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The first round of the 2025 NBA playoffs tips off Saturday, and fans can expect an action-filled playoffs after a memorable regular season.

After a historic season of dominance, the Cleveland Cavaliers have claimed the No. 1 seed in the East. But not far behind them are the defending champions Boston Celtics in the No. 2 spot, led by Jayson Tatum and reigning Finals MVP Jaylen Brown.

In the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder are ready to rumble after commanding the No. 1 seed for a second straight season behind MVP hopeful Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The final seeding came down to the last day of the regular season, as the Minnesota Timberwolves claimed the No. 6 seed to avoid the play-in.

Before any of these top-tier teams take the court, however, the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds in each conference will have to be decided in the play-in tournament, starting Tuesday.

After the play-in tournament concludes on Friday, the 16-team NBA playoffs begin on Saturday with four games, followed by and four more on April 20. Eight teams from each conference reach the first round and face off in a best-of-seven series to advance. All four rounds of the NBA playoffs are best-of-seven, and teams are not reseeded after each round. The team with the better regular-season record in each series will have home-court advantage for that series. All series are played in a 2-2-1-1-1 format, with the team with the better record hosting Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 (if necessary).

We’ll have complete coverage of the NBA playoffs all the way through the 2025 NBA Finals, which tip off June 5 on ABC and the ESPN App.

MORE: Play-in tournament coverage | Offseason guides

EASTERN CONFERENCE

 TBD

Cleveland Cavaliers (1) vs. TBD (8)

Game 1, Sunday: Play-in winner at Cleveland
Game 2: Play-in winner at Cleveland
Game 3: Cleveland at play-in winner
Game 4: Cleveland at play-in winner
Game 5 (if necessary): Play-in winner at Cleveland
Game 6 (if necessary): Cleveland at play-in winner
Game 7 (if necessary): Play-in winner at Cleveland

More:

• Donovan Mitchell expected to be ready for Cavaliers’ playoff run
• Cavaliers clinch No. 1 seed with win over Bulls
• MacMahon: How Darius Garland’s ‘pivotal’ season is fueling the Cavaliers

TBD

Boston Celtics (2) vs. TBD (7)

Game 1, Sunday: Play-in winner at Boston
Game 2: Play-in winner at Boston
Game 3: Boston at play-in winner
Game 4: Boston at play-in winner
Game 5 (if necessary): Play-in winner at Boston
Game 6 (if necessary): Boston at play-in winner
Game 7 (if necessary): Play-in winner at Boston

More:

• Joe Mazzulla confirms injections on Jaylen Brown’s knee
• Celtics give G League MVP JD Davison 2-year deal, agent says
• Herring: Boston’s historic 3-point performance continues — for better or worse

New York Knicks (3) vs. Detroit Pistons (6)

Game 1, Saturday: Detroit at New York, 6 p.m. ET on ESPN
Game 2: Detroit at New York
Game 3: New York at Detroit
Game 4: New York at Detroit
Game 5 (if necessary): Detroit at New York
Game 6 (if necessary): New York at Detroit
Game 7 (if necessary): Detroit at New York

More:

• Knicks get East’s No. 3 seed, seek ‘urgency’ ahead of playoffs
• Pistons, worst in NBA last season, clinch playoff berth
• Herring: Tom Thibodeau and the minutes-heavy Knicks are at it again
• Woodyard: Cade Cunningham is eyeing more success for the Detroit Pistons

Indiana Pacers (4) vs. Milwaukee Bucks (5)

Game 1, Saturday: Milwaukee at Indiana, 1 p.m. ET on ESPN
Game 2: Milwaukee at Indiana
Game 3: Indiana at Milwaukee
Game 4: Indiana at Milwaukee
Game 5 (if necessary): Milwaukee at Indiana
Game 6 (if necessary): Indiana at Milwaukee
Game 7 (if necessary): Milwaukee at Indiana

More:

• Pacers erase 27-point deficit to clinch 50 wins
• Bucks, healthy Giannis gear up for Pacers rematch in Round 1
• Collier: How a new focus changed Giannis’ game and improved the Bucks’ playoff outlook
• Collier: What Kyle Kuzma brings to Bucks: ‘A better chance to win this year’

