achilles, rendering any chances of a comeback futile. The belief surrounding the team sank, and it left F Giannis Antetokounmpo to fend for himself.
That, obviously, did not go well.
Los Angeles Lakers: Zero Interior
After pulling off a heist to acquire superhuman Luka Doncic, the Lakers became title contenders overnight. LeBron, Austin Reaves, Luka – just that Big 3 alone strikes fear into any opposing defense.
However, like all others on this list, the Lakers had one massive flaw within their roster.
To get Doncic, LA had to surrender Anthony Davis to Dallas, leaving a massive hole in their frontcourt. They tried to patch it with Mark Williams, but he “failed a physical” that barred him from moving out of NOLA. So, they decided to ride with Jaxson Hayes and company.
https://twitter.com/HornetsReddit/status/1892637368882020473
They treaded water for a while, all the way to the playoffs. Then, they ran into the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Rudy Gobert had his way all series. His magnum opus game was in the closeout Game 5 – 27 points and an inconceivable 24 rebounds to eliminate the highly touted Laker squad. If the Lakers want to make any noise next year, they must address this heavily in the offseason. Otherwise, they’ll find themselves in this same predicament again.
Detroit Pistons: Bombarded by Brunson
The feel-good story of the NBA playoffs has to be the Detroit Pistons, no doubt. Just last year, Detroit went 14-68 and lost a record 28 straight games in the process. They were the premier laughing stock of the Association.
Fast forward a year, and the Pistons are 44-38 and the No. 6 seed in the East, their first playoff appearance in six years. The city rallied around the Pistons and their outstanding turnaround as they geared up to face the New York Knicks in the first round.
Evidently, Jalen Brunson didn’t like this feel-good story all too much. In the six-game bout, Brunson averaged 32/8/5, giving Detroit nightmares game in and game out.
He saved his best performance for last. In the closeout Game 6, he dropped 40 points in the Motor City, including the game-winning shot to send Detroit home.
The Pistons did well to make it back into the dance, but they could only do so much against flow-state Jalen Brunson.
https://twitter.com/knicks_union/status/1929171742838190164
Los Angeles Clippers: Succumbed to Brighter Stars
Los Angeles is the city of stars, so it makes it all the more ironic that it’s star performances that the Clippers succumbed to. In three of the four Clipper losses, they allowed either Nikola Jokic or Jamal Murray to run roughshod on their defense. Jokic had a monster game to open the series (29/9/12) and a masterpiece in Game 4 (36/21/8 on 56% shooting), while Murray dropped 43 points on 8/14 shooting from three in Game 5.
Circling back to Jokic, he had a pretty good series overall— his averages were 24/11/6 in the seven-game scrap. Murray was solid too, giving the Nuggets 23/6/5.
With those two doing what they wanted at times, the mountain was simply too high for the Clippers to climb.
Houston Rockets: Digging Their Own Grave
The Houston Rockets went into the playoffs as one of the youngest teams. They also went in as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, silencing those who thought they were still too young to make noise in the fiery West.
Well, silenced them briefly.
For as young and energetic as they played, the Rockets were still very inexperienced, especially in playoff basketball atmospheres. That lack of experience reared its ugly, ugly head against Golden State. In particular, two games stand out – Games 3 and 6.
In Game 3, Houston held a two-point lead going into the fourth quarter, but a 35-point Warriors onslaught buried Houston late. Players like Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun went cold, and no one could contain them. In Game 4, Houston led really late this time — with under four minutes remaining — but Golden State once again clawed through for victory. The killer in this one was a foul on a Jimmy Butler three-point shot with 58 seconds left.
Fouling a 30.8% three-point shooter and surrendering 35 points in the final quarter is precisely the type of event that inexperience leads to. Without either of those major errors, the series never goes to a seventh game— a game where the Rockets get shot out of their own building by Buddy Hield and company.
The good thing for the Rockets is that time will fix this issue, as it did with the Western Conference champion Thunder. Whether they’ll reach those heights is to be determined.
Golden State Warriors: The Kitchen Closed
Over the last decade, the Golden State Warriors won everything with Stephen Curry at the forefront. Golden State was never out of a game or a series with Chef Curry in their arsenal— just ask the 2022 Boston Celtics.
