2025 NBA Finals Predictions Thread.

Get in your winner, Finals MVP.

Also special trophy presenter for the winning team. Usually it's a legend from that franchise.

Also there is always a summer new movie tie in. Pretty sure this year's movie promo will be Superman.

So get in any predictions about how a Superman promo will go.

Someone from another platform make a prediction about a phone booth, so that's one example. I could see them putting in one of the superstars in a phone booth and having them go through a costume change. Maybe they'll use it to summarize a game that just happened. Like if there was a comeback, then when recapping the previous game, they will show how that player had to turn into Superman to save the game. This is not my prediction, since someone else came up with the phone booth idea.

But I like it.

The worst 2 movies promos were this. One was in 2004, when they kept showing Fantastic 4 and showed 4 of the 5 Lakers starting five. That was dumb because everyone knows a basketball team has a starting five, so to omit one player is an insult. Then, the Lakers also lost. I also never saw a Pistons version of the Fantastic 4.

The other bad one was in 2010, when they did Grown Ups 2. They kept showing the clip of Adam Sandler's character peeing into a pool and turning the water blue. They didn't tie that into the NBA, but that promo was aired during every commercial.

Not posting my prediction yet, but my Thunder legend will be Nick Collison.

Keep in mind that in 2004, the Lakers DID lose. One of my favorite finals ever

And yeah, if I were Devean George, I'd be upset although you sort of have to understand where they were coming from. The Lakers had 4 hall of famers plus him

I'll go with "Karate Legends" as the movie tie in although I don't know how they'll integrate that with the NBA. The movie is based in New York so it would have been better had the Knicks made it

Collison is a good choice. Had Westbrook been retired then he'd be my choice but now I don't know. They don't have enough history in the city so it very well could be Collison but I'll go with Aubrey McClendon's widow as a tribute to her late husband

Boring finals MVP of SGA and I'll say the Thunder in 5 although I'll be rooting for the Pacers

Yes I liked the 2004 Finals. BUT, I would be so upset if I were Devean George. I know you have to put your ego aside, but it also minimizes his contributions on the team.

Like they could have at least put George in the promo as a supporting character.

AND, they really needed a Pistons version too.

If they had a Pistons version, you cannot leave out Tayshaun Prince.

I've kind of liked some of the promos for this year's NBA Playoffs. They seem to use an Aerosmith song, but put the entire focus on one team at a time. So one entire commercial about Minnesota. One about Indiana. One about New York. Etc.

I think it gives good coverage to each team.

I did not know about Aubrey McLendon.

Wait, he was indicted????

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_McClendon

Reggie Miller would be a great tie in to a Karate Kid Legends Pacers promo.

Then if they did a Thunder centric one, maybe they could put the Pacers as the enemy instead. There are some possibilities with Karate Kid Legends, good one.

BTW, check the "Everything Else" forum for my updated movies reviews.

Karate Kid Legends is there. I try to keep them spoiler free as much as I can. But if you want to wait until after you see Karate Kid Legends, then that is fine too.

I'll say that I wish I had never seen a trailer for Karate Kid Legends. In general, I always try to avoid any trailer, and avoid reading any movie 2 sentence summary, as much as possible. But, movie theaters have been promoing Karate Kid Legends since January. So even when I closed my eyes, I could still hear some stuff.

This movie might have been better, in terms of surprise, if someone had never seen a trailer.

It's too bad Formula 1 and NASCAR have different identities.

Because of the upcoming movie F1, if that was a NASCAR movie, they could have had that movie promo for Indiana.

And Karate Kid Legends for Oklahoma City.

Also could someone like Caruso get in a movie promo? Or do you have to focus on a bigger star, like at least Holmgren or Jalen Williams?

The Pistons one would've been even better since all 5 starters were equally important

Yeah, there is a lot of confusion surrounding McClendon's death and the events that preceded it. The lack of skid marks leads one to believe that it was suicide but some investigators ruled it out. Also, there was no arraignment scheduled so there was no guarantee that he was going to see prison time

Good point. I've always said that the trailers for the original Karate Kid way back in 1984 practically showed the entire movie and ruined a lot of it for the typical viewer. Me personally, I would've cut the trailer off where Larusso demands to his mother that he needs to learn Karate "not at the Y but a good school" then follow that up possibly with a couple nature scenes of Larusso training on the beach. But definitely leave out the all important "wax on, wax off" or "show me paint the fence" as those were the movie's hooks that shouldn't be spoiled

Good point. I've always said that the trailers for the original Karate Kid way back in 1984 practically showed the entire movie and ruined a lot of it for the typical viewer. Me personally, I would've cut the trailer off where Larusso demands to his mother that he needs to learn Karate "not at the Y but a good school" then follow that up possibly with a couple nature scenes of Larusso training on the beach. But definitely leave out the all important "wax on, wax off" or "show me paint the fence" as those were the movie's hooks that shouldn't be spoiled

Wow, if that was in the trailers, they ruined the good parts.