WESTERN CONFERENCE

 TBD

Oklahoma City Thunder (1) vs. TBD (8)

Game 1, Sunday: Play-in winner at Oklahoma
Game 2: Play-in winner at Cleveland
Game 3: Oklahoma at play-in winner
Game 4: Oklahoma at play-in winner
Game 5 (if necessary): Play-in winner at Oklahoma
Game 6 (if necessary): Oklahoma at play-in winner
Game 7 (if necessary): Play-in winner at Oklahoma

More:

• NBA Finals contenders’ top weakness: Who can exploit them?
• Bontemps: SGA or Jokic? Results are in for final MVP straw poll
• Kram: NBA contenders don’t fear the Thunder — here are 22 reasons they should

TBD

Houston Rockets (2) vs. TBD (7)

Game 1, Sunday: Play-in winner at Houston
Game 2: Play-in winner at Houston
Game 3: Houston at play-in winner
Game 4: Houston at play-in winner
Game 5 (if necessary): Play-in winner at Houston
Game 6 (if necessary): Houston at play-in winner
Game 7 (if necessary): Play-in winner at Houston

More:

• MacMahon: How Ime Udoka built the Houston Rockets’ new identity

Los Angeles Lakers (3) vs. Minnesota Timberwolves (6)

Game 1, Saturday: Timberwolves at Lakers, 8:30 p.m. on ABC
Game 2: Timberwolves at Lakers
Game 3: Lakers at Timberwolves
Game 4: Lakers at Timberwolves
Game 5 (if necessary): Timberwolves at Lakers
Game 6 (if necessary): Lakers at Timberwolves
Game 7 (if necessary): Timberwolves at Lakers

More:

• Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves like 3-seed Lakers’ title chances
• McMenamin: LeBron James, Luka Doncic and the one player who could swing the playoffs for the Lakers
• MacMahon: The Timberwolves’ chemistry with Edwards, Randle and Gobert is ‘a work in progress’

Denver Nuggets (4) vs. LA Clippers (5)

Game 1, Saturday: Clippers at Nuggets, 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
Game 2: Clippers at Nuggets
Game 3: Nuggets at Clippers
Game 4: Nuggets at Clippers
Game 5 (if necessary): Clippers at Nuggets
Game 6 (if necessary): Nuggets at Clippers
Game 7 (if necessary): Clippers at Nuggets

More:

• Clippers clinch No. 5 seed with win; Warriors fall to play-in
• Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic wraps up triple-double average for season
• Why the Nuggets fired their coach and GM — with just days left in the season

March 2, 1963, lives in NBA history as the day Wilt Chamberlain dropped 100 points. On March 2, 2025, another statistical nugget joined the Big Dipper’s.

The matchup between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs ended 146-132, the 3,159th unique final score in NBA history and 14th this season. Or, in other words, a “scorigami.”

The NBA’s recent increase in scoring has opened the door for point totals never seen in the league’s near-80-year history. Hakob Chalikyan wanted to make sure those factoids didn’t go unnoticed.

Inspired by the NFL scorigami account, Chalikyan launched the NBA version in September. The 70,000-plus scores in NBA history are stored on the site he developed, scorigaminba.com. It also includes totals from the Basketball Association of America, a league that existed from 1946 to 1949 before merging with the National Basketball League to become the NBA.

The X account, NBA_Scorigami, posts scores daily, alongside how many times a specific result has happened and the last time it occurred. The Boston Celtics, Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz are among the franchises that follow the account.

Chalikyan, 25, said it’s easier to achieve a never-before-seen final score in the NBA compared to the NFL (which has 1,091). That led him to wonder whether the NBA version would be popular. More than 35,000 followers later, it’s clear fans of quirky score outcomes aren’t picky.

“It’s still pretty fun because you could see … different eras have different types of scores,” Chalikyan told ESPN. “So now in the era we’re in, scores are getting so high where you’re just going to see scores that never happened before. I think that’s still pretty fun, and I think that’s what people like.”