In Game 1 against Minnesota, however, they lost that bullet.
Curry strained his hamstring in this game, a game that Golden State won, but at a dire cost. Curry would never suit up in the series again, and the whole team suffered as a result. Along with losing a massive veteran presence and a playoff riser, losing the best shooter in history led to the Warriors shooting 31.4% from three the rest of the series. Golden State’s offense was all out of sorts, and there wasn’t much they could do.
Essentially, the kitchen closed down, and the Warriors stopped cooking.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Trialiburton by Fire
In the NBA, it has become increasingly common for teams to live and die by the three-pointer. In this case, the Indiana Pacers thrived on their incredible ability to shoot threes, and as a result, the East’s top-seeded Cavs were buried alive.
Indiana shot 42% from beyond the arc in this series — well clear of the Cavs’ 29.4% — and one man’s shooting performance stood out in particular. Tyrese Haliburton went scorched earth in this series, shooting 54% from the field and an astounding 45% from three with a game-winner in Game 2 to boot.
They couldn’t plug the perimeter, and they really couldn’t contain Haliburton, and the Cavs’ wonderful season was cut short.
https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1919932469286986211
Boston Celtics: Death by Three-Pointer w/A Big Loss
Staying on the topic of death by three-pointers, here’s our defending champion (who is soon to be usurped), the Boston Celtics. Their cause of elimination was also three-point shooting, but it’s not because the Knicks shot the ball particularly well. Instead, the Celtics shot the three uncharacteristically awful.
They lost both games in Boston after getting out front, then shooting ice-cold from three, allowing the Knicks to come back. In the decisive Game 5, Boston again shot extremely poorly and lost their chance at repeating.
Unfortunately, that’s not the only thing they lost.
In Game 4, Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles while going for a move on a defender. In an instant, the Celtics’ short and long-term plans took a sharp turn, as Tatum will certainly miss all of 2025-26.
It’s a good thing they got that chip, because who knows what the C’s will be like when Tatum comes back.
Denver Nuggets: The Biggest Collapses at the Worst Times
The Denver Nuggets gave the Thunder a good, seven-game run for their money, but ultimately came up short. To find out why, look no further than Games 5 and 7. In the former, role players such as Michael Porter Jr. and Christian Braun struggled mightily. Porter Jr went 1/7 and didn’t make a single three, while Braun went 3/12 from the field. Those two performances, along with others, rendered Jokic and his 44-pointer that night useless.
Then, in Game 7, it was Jamal Murray’s turn to disappear. A usually electric playoff performer went 6/16 from the field and 1/8 from three, enough to aid in sinking his team for good.
The Nuggets could be competing for a title today if not for these two collapses from within, but the NBA doesn’t do ifs, buts, or maybe’s.
Minnesota Timberwolves: Ant-Man Played To Size
For the second straight year, the Minnesota Timberwolves reached the Western Conference Finals. For the second straight year, they were unceremoniously bounced in five games.
When the Mavericks did it last year, it was due to Luka and Kyrie Irving taking turns frying the vaunted Minnesota defense. This year, the Thunder had a different approach— taking Anthony Edwards out of the series. Edwards still scored 23 points per game, but did so on 47% from the field and 28% from 3-point range. In the final two games especially, Edwards was a no-show, crippling Minnesota to the point of no retur. His 38% FG was a shocking blow to the Wolves.
In this series, Edwards lived up to the name “Ant-Man”, but for all the wrong reasons.
New York Knicks: Sic’d by Siakam
Truth be told, the New York Knicks succumbed to the Pacers as everyone else before them did— getting shot out of the building. However, that’s been the downfall of two other teams already, so let’s look in another direction.
The direction of Pascal Siakam.
Siakam absolutely tormented the Knicks throughout this series, putting up 25/5/4 shooting 52% FG and 50% from three. That’s right, it was a coin flip whether a Siakam three-pointer would go in or not. He was absolutely electric and was rewarded for his service with an ECF Finals MVP.
The Knicks’ reward? Being Pascal’s punching bag as they were swept aside for another year.
Who will feature on this list next year? For what reasons? These are questions only time can answer, but at the very least, the jury is out on these eliminations.
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