Mrs. Doubtfire was another movie where the trailers had all of the good jokes.

I also avoid looking at runtimes for movies.

Because if I know the runtime, then I'll think during the movie that "it can't end now, the movie has another 30 - 45 minutes". Or I'll think "it has to end now, because the runtime was this short".

Not always possible, especially when buying tickets. But I do my best to memorize which portions of the screens contain the runtime, and try to block them.

In all honesty, I actually can't remember if those were in the trailer but I know for sure that the final scene with Larusso in the crane position and Johnny as the opponent was in the trailer. That literally gave away the ending

Lol.

Awful spoiler, agree.

Might as well shown Mr. Miyagi and his special healing techniques too.

Indiana Pacers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder:

Thunder are one of the most relentless defensive teams of the past few years.

Pacers can win games if they shoot 3's well and get a lot out of both Turner and Siakim. They also need Nembhard to play well.

The games will probably be interesting, but the series score might not be.

I think Thunder in 5, Pacers win either game 2 or 4. Picking game 4 is boring, so I'll pick game 2.

MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Special Trophy Presenter: Nick Collison

Movie promo: The S in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be made to look like the Superman S.

Also, M3gan 2.0 won't be used as the movie promo, because the Thunder are NOT funny enough to be in a promo for that movie. The Pacers are funnier, especially Haliburton. They have a better chance to be used for that movie promo.

Mission Impossible would be an awkward fit for a movie promo. Unless it's framed as the "Final Reckoning". Or it's framed that the mission only seems impossible, but with great determination, winning the championship can be done.

Another reason I like your Karate Kid Legends pick is because every Karate Kid movie has an advanced move that's difficult to master.

Including this Karate Kid Legends movie.

They could show a game turning crunch time play as that advanced Karate Kid Legends move. The knockout blow, so to speak.

Let's also hope the knockout isn't a play that happens in the first quarter.

I'm going Thunder in 5 with Indy winning game 3 at home as the Thunder decide to take the foot off the gas a bit

Great thinking. Maybe integrate the windmill kick and then show one of Obi's 360 dunks back to back

Yes, we need Toppin back in the spotlight.

Oh, and here's obvious one: Former Pacers coach Larry Legend gives a rousing speech before or after one of the games, as the Karate Kid "Legend".

Going back to 2003 - 2004, the Lakers started the season promoing themselves as Lakers Reloaded.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/zMQAAOSw0theLytZ/s-l1600.webp

That was bad for a very simple reason. That movie, Matrix Reloaded, sucked. Well I never saw it, but the 2nd Matrix was so boring that I didn't want to see the 3rd as I doubted the writing and plot were going to be good enough.

Branding themselves after a subpar movie is not a good look.

Speaking of other bad promos, remember when TNT used to promo their own shows, like The Closer and The Grid?

Well one of the times, to promote The Grid, Ernie Johnson showed the "lighting grid" for their studio. Basically all of the electrical cabling.

Even Ernie Johnson knew how cheesy that was.

I am somewhat ok with their promos for The Closer, because that has a more obivous sports tie in.

I have to assume that there were many shots of Mariano Rivera when they integrated promos for the Closer

I remember the Lakers reloaded coming on the radio. Incredibly annoying. I'm still glad to this day that that era fell flat on it's face after one season

Both of these teams have built their team by trading away both Domantas Sabonis and Paul George.

A fake stat, but oh well.

109 - 110, 22.5 seconds left.

There's a challenge from Indiana as to whether it's really OKC's ball because Siakam got the rebound but went out of bounds. Indiana thinks there might have been a foul.

Looks like Obi Toppin has been studying from Karate Kid Legend Derrick McKey with his shooting.

Relative for a game 1 (as opposed to a series clincher), Tyrese Haliburton just delivered the Karate Kid advanced move knockout blow!

He looked awful in the 1st quarter with all those turnovers but then again, it's OKC's defense so he's excused. The shooting was great though. With Ant's multiple no shows in this post season and Toppin's solid play off the bench, I can somewhat show my face in public now lol

Overall, I'm stoked about game 1. I'm more than happy to be wrong in this situation. Just have to hope they can keep shooting like this and that if they do continue to turn it over like that, OKC's points off turnovers will be held to a minimum like they were last night. I think I heard that they only scored like 11 off those turnovers. You've got to give Indy's defense credit for getting back on defense

Yes only 11 points of turnovers.