The origins of scorigami date back to the mid-2010s. As part of a series called “Chart Party,” Jon Bois of SB Nation’s Secret Base, introduced the term in September 2014, initially spelling it “scoragami.”

“Scoragami is a word I just invented, and it refers to the act, and art, of producing a final score in a football game that has never happened before,” Bois wrote.

Bois, who didn’t respond to requests for an interview, told ESPN’s Mina Kimes in a 2021 SportsCenter feature that after writing the post, people slowly began pointing out unusual scores to him on social media.

Two years after the written piece, he brought it to video form, analyzing a chart of NFL scores while pointing out the most interesting ones. Dave Mattingly then created a Twitter page in 2017 equipped with a bot to track all of the scores.

“I took literally a weekend, built the algorithm, learned the Twitter behind the scenes [of] what I would need to do in order to post the tweets,” he told Kimes. “And I just put it out there and then figured that no one would ever see it.”

Eight years later, the account boasts nearly 500,000 followers, establishing a corner of the internet for rooting for unique scores during the NFL season. An accompanying website — developed by Andrew Merriman — includes a chart of every score in NFL history. The X account and website are separate from each other and Bois.

Merriman and Mattingly have had a few conversations, and Mattingly helped Merriman with bits of his code. Merriman said he has never spoken with Bois but that he wouldn’t have made the website without Bois’ original video.

“It is really cool to get a new unique score in any sport,” Merriman told ESPN. “So the NBA version is just as interesting as anything else.”

Chalikyan knew about NFL scorigami and always wondered why an NBA version didn’t exist. Though other accounts had attempted to put one together, Chalikyan thought he’d be the person to do it properly.

He began that process roughly three years ago, gathering and storing data on every game in NBA history. But he said he wasn’t skilled enough to make a website and publish it.

That led to scorigami hitting the shelf until further notice.

“I sort of went away from it for a few years,” Chalikyan said. “But this past summer before the season started, I was like, ‘Hey, I’m pretty good with this type of technology now, so I could probably just go back and take that data and make the website,’ but then I realized I had lost all the data.”

Chalikyan had to start from scratch.

He wrote code and instructed it to visit NBA.com, using the website’s API — an application programming interface, which is “a set of rules or protocols that enables software applications to communicate with each other to exchange data, features and functionality,” according to IBM — to gather the data.

It went year by year, team by team and pulled scores that were then stored in a private database. Chalikyan called it a “pretty automated” process that took three days.

Once he had the data, he transitioned to building the website.

The X account soon followed, though another issue arose — someone beat Chalikyan to it.

“I actually made an account, and then I saw that somebody else had made an account maybe like two, three weeks prior to that,” he said. “And they had about 18,000 followers, and I was like, ‘What?'”

Ethan Peterson had a similar vision. Inspired by the NFL account, he, too, decided to create an NBA version. He originally hoped to start it manually before figuring out how to automate the account, which he said he doesn’t have the necessary experience for.

Peterson posted on Sept. 16, 2024, that the NBA scorigami X account was being launched. Ten days later, Chalikyan reached out, explaining that he had the same idea and a project to show.

“I’d gotten a DM from Hakob, saying that he also created one, and he was wanting to collaborate,” Peterson told ESPN. “And I was like, ‘Hey, yeah, that sounds great. With my announcement that I was going to run this account, it’d be awesome if we could get your bot that you created to help post on this account.'”

When Chalikyan approached him, Peterson said he thought, “Well, I can help him show off this code that he created, because this account already has so many followers.”

Chalikyan has what Peterson said is “the back end of it all” — the coding that’s necessary for the database and automated posting. X has its own API, which Chalikyan uses so that within five minutes of a game ending, the bot automatically posts the result.

“The database that I have … [the bot] goes to that. It checks everything like how many times has a score happened and based on that it tweets whether it’s happened before, how many times it’s happened,” he said.

Mistakes happen with this type of process, such as when the bot posted the score of a Rising Stars game during this season’s All-Star Weekend. “That tripped me out, but we got that fixed,” Chalikyan said.

For that reason, Chalikyan and Peterson double check the scores and fix them manually if needed. The bot, database and website are fully in sync, creating a system that updates daily.

