For the first time in NBA history, the four higher-seeded home teams lost Game 1 in their second-round series. Home teams are 0-5 so far in the postseason, which feels strange.
But is it reason to panic? Which fan base should be reaching for the panic button? Let’s rank all four home teams on our 2025 NBA Playoffs Panic Meter, with teams ranked on a scale of 1-5 sirens going off.
1) Cleveland Cavaliers 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
Where are the Cavaliers on the panic meter?
It’s not simply that Cleveland is down 0-2 to Indiana, dropping both home games, or that the second loss was a gut-punch where the Cavaliers led by seven with 48 seconds left and found a way to blow it. No, the bigger concern is injuries.
Darius Garland’s value to the Cavaliers has never been more evident than when watching them struggle just to get the ball up the court under pressure and set up their offense. Everything has fallen to Donovan Mitchell, and while he scored 48 points in Game 2, it wasn’t enough. Garland has turf toe (a sprained big toe), which is painful, has already cost him the last four games, and usually lasts at least 10 days and sometimes weeks beyond this.
Evan Mobley would help with shot creation, especially in the half court, but he is fighting through a sprained ankle suffered in Game 1. De’Andre Hunter is out with what the team has diagnosed as a sprained finger, which it first described as a dislocation — he won’t be able to play until he can grip a ball.
The Cavaliers have to win Game 3 on the road, if they fall to 0-3 in the series it’s over. Cleveland needs Garland back at close to 100% to knock off an Indiana team that will be energized at home, but it doesn’t sound like he (or Mobley) are close to a return.
That’s reason to panic in Cleveland.
2) Boston Celtics 🚨🚨
The level of panic drops considerably here — it’s just one game. Boston is not going to miss 45 3-pointers again this series.
The Knicks tried to employ some of the tactics the Magic used in their first-round series to chase the Celtics off the arc, but New York doesn’t have the personnel to pull it off. It only “worked” because Boston missed open shot after open shot.
Two little reasons for Celtics fans to at least know where the panic button is located, just in case. One is the health of Kristaps Porzingis, if the big man can’t play it makes life easier for the Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns, and it asks too much of Al Horford. Second, if the Knicks can just keep games close at the end (as they did in Game 1) they have Jalen Brunson. New York’s late-game execution has just been better.
3) Oklahoma City Thunder 🚨🚨
No need to panic here, it’s just one loss, but that game raised this question: Are Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren ready for this moment? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 33 but had to play in a crowd as the Nuggets tilted their defense toward him. As they should. Which means Williams and Holmgren have to make them pay as the secondary scorers and shot creators, but Williams shot 5-of-20 and Holmgren had a rough night late. If they struggle again in the next couple of games, then more sirens come into play.
4) Minnesota Timberwolves 🚨
No reason to panic. There can be mild concern about losing Game 1, but there are two reasons to remain optimistic. First, Stephen Curry is out for the next week and Golden State can’t replicate that offensive performance without him (Draymond Green isn’t hitting four 3-pointers again). Second, and more importantly, Anthony Edwards isn’t going to be that bad again. If he wants to be a top-five player in the league, a guy who gets MVP ballot votes, if he wants to be the face of the league (even if he says he doesn’t) that is all earned in the playoffs.
Minnesota isn’t going to score 88 points again. Game 2 will look very different.
