The best single game performance for the second round is only 10/10 games.
The semi-finals of the 2025 conference are dusting as the Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder advanced to the next round.
The Denver Nuggets’ loss of Game 7 against the Thunder ensures that the new NBA champion will be crowned for seven consecutive seasons.
This is the longest drought the league faces in terms of seeing champions repeatedly. But let’s put that aside and focus on the best player performance from the conference’s semi-finals.
Favorites are often decided by the end of the meeting semi-finals. After all, many players can feel fatigue settling at this point in the postseason, following the 82-game regular season.
Nevertheless, there are players who are on top of the competition in the second round. According to data provided by Sofa Scole, Jaylen Branson was the only 10/10 performance when he scored 39 points in the Knicks’ four wins with the Boston Celtics.
After Branson, Nicola Djokic received a 9.9 rating with a 44-point double double in a Game 5 loss to the Thunder.
The last player to secure a rating of at least 9.5 was Celtics’ Jason Tatum for the game 4 effort. Tatum dropped 42 points in that matchup, but he suffered an injury to Achilles, who threatened to stand by the sidelines for the entire 2025-26 season.
read more: Payton Pritchard talks about the impact of Boston Celtics’ injuries to Jason Tatum.
Once the Nuggets, Celtics and Golden State Warriors are eliminated in the second round, this guarantees fans will win a new champion.
On the one hand, the highly talented Thunder team takes on the Timberwolves. This is the second straight WCF look of the latter.
At the Eastern Conference, fans witness the revival of the iconic rivalry between the Pacers and the Knicks.
It will be interesting to see which two teams will be on the top, but one thing is for sure, the NBA community is supposed to enjoy this year’s conference finals.