NBA playoffs results and takeaways: Warriors beat Rockets; top-seeded Cavs, Thunder roll (2025)

The Golden State Warriors picked up another postseason win, the No. 1 seeds each made a statement, and the defending champions earned a comfortable victory as the NBA playoffs continued Sunday.

After advancing through the Play-In Tournament, the No. 7 Warriors bested the No. 2 Rockets 95-85 in Houston in the final Game 1 of Sunday’s slate, fueled again by big performances from Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler.

STEPHEN SHOT IT FROM THE BAY 📍

📺 @NBCSAuthentic pic.twitter.com/bRflDOE5D4

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) April 21, 2025

Earlier, the No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers surged to a 121-100 win at home over the No. 8 Miami Heat as Ty Jerome starred down the stretch. Jerome put up 28 points in 26 minutes, while Donovan Mitchell led the Cavs with 30 points.

Oklahoma City also flexed its muscle, showing why it had the NBA’s best record this season, in a lopsided 131-80 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. The 51-point victory was the fifth-largest margin of victory in NBA playoff history and came despite Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander being held to a season-low 15 points on 4-for-13 shooting.

In Boston, the Celtics opened their series against Orlando with a 103-86 victory, led by the 30 points of Derrick White.

Warriors 95, Rockets 85

Curry-Butler duo helps Golden State overpower Houston

Curry has played in 29 playoff series during this golden era of Warriors basketball. They have now won a road game in 28 of them.

It only took them one night in Houston, a place that Curry and the Warriors have historically dominated this time of year. Curry, after hearing all week how well the Rockets had bottled him up during a regular-season win a couple of weeks back, went 12-of-19 shooting for a game-high 31 points, living at the rim with leaners and floaters after they shut off the perimeter for him.

The script called for Butler to co-star, and he did, scoring 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting in his Warriors’ playoff debut, sealing the win with a jumper and an emphatic dunk in the closing minutes.

PLAYOFF JIMMY‼️‼️‼️ pic.twitter.com/XY73aV3a1x

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) April 21, 2025

That provided enough offense for the Warriors to get over the finish line against a Rockets offense that struggled to get anything clean in the halfcourt. Houston only scored 85 points on 39 percent shooting and an anemic 6 of 29 for 3. They also missed nine of their 20 free throws and only had a shred of offensive success through their 22 offensive rebounds and 22 second-chance points.

The Warriors will try to get greedy in Game 2 in Houston on Wednesday night, believing the two days of rest should help their older legs and allow them to come out fresh again with a chance to take firm control of the series before its shift to San Francisco. — Anthony Slater

Rockets go quiet against Warriors’ defense

Veteran teams with championship experience like the Warriors study their opponent’s weaknesses and exacerbate them on the biggest stage.

Anyone who observed this Rockets team this season saw a thrilling, aggressive defensive team that imposed their will physically for 48 minutes. But at the other end of the floor, they struggled. Severely. During the regular season, Houston ranked in the bottom third in terms of halfcourt production — scoring a meager 93.2 points per 100 halfcourt plays, according to Cleaning the Glass.

The playoffs are an entirely different beast. In Game 1, Golden State, a stout defensive team in their own right, threw a mixture of defensive looks at Houston, putting them in uncomfortable, familiar positions. The Rockets have gotten through the year embracing an equal-opportunity offense, leaning on each other on a nightly basis. But the lack of a true go-to scorer, like the Warriors have in Curry and Butler, puts them at great risk in the postseason. There’s an unspoken advantage in having self-sufficient offensive engines. The Warriors, meanwhile, held Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet to 17 combined points on 6-for-32 shooting.

As Game 1 showed, the playoffs are a slugfest. Both teams combined for just 81 points in the first half, neither team reached 70 points after three quarters and the final score was an ode to the early 2000s. But Houston’s sloppiness — shooting just 20.7 percent from 3, 55 percent from the free-throw line and 17 turnovers to boot — told the story of a dull evening for the No. 2 seed. (Butler and Curry had 50 points between them.) The Rockets need to get back to their bread and butter and drawing board— getting creative, punishing teams in the open floor and attacking the paint — if they want to restore order in this series. — Kelly Iko

Cavaliers 121, Heat 100

Jerome was key to Cleveland’s push

A special regular season in Cleveland was followed by an equally special playoff opener from Jerome.