At first glance, NBA scorigami’s website can be an overwhelming collection of data. Scattered dots angled with colors ranging from bright red to ice blue dominate the page. On the top left, users can filter year by year and examine how scoring has changed.

Though identifying the phenomenon by era is difficult, Chalikyan has noticed a trend when it comes to the number of scorigamis in a season.

“It’s sort of weird there’s this middle point where scoring was also high,” he said. “I see that sometimes we get [a] scorigami and a lot of the higher scores happened, once or twice before in 1980, by a really high-pace offense or something. … But it seems like a lot of the scorigamis this year are definitely because the offenses are becoming so good and scoring so much more.”

Pace is the key word here. It’s an estimate of possessions per 48 minutes, according to Basketball Reference. Simply put, more possessions played means more points scored. Some of the highest unique scores can be directly attributed to pace.

Ten of the highest pace averages per season occurred before the 1986-87 season — the 1973-74 season takes the top spot at 107.8. The closest season this century is the 2019-20 campaign at 100.3, good enough for 16th on the list.

Only one of the five NBA scorigamis that included a team recording at least 170 points occurred this century — a 176-175 Sacramento Kings victory over the LA Clippers in 2023. The Indiana Pacers came close to that 170 figure, defeating the Washington Wizards 162-109 last month for another scorigami.

While pace trends don’t directly correlate to new unique scores happening, they give teams a larger possibility space in which they can happen. On March 30, two separate games ended in a new final score, the first time that has occurred since April 14, 2024.

Scorigamis simply come in all forms and figures.

The highest in league history is a triple-overtime matchup in 1983 between the Detroit Pistons and Denver Nuggets that ended 186-184. The lowest took place in 1950 when the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons defeated the Minneapolis Lakers 19-18.

Scorigamis add an extra layer to what might initially be interpreted as a mundane final score, and at first glance, they might be difficult to identify. But Chalikyan’s work has provided a way for such scores to be found — a new wrinkle in the NBA’s history.

Just check March 2, 1963.

The final score of Wilt’s 100-point game? 169-147. A scorigami.

Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard will miss the start of the NBA playoffs because of a blood clot in his right calf, sources told ESPN.

The Bucks play Game 1 of their first-round series Saturday against the Indiana Pacers.

Doctors examining Lillard, who has been sidelined since March 18, believe the veteran guard is making significant progress with the blood clot shrinking in the calf, sources said. Lillard has yet to be cleared to resume full basketball activities.

The Bucks announced Tuesday that Lillard had made “significant improvement on his deep vein thrombosis” and that the nine-time All-Star will increase his on-court activity. The team did not offer a clear timetable for Lillard’s return.

“Damian’s most recent weekly scan shows that his injury has significantly improved which will enable him to move ahead safely with increased basketball activity,” Bucks general manager Jon Horst said in a statement. “Damian’s health remains our No. 1 priority. We have followed strict protocols and will continue to do so. We are pleased with the positive news about Damian’s progress.”

The Bucks announced last month that Lillard, 34, would be sidelined indefinitely. The team said at the time that Lillard had been using a blood-thinning medication to stabilize the clot, with Horst adding that the Bucks would “support him as he moves through this weekly process of strict criteria to ensure that it is safe for him to return to play.”

Bucks coach Doc Rivers said earlier this month that he was optimistic Lillard would return at some point, but acknowledged that the team also was prepared for the nine-time All-Star to miss the rest of the season.

“There’s no guarantee we are going to have him,” Rivers said on April 3. “We get him back, we know how to play. But we don’t know how to play in the long term without him. … So we got work to do.”

Lillard was averaging 24.9 points and 7.1 assists before being sidelined for Milwaukee’s final 14 games of the regular season. The Bucks went 10-4 in those contests and ended the season on an eight-game winning streak.

ESPN’s Tim Bontemps contributed to this report.

Naismith Hall of Famer Joe Dumars is finalizing a deal to become the new president of basketball operations for the New Orleans Pelicans, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.