Did you like the Derrick McKey comparison to Toppin, with the way Toppin shot yesterday?

Did you like the Derrick McKey comparison to Toppin, with the way Toppin shot yesterday?

Haha good one! Although I remember McKey being more of a mid range guy. Or am I mistaken?

Haha good one! Although I remember McKey being more of a mid range guy. Or am I mistaken?

He was, but relative to that era, he was a decent forward who could hit 3's.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/mckeyde01.html

He made 3 3's 5 times.

https://www.landofbasketball.com/nba_players_stats/top_3pm/derrick_mckey.htm

The NBA TV coverage was more about how OKC lost than about how Indiana won.

I hate that.

When they did talk about Indiana winning, it was just the final play that they talked about.

I had a feeling it would be like that. That's why I watched ESPN. Scott Van Pelt is pretty even keeled and objective. Legler had great analysis and Stephen A was actually bearable

Reminds me of Dallas beating Miami in 2011. Instead of praising Dirk and JT for coming back from that disappointing 2006 finals loss and beating the Heatles, all we heard about was Lebron choking on the big stage

Also, someone made an observation that Haliburton was smart to not take a 3-pointer, and not try to get a shot at the rim, where OKC's defense was strong all night long.

Instead, he took a midrange shot. And made it.

I agree, and it's nice to see the value of the open midrange shot brought up.

Instead of taking a shot at the rim against a likely crowd, or a 3 pointer with possibly too much range on it.

I'm all for bringing back traditional, old school basketball whether it's big men in the post or the mid range game, these things got eliminated by analytics so seeing them play a crucial role in this post season can only be a good thing, at least to me

I still think Thunder in 5, they'll take both games in Indy. The Pacers aren't a championship team in my mind, the same way the Mavericks weren't last year, or the Heat the year before. They got hot, got some lucky breaks, but there are a few teams in their own conference that are legitimately better than them under normal conditions.

The Thunders are really lucky that they are in sweet spot of significantly less talent in the league than in the recent past…there are pretty much no other super teams that are in prime than what it was in the recent past.

I am not taking anything out of them…they are a very good team.

How bout them Pacers? They showed Reggie Miller a lot. He still looks like he could play.

How bout them Pacers? They showed Reggie Miller a lot. He still looks like he could play.

All for it. I hope they can pull this off but let's not forget the finals from 3 seasons ago. Boston steals game 1 on the road to the favored team. Gets blown out in Game 2. Wins game 3 at home but then lost the next 3 straight with at least one in convincing fashion.

OTOH, the one thing that Indy has going for it is that OKC doesn't have the same championship DNA that the Warriors had 3 seasons ago

Your comment: , the one thing that Indy has going for it is that OKC doesn't have the same championship DNA that the Warriors had 3 seasons ago

Do you really mean OKC does not get every call like Curry, LeBron, Kobe, and MJ always got?

Haha. Well, I'll say that Kobe and MJ definitely got calls. Curry can at least say he takes a ton of 3's and there is much less physical contact outside of the 3 point line

Caruso is so good.

Toppin for 3!

All for it. I hope they can pull this off but let's not forget the finals from 3 seasons ago. Boston steals game 1 on the road to the favored team.

Oh no.

Not you too.

Didn't you see this post?

Go to post # 3.

https://clippers.newssurge.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-15425-highlight-peeve.html

8 second violation, in a Finals game! Sam Cassell is off the hook.

Also Toppin with a 24 second violation turnover forcing block.

Looks like the should be Clippers will win the nba title after all. They came through in the clutch when it seemed Indiana had them.

Haha ok. They didn't "steal" the game. They pulled a road upset lol

Haha ok. They didn't "steal" the game. They pulled a road upset lol

I thin that is better, it gives a little more credit to the winning team. It emphasizes a little more the result they achieved, as opposed to giving a debit to the team that lost.

90 - 94, 9:09 left.

Closest the game has been.

Haliburton has been a space cadet.

Man, this Jalen Williams guy’s performance is like rubbing salt in the wound inflicted by SGA. OKC selected him with our pick.

The outcome of that trade debacle is getting worse. Talk about fleecing…this is the perfect example of OKC did to us.

I hope his leg injury isn't something serious. If he can get back to 100% by Thursday then the Pacers still have a shot at this thing

Although you never know who we would've picked. This is the same organization that more or less drafted a future MVP then a pick or two later drafted a guy who is already out of the league in 2018

I hope his leg injury isn't something serious. If he can get back to 100% by Thursday then the Pacers still have a shot at this thing

Let's hope so. We haven't had a game 7 of the Finals since 2016. Although if Indiana had won games 5 and 6 this year, that would have been cool too.