In the first postseason game of his career, Jerome, the Cavs’ sixth man and a finalist to win the NBA award for the league’s best bench player, scored 16 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter on a night when several of his teammates did not exactly match his intensity or effectiveness. Jerome, who missed all but two games last season due to an ankle injury that required surgery, returned to average 12.5 points and shoot better than 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range for the season. In the fourth quarter against the Heat, he made 6-of-7 shots and all three of his 3s.

The Cavs’ top three guards carried them. Mitchell had five boards and four assists in addition to his 30 points. Hetied Michael Jordan’s NBA record of scoring 30-plus points in Game 1, with each doing so in seven straight series. Meanwhile, Darius Garland gave Cleveland 27 points and five assists. I had a concern about Cleveland’s small backcourt coming into the postseason (Mitchell and Garland are 6-foot-3 and 6-foot-1, respectively, and if you’re wondering, Jerome is bigger at 6-foot-5), but the Cavs’ relative lack of size at the guard position was not a factor.

TY JEROME IS GOING OFF IN THE FOURTH 🚨

He's got 16 PTS on 3 3PM with 3 AST in his #NBAPlayoffs presented by Google debut!!!

MIA-CLE | Game 1 | TNT pic.twitter.com/NkBMCwITTy

— NBA (@NBA) April 21, 2025

The lopsided final score, and Jerome’s excellence (10-of-15 shooting from the field, 5-of-8 on 3s) mask a lethargic playoff opener for just about half the Cavs’ team. Evan Mobley finished with nine points and seven rebounds, but didn’t have a single board in the first half. De’Andre Hunter, Cleveland’s key acquisition at the trade deadline, missed all four shots in 16 minutes and didn’t score. Isaac Okoro, the Cavs’ other reserve wing next to Hunter, also went 0-of-4 shooting.

I was watching all of this while thinking, “The Cavs finished 27 games in front of Miami in the standings.” And yes, the final score suggests an appropriate blowout. But this was an eight-point game at the end of the first, second and third quarters, and if not for Jerome, may have remained tight in the final frame. The Cavs will need to be better collectively in Game 2 on Wednesday. — Joe Vardon

Heat need more offensive spark in this series

The Heat made a valiant showing in this loss, but disparities in depth proved to be too much for Miami to overcome.

Sunday marked the third different road city for the Heat to visit within a five-day span. For most of Game 1, especially in the first half, Miami did a solid job of keeping the game close before Cleveland found a few extra gears and pulled away for good in the fourth quarter.

The Heat got strong contributions from Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Davion Mitchell and Kel’el Ware, but the Cavaliers’ dominant guard rotation was the deciding factor. Miami, which lost every matchup of its three-game regular-season series to the Cavaliers, had the NBA’s best net rating over its final dozen games of the regular season, but Cleveland’s well-demonstrated ability to grow leads means Miami needs to seek more offense to have any shot in this series.

In Game 1, Davion Mitchell and Duncan Robinson helped the offense in their reserve minutes with defense, playmaking, shooting and high IQ plays. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra may need to lean more on those two to keep matchups as close as possible. — James Jackson

Celtics 103, Magic 86

Boston finds a way despite Orlando’s strong perimeter defense

The Celtics broke the NBA record for most 3-point attempts in a single season. The Magic easily led the league in preventing such attempts. In their matchup, something had to give.

The Celtics won Game 1 despite failing to generate their normal amount of outside shots. They only created 16 3-point attempts in the first half and 37 in the game. Though they did hit 16 of those attempts (43.2 percent), with White and Payton Pritchard combining for 11 makes, many of the Celtics weren’t able to find their normal freedom behind the arc. Even while surging ahead in the third quarter, they only shot 10-for-24 from the field with four 3-point makes. They needed to find other ways to win.

And they did, even as Boston’s offense sputtered at times. Jayson Tatum had an inefficient outing with 17 points on 8-for-22 shooting. He often creates great opportunities against big men on the perimeter, but had serious trouble finding any space against Wendell Carter Jr.’s switches. Kristaps Porziņģis only scored five points on 1-for-8 shooting. Among Boston’s starters, only White and Jrue Holiday made 3-pointers in the first three quarters. Tatum, Porzingis and Jaylen Brown finished a combined 1-for-12 from behind the arc.

