NBA playoff takeaways 2025: Stephen Curry leads Warriors past Rockets, Cavs guards dominate Heat; Celtics rally and Thunder roll

The NBA playoffs continued Sunday with the other four first-round series tipping off. The No. 1 and No. 8 seeds will face each other, in addition to the No. 2 versus No. 7 seeds in each conference.

Check out Yahoo Sports’ predictions for each first-round series, in addition to Kevin O’Connor’s ranking of the top 40 players in the NBA postseason.

Here are the results and key takeaways from Sunday’s games:

The Golden State Warriors’ slow start didn’t end up hurting them after all.

The Warriors, powered by big outings from both Stephen Curry and new star Jimmy Butler, held on late to grab a 95-85 win over the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center to kick off their series. The win ended what was a day full of blowouts across the league.

So much for Draymond Green’s DPOY chances

Though Draymond Green has more than solidified himself as one of the best defenders in the league, and he was named a finalist for the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award on Sunday, it sure didn’t look like it in the opening minutes on Sunday night.

Alperen Şengün got the best of Green right out of the gate and set the tone right away.

Şengün had eight points and six rebounds in the first quarter alone, which helped them to a 21-18 lead at the break. The two teams shot a combined 3-16 from the 3-point line in the opening period, and Houston had just a single bucket in the final three minutes of the quarter.

The Warriors then used that defensive stand and took off. They opened the second quarter on a 14-5 run and then outscored Houston 29-13 in the period to take a 13-point lead into the locker room. Stephen Curry drained two deep 3-pointers during their last push, too, including one where he crossed up Fred VanVleet.

Steph does Steph things

Butler and Curry erupted in the third quarter to push the Warriors to the blowout win without much issue. Butler hit his first 3-pointer midway through the quarter to give the Warriors a 20-point lead, their largest at the time, and then Curry followed it up with an absolutely wild 3-pointer that caused Kevin Harlan to yell out, “geometrically that should not have happened!”

Just watch:

But, instead of running away with the game, the Rockets ended the period on a 17-3 run to cut the game back to single digits.

Though the Rockets got within three points early in the fourth quarter, that was as close as they came. The Warriors quickly closed out the game and grabbed the 10-point win, thanks in part to another long bucket from Curry.

Şengün led Houston with 26 points and nine rebounds in the loss. Jabari Smith Jr. added 11 points off the bench, and VanVleet finished with 10 points and seven assists. They went just 5-of-27 from the 3-point line. Their 85 points was a season low.

Curry finished with 31 points and shot 5-of-9 from behind the arc for Golden State. Butler added 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists, and Brandin Podziemski finished with 14 points. The Warriors were out-rebounded by 16 in the win. The Warriors have now won at least one road playoff game in 28 of the 29 series in the Curry era.

Game 2 of the series is set for Wednesday night.

— Ryan Young

With 8:58 left in the fourth quarter on Sunday, the Miami Heat remained within striking distance with a 92-85 deficit against the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.

Then Ty Jerome happened. The Cavs guard named on Sunday as a finalist for the Sixth Man of the Year award hit a 3-pointer to extend Cleveland’s lead to 10 and spark a Cavaliers surge to a 121-100 Game 1 win.

Jerome led the charge down the stretch while scoring 16 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter.

Jerome joined Donovan Mitchell (30 points) and Darius Garland (27 points) in standout efforts from the Cavaliers backcourt on a day in which Cleveland committed just seven turnovers.

A Cavaliers offense that led the league in offensive rating during the regular season showed no signs of rust following a week-long layoff from the conclusion of the regular season. The Cavs look very much like contenders in the East.

Evan Mobley takes back seat

With Cleveland’s guard’s cooking, Evan Mobley took a secondary role on offense while tallying nine points and seven rebounds. This could become a trend this series against a Heat frontcourt featuring Bam Adebayo and standout rookie Kel’el Ware, both of whom are strong post defenders.

The frontcourt matchup that also features standout Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (12 points, 11 rebounds, 3 steals) should be a compelling watch for the remainder of the series.

This is a competitive Heat team

The eighth-seeded Grizzlies showed zero signs of life while on the wrong end of a historic beatdown by the Thunder earlier Sunday. This Heat team is not the East’s version of those Grizzlies, despite earning the No. 8 seed as the first No. 10 seed to advance out of the play-in.

