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Lester’s 2025 NBA Playoffs Diaries

Welcome to Lester’s Diaries, where I rant, ramble, yap and yuck about some sort of tournament or weekend-long event or whatever. Lets’ talk about the 2025 NBA Playoffs.

2025 nba playoffs

Welcome to Lester’s Diaries, where I rant, ramble, yap and yuck about some sort of tournament or weekend-long event or whatever. Lets’ talk about the 2025 NBA Playoffs.

Play-In Tournament NIGHT TWO

2025 nba playoffs

Wednesday, April 16th 2025

7:30PM Eastern

Miami Heat dogwalk the Chicago Bulls in a 109-90 road victory to advance in a win-or-go-home game against the soulless Atlanta Hawks, while everyone working within the Bulls front office should financially prepare for being out of work for a while.

Tyler Herro Ball

I never understood why the Portland Trailblazers refused to send Damian Lillard to the Miami Heat without Tyler Herro coming back in the deal until this 2024-25 season where Herro went full mid-2000’s school shooter, shaving his head, prepared to stand up when someone pleads the real Slim Shady to do so.

Tyler Herro finished 8th this season in points, scoring 500 more points than he did in his best season, his 2021-22 6th Man of the Year award-winning season.

Herro is no 6th man.

Herro led the Heat with 38 points on 13-for-19 shooting from the field (68%), along with 5 rebounds and 4 assists.

His floater is unstoppable. His ballhandling has developed to the point where he can maneuver and navigate in crowded areas, although he still committed 7 turnovers. This brilliant performance may have been against a Chicago Bulls team lacking actual NBA talent outside of Josh Giddey and the hypothetical potential of Matas Buzelis but I have no doubt Herro can get easy buckets on Darius Garland and/or Donovan Mitchell. Tyler might steal some games from a team Jimmy Butler tried to light on fire to claim the insurance money.

Patrick Williams sucks

Last June, the Chicago Bulls agreed to a 5-year. $90 million contract extension for the 4th overall pick of the 2020 NBA draft. At 23 years old, you’d think Patty Wills would have some greater, unlocked potential that this Chicago front office identified in practice or something but nope, 5 years into his NBA career and he’s the same as he was when he came in. Actually, that’s not the truth. Let me be fair. He’s far worse than he was as a rookie.

This season, Patrick Williams averaged a career-low 9 points a game on a career-low 39% shooting from the field. He is objectively the worst player in the NBA when you factor in his playing time with his ridiculous contract.

Patrick Williams played 15 minutes against the Heat. 0 points, 0-for-2 from the field and a -9 +/-.

Bold move to lock in a player who is good at zero things. It’s as if Chicago only wants to be good enough for the play-in. Like, this organization prides itself in playing in this one specific week of basketball games. Most teams want championships. Chicago wants to play the Heat and the Hawks forever.

What does Billy Donovan do?

I’m a Billy Donovan stan because he, too, is from Long Island. We all have our biases. Mine favor those of us born on these lovely suburban shores.

That being said, what exactly does Billy Donovan do every day? Watching the Bulls play, where guys are standing on top of each on offense, leaving no space for anyone to operate uncongested or a defense where guys reguarly have no idea who their assignments are, it feels like Billy Donovan has never actually coached this team.

It would not shock me if Donovan was fired, followed by an Athletic story about he and Patrick Williams not even knowing what the other’s voice sounds like because they’ve never spoken.

 

 

10:00PM Eastern

Once again, another blowout as the Dallas Mavericks jump the Sacramento Kings for a chance to battle the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday for the final Western Conference playoff spot while the Kings spend the offseason scratching their heads, confused as to why firing their head coach and trading away their franchise cornerstone didn’t instantly lead to success.

Klay Thompson Time Machine

No one in the NBA is better at playing when their team has a lead against a team with less talent than Klay Thompson—the ultimate front-runner—capable of magnificent shooting blitzes, as long as his team is already up and the stakes are lessened.

That sounds insulting but I’m the type of guy who fears I’ll be the reason my team blows the lead so I’d be cautious as hell, refusing to even look at the basket. I’d be on my Josh Hart grind.

Not Klay. Give him a lead and he’ll turn into Steph Curry.

I know this season didn’t turn out the way Klay wanted. The Warriors no longer needed his services so he thought he could become the final piece for a Mavericks team that just lost in the NBA Finals.

Nope. He’s the most important perimeter scorer next to Naji Marshall. Yike.

BUT, last year’s play-in game is the reason he’s in the position to begin with. Klay went 0-for-10 against the Kings—a complete non-factor.

On Wednesday night, Klay dropped 23 points on 8-for-11 shooting from the field.

Markelle Fultz was here?

Admittedly, I stopped watching halfway through the 3rd quarter. It was late and I could not watch DeMar DeRozan chuck it anymore but looking at the boxscore, not only is Markelle Fultz in the NBA still but he got some garbage time last night.

I haven’t looked at the Kings offseason options yet but you know it’s over when Markelle Fultz gets some run. Trade everyone.

It’s over.

The First Night of Play-In Games

2025 nba playoffs

Tuesday, April 15th 2025

7:30PM Eastern

Orlando Magic strangle the Atlanta Hawks in a 120-95 victory to secure the 7th seed in the East, while Atlanta hosts the winner of the Bulls/Heat game for their last, desperate chance to sneak into the 8th seed.

 

Trae Young Quits

Trae Young got ejected with about 5 minutes left in the game…

He nutmegged Wendell Carter Jr for an easy layup—then hurled the ball at the referee for a technical foul. Trae quickly received a 2nd tech when he fake-passed the ball to the ref like he was his little brother, immediately walking into the locker room—quitting on the Atlanta Hawks.