Dumars — a two-time NBA champion as a player and a title-winning executive with the Detroit Pistons — returns to his home state of Louisiana and replaces David Griffin as the head of basketball operations for the Pelicans.

Dumars served as the chief strategy officer of the Sacramento Kings from 2019-22 and has been the NBA league office’s executive vice president of basketball operations since 2022.

Dumars ran the Pistons from 2000-14, winning the executive of the year award in 2003 and building the 2004 championship team. He made a series of moves that propelled the Pistons to seven straight seasons of 50 wins or more from 2001-02 to 2007-08 — signing Chauncey Billups, trading for Rasheed Wallace, Ben Wallace and Rip Hamilton, and drafting Tayshaun Prince.

The Pistons have 14 50-win seasons in franchise history — half of them coming under Dumars’ leadership.

Drafted by the Pistons in 1985, Dumars spent his entire 14-year playing career as a shooting guard and defensive stopper with the franchise, winning NBA titles with the “Bad Boys” in 1989 and 1990.

In New Orleans, Dumars is expected to soon immerse himself with the current basketball staff, led by well-regarded general manager Bryson Graham, and head coach Willie Green. In terms of the Pelicans’ roster, the franchise will assuredly have candid conversations with star forward Zion Williamson on his direction with the team.

Williamson has played in just 45% of his possible games with the Pelicans since being the No. 1 overall pick in 2019 — and has never played in the playoffs after he suffered injuries prior to both of the team’s postseason appearances in 2022 and 2024.

The Pelicans finished this season at 21-61 — the fourth-worst record in the league, ahead of only the Utah Jazz (17-65), Washington Wizards (18-64) and Charlotte Hornets (19-63).

“Competing at the highest level remains our goal, and we failed to meet expectations this season. Our fans deserve better. Change is needed,” the team said in a statement.

For the third consecutive offseason, Suns owner Mat Ishbia, CEO Josh Bartelstein and general manager James Jones are changing coaches. Phoenix finished 36-46.

Budenholzer had issues connecting with the locker room this season, with team officials concluding that the roster failed to respond to the 2021 NBA championship coach, sources said. Budenholzer’s inability to coexist with his players centered around the franchise’s cornerstone, Devin Booker, and went down the roster, those sources said.

The Suns will now hold a wide-ranging coaching search, sources said.

Budenholzer accepted the Suns’ job on a five-year, $50 million contract last offseason — hired for his winning pedigree and schemes on both sides of the court.

The Suns became the third team in NBA history to start 8-1 or better and miss the playoffs, joining the 1970-71 Detroit Pistons and 2001-02 Milwaukee Bucks, according to ESPN Research. In March and April, the Suns lost eight straight games all by double digits, which was the most consecutive losses by 10-plus points in franchise history.

A year after winning 49 games, earning the sixth seed and being the No. 13 defensive team under Frank Vogel in 2023-24, the Suns ranked as the third-worst team in the NBA in defensive efficiency this season — including the second worst since the All-Star break, according to ESPN Research.

The Suns were 26-15 when Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal played last season with a plus-6.6 net efficiency — compared to just 19-18 and minus-4.1 net efficiency during this campaign, per ESPN Research.

Over two years into ownership, Ishbia has shown supreme aggressiveness and willingness to spend for players, coaches and resources for the organization. This iteration of the team did not work, however, and the franchise is set to retool around Booker.

The Suns had a 10-18 record since the All-Star break. They went 12-32 against teams with a .500 record or above this season — compared to 28-25 against such teams in 2023-24.

This marks the first action in a summer of change coming to the Suns. Phoenix is expected to engage in trade conversations involving Durant and will have discussions on the future of Beal, according to sources. Multiple teams will seriously pursue Durant, who finished another stellar season, and the franchise is expected to work with Durant and his business partner and Boardroom CEO Rich Kleiman on the next landing spot for the future Hall of Famer.

Beal has two years and $111 million remaining on his contract.

Durant was nearly traded to the Golden State Warriors at the trade deadline in February before making clear in league circles that he did not want to return to his former organization. He will be in the final year of his deal next season.

The Suns went 33-29 when Durant played and 3-17 when he didn’t this season.