Erik Spoelstra is a championship coach, and Tyler Herro and Adebayo are All-Stars and high-level competitors. The Heat are outmatched, but they didn’t wilt after digging out of a 55-40 deficit in the second quarter. They remained competitive and within single digits as late as the midpoint of the fourth quarter. Don’t expect the Heat to roll over because Sunday’s game got out of hand late.

— Jason Owens

For a stretch in the second quarter on Sunday, Orlando’s lockdown defense gave Magic fans hope that they could compete with the reigning champs.

But the Boston Celtics opened things up in the third quarter and cruised to a 103-86 win to take a 1-0 lead over Orlando in their first-round playoff series.

The Celtics rode a 30-18 third-quarter surge to turn a 49-48 halftime deficit into a 17-point runaway win. But the Celtics don’t leave Sunday’s win without concern.

Jayson Tatum plays after late injury scare

With 8:28 remaining, Jayson Tatum took a hard fall after a foul by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on a layup attempt that was upgraded to a flagrant 1.

Caldwell-Pope hit Tatum’s right elbow as Tatum attempted to dunk, and Tatum fell hard on his right wrist.

Tatum remained sitting on the floor for several moments before walking to the Celtics bench. He received medical attention on the bench as officials reviewed the foul. He remained in the game and shot free throws after the review determined that Caldwell-Pope’s foul was flagrant.

An 81% free throw shooter, Tatum missed them both. But he continued to play down the stretch and hit his first 3-pointer of the game moments later, easing concern that he was dealing with any sort of impactful injury.

Tatum remained in the game until the Celtics pulled their starters in the final two minutes. He finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds and was seen flexing his wrist on the bench late in the game.

Head coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters postgame that Tatum “is doing good.”

Tatum told reporters that X-rays came back negative.

Can Orlando’s defense impact this series?

Orlando’s offense is inconsistent and unlikely to keep pace with Boston’s firepower this series. If the Magic hope to steal a game or put pressure on the Celtics, they’ll need to lean on a unit that posted the NBA’s second-best defensive rating during the regular season.

That defense showed up late in the second quarter as Orlando closed the half on a 25-12 run to take a one-point lead into the break. But Boston’s offense led by Derrick White (30 points) and its own top-five defense ultimately prevailed to put the game out of reach long before the final buzzer.

— Jason Owens

There are blowouts and then there’s what the No. 1 seed Thunder did to the No. 8 Grizzlies in their playoff opener Sunday. What was presumably a first-round NBA playoff game looked like a college basketball preseason matchup in which a national championship contender played a mid-major directional program. Maybe even a junior college.

Reporters will have to check to see if Memphis’ players are OK after what transpired on the Paycom Center court. What was perpetrated will need to be cleaned up before these two teams play Game 2 on Tuesday.

Relentless onslaught from the start

Memphis never had a chance. The Thunder looked every bit the championship contender and well-rested with a week off after the regular season ended last Sunday. After the Grizzlies took a brief 9-8 lead five minutes into the first quarter, Oklahoma City unleashed hell, finishing the opening 12 minutes with a 32-20 lead and outscoring the Grizzlies 31-10 in the second quarter.

If the Grizzlies had any aspirations to be more competitive in the second half, the Thunder quickly smashed that notion with a 10-0 run that led to an eventual 44-point third quarter. If this was a boxing match, the corner would have thrown in the towel. A fighting referee probably wouldn’t have let the Grizzlies come out to play the second half. It was the fifth-biggest margin of victory in NBA postseason history.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander only played 23 minutes and scored 15 points, nearly getting his Easter Sunday off.

When asked postgame about Memphis’ performance, Ja Morant responded: “We will never play that bad again.”

In fairness, that would be pretty tough to do.

Thunder frontcourt dominates in total mismatch

Oklahoma City had a huge advantage on the frontline, led by 20 points from Jalen Williams and 19 from Chet Holmgren. On the other side, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Zach Edey each scored only four points.

The Thunder had eight blocks as a team, wiping out any attempts by the Grizzlies to take the ball to the basket. Settling for outside shots didn’t work either, with Memphis shooting 6-of-34 on 3-pointers and 34% overall.

Yes, this was only one game in a best-of-seven series. But how do the Grizzlies recover to mount any sort of challenge? Game 2 tips off Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. ET.

— Ian Casselberry

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NBA playoff takeaways 2025: Stephen Curry leads Warriors past Rockets, Cavs guards dominate Heat; Celtics rally and Thunder roll

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