But the Atlanta Hawks quit on Trae first.

After Jalen Johnson went down with a shoulder injury—a guy averaging 18.9 points, 10 rebounds and a block—perfectly cast to enable Trae’s lob addiction, the Hawks punted the year.

De’Andre Hunter—on the path to receiving 6th man of the year votes—sent to Cleveland.

Bogdan Bogdanovic—the only player capable of reliably getting their own shot off the dribble—sent to Los Angeles.

Trae Young finally had the team of his dreams, they almost won the Emirates Cup. He rolled dice on the Knicks logo. Life was good. And in the blink of an eye, he’s forced to share a backcourt with Caris fucking LeVert.

The Hawks and Trae Young need a divorce. The kids are grown and out of the house. It’s time to end this facade.

Unfortunately, Atlanta still has at least one more chance to get brutalized on national television.

Playoff F is Back

The last time we saw Franz Wagner in a must-win playoff game, he scored 6 points on 1-for-15 shooting from the field.

Stakes are high in these win-and-advance play-in games. Franz—who averaged 24.2 points this year—scored 13 points on 6-for-15 shooting and 0-for-5 from 3.

I want to give Franz some grace.

The Orlando offense is built around 4 players standing around watching Paolo or Franz iso. Every bucket he got was in a phone booth. Plus, he made an impact defensively

Wagner finished with 2 steals and this huge block:

But Orlando doesn’t stand a chance in Boston unless they switch up their starting 5.

The Brothers Anthony

The Orlando Magic offense can get super ashy. They came out of halftime dry as hell—scoring just 18 points—allowing the Hawks to ride Trae’s tiny shoulders back into the game.

But the Brothers Anthony, Cole Anthony and Anthony Black, came off the bench, lotioned up, lubricating Orlando’s mega ashy joints.

The Anthony’s combined for 42 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks (those were just Anthony Black’s), on 16-for-24 shooting (66%) and 7-for-12 from 3 (58%).

One of these two needs to be on the Magic starting lineup.

They cannot keep up with the Boston Celtics bombing 3s while Cory Joseph casually takes the ball up the court to place the perfect, fundamentally-based bounce pass to a teammate when there’s now only like, 8 seconds left on the shot clock.

Get Anthony Black some run with the starters.

Random Stray Thoughts

  • Wendell Carter Jr is the most important player on the Magic. He’s not asked to carry any offensive burden the way he was in Chicago or even when he first arrived in Orlando 5 years ago. This season, Carter averaged 9 points a game. And when Orlando needed him most, he scored 19 points, grabbed 7 rebounds and blocked 2 shots. It’s cool as hell seeing Wendell turn into a leader of a playoff squad.
  • Shout out Mouhamed Gueye but I could not prevent myself from whispering “pause” under my breath whenver Stan Van Gundy mentioned his name. I am baby.

 

 

10:00PM Eastern

Golden State Warriors finally earn some days off after beating the Memphis Grizzlies 121-116 to secure the 7th seed in the West and a date with the Houston Rockets while the Grizzlies have one more shot to make the playoffs if they can defeat Dallas or Sacramento.

 

Ja is Cool As Hell

I’ll go light on the Memphis Grizzlies. I acutally don’t mind their interim coach, Tuomas Lisalo—especially when you dig more into his credentials and see he’s coming off several Coach of the Year trophies last season, crushing the Euroleagues. I hope he gets a real shot in the NBA.

But this Grizzlies team is too unserious—and I’ll get more into that in a sec—but let’s be positive for a sec. Ja Morant is the man.

Going up, throwing the ball off the backboard righty, catching it on the other side of the defender lefty for the finish.

Insane.

I know I’m supposed to hate him because he plays with guns for internet clout and he’s costing himself money and sponsorships—a thing I’m supposed to care about—but Ja is the coolest player in the NBA.

Realistically, Ja should stop playing around in these games and lock in but I’m not going to complain about a player smiling and enjoying his special life. What’s the point of sacrificing to become an NBA superstar if you’re supposed to be miserable? We don’t need more Kevin Durant weirdos in the league, moping around like Charlie Brown as if they don’t have millions of dollars in their account, actively living out their adolescent dreams.

Jaren-Edey Disaster Class

Speaking of unseriousness, Zach Edey and Jaren Jackson had a massive size advantage over Golden State and elected to commit the silliest fouls, brick open dunks and let Warriors cut to the basket right behind them as they stared at the ball like they were watching the game on TV next to me.

Jaren Jackson Jr is in his 7th NBA season and still makes high school-level mistakes, ball-watching while the player he’s supposed to be keeping an eye on cuts right past him. He goes for blocks he has no chance of—allowing easy offensive rebounds behind him. At one point, Jaren Jackson ran through Steph Curry, who was simply just receiving an inbound pass. Dumb shit.

Meanwhile, Zach Edey was shanking shots right at the rim as if he weren’t the tallest player in the game. Edey’s a rookie, so it makes sense that it looks like he’s playing 100mph. But someone needs to enter this organization and provide some basketball 101 lessons.

The Disgusting Brothers.

Playoff Jimmy

Jimmy Butler led the Warriors with 38 points on 12-for-20 shooting and 12 free throws with 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals. Yawn. Typical day in the office for Playoff Jimmy.

Yaaaaawn. Death. Taxes. Jimmy Butler being the best player in a postseason game. Shrug.

 

 

 

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Written by thelesterlee

Creator of Deadseriousness. Diehard Knicks, Yankees and Giants fan who wants to create a sports and pop culture space that isn't the same copy and pasted AI content you see everywhere else.

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