Is it a good sign for Boston that such a slow offensive performance turned into a comfortable victory? Maybe, but the Magic’s second-ranked defense lived up to its reputation. This shouldn’t be a sweet series for the Celtics. They’ll need to be gritty and physical, as they were in the second half of Game 1. — Jay King

pic.twitter.com/QMKn8kcZOl

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) April 20, 2025

Magic need to find ways to get to the line

During the regular season, the Magic generated a significant share of their offensive production via free throws. Led by Paolo Banchero, they ranked second leaguewide in free-throw attempt rate, trailing only LeBron James’ Lakers, and attempted 23.0 free throws per game.

Yet on Sunday, the Magic struggled to get to the line, going only 8-for-11.

Maybe it was a matter of unbalanced officiating. (The Celtics went 13-for-18 on free throws.)

Maybe part of it was the difference between the regular season and the playoffs, when officials tend to give defenders more latitude.

But even accounting for those factors, I think we can agree that the Magic struggled to get downhill against a Celtics team that has outstanding perimeter defenders and walled off the paint well. The Celtics no doubt prioritized protecting their rim and keeping the Magic off the free-throw line.

That leads to a larger truth: Orlando did a lot of things well, especially in the first half, but to make this a series, Orlando will have to find a way to play its game offensively against Boston’s outstanding defense. — Josh Robbins

What is the Magic’s game on offense?

It’s pushing the ball upcourt in transition as often as possible to avoid playing against a set defense and, just as important, generating free-throw opportunities. Above all else, the Magic have to try not to rely on 3-point shooting, which, as the entire world already knows, tends to be their biggest weakness.

The Magic finished Sunday’s game 10-for-27 from 3-point range. That success rate of 37.0 percent is very good for them.

To their credit, the Magic limited the Celtics to 16-of-37 shooting (43.2 percent) from 3 — a high percentage, to be sure, but also an un-Celtics-like 37 attempts. Remember, the Celtics averaged 48 3-point attempts per game during the regular season, it was an achievement for the Magic to run them off the 3-point line as well as they did.

The Magic’s recipe for success is to limit the number of 3s the Celtics attempt. Mission accomplished there in Game 1.

But it’s also key for the Magic to attack the rim. That’s something they did not accomplish Sunday, and it’s something they need to correct for the remainder of the series. — Robbins

Thunder 131, Grizzlies 80

Thunder showed just how frightening they can be

If there were any questions about whether Oklahoma City’s dominant regular season would translate to the postseason, the Thunder delivered a near-historic performance in Game 1, putting the league on notice of exactly how loaded and lethal they could be in these playoffs.

Oklahoma City led by as many as 56 points, nearly setting an NBA record for the largest margin of victory in a playoff game. The Denver Nuggets in 2009 and the Minneapolis Lakers in 1956 each won playoff games by 58 points. The Thunder’s +12.9 point differential in the regular season set an NBA record.

The Thunder led by 32 points at halftime, holding the Grizzlies to 33 percent shooting at that juncture, and just 34 percent for the game. Six Thunder players scored in double digits, led by Aaron Wiggins’ 21 points off the bench. Oklahoma City shot 50 percent and outscored the Grizzlies 27-5 in fast-break points. The Thunder forced Grizzlies star Ja Morant into being a passer and perimeter shooter, holding him to 17 points on 6-for-17 shooting and 1-for-6 on 3-pointers. Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. was held to four points and three rebounds on 2-for-13 shooting. — Darnell Mayberry

After an inexcusable effort, Grizzlies’ belief in themselves will be tested

There are a variety of words one can use to describe the Grizzlies’ performance in Game 1. Ugly. Embarrassing. Uninspired. Nauseating. Regardless of how you describe it, it’ll go down as one of the most lopsided playoff losses in NBA history.

There is no doubt that the Grizzlies were put in an awful position, having to play the best team in the league just 36 hours after making it out of the Play-In Tournament, all while star point guard Morant is still recovering from a severe right ankle sprain he suffered early in the week.

While that might be true, this was still an inexcusable lack of effort and focus from a Memphis team that at one point earlier this season looked like a potential threat to Oklahoma City in the Western Conference. Coming out of this one, there aren’t any positive takeaways. There aren’t any silver linings. The only solace Memphis can take as it leaves Paycom Center is that this will only count as one loss, and it will have a chance to respond with a better effort in Game 2 on Tuesday night.

The biggest test coming away from a game like this is whether the Grizzlies can muster enough belief in themselves to keep fighting the rest of this series or if it only took one game for the Thunder to snatch their confidence. The next 48 hours will be one of the most difficult challenges Morant, Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane have experienced during their time in a Grizzlies uniform. — Will Guillory

(Photo of Steph Curry, left, and Jalen Green: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)