With the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder set to square off in the Western Conference semifinals, the league’s top contenders for the 2024-25 MVP award, Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, will line up across from one another. (We’ll likely see the official award announcement early during this series, too.)
But who has been the MVP of the past few weeks?
On a much smaller scale, we wiped the slate clean to some extent, outlining the 10 stars who’ve played like MVP contenders from the play-in tournament through the first round of the playoffs.
We’ll update our list as the postseason continues, moving players into and out of the top 10 after each round. And in this iteration, we’ll also include a handful of names who just barely missed the cut, at least one or two of whom might be a surprise.
2025 playoffs (7 games): 24.0 PTS | 11.6 REB | 10.1 AST | 45.2 3P%
The Clippers did a solid job in defending the three-time league MVP, especially in Game 7 on Saturday, when Jokic missed his first five shot attempts and finished with just 16 points on 16 shots. Still, when the dust settled on the series, the verdict was clear: Even when you stop Jokic, there’s no stopping him, so to speak. (That should be clear from his postseason triple-double averages on incredible efficiency.) Even when you force a Jokic miss — including at the end of Game 4, when he air-balled a 3-pointer only for teammate Aaron Gordon to dunk home the buzzer-beating winner — the Nuggets’ fulcrum demands so much attention that they end up winning many of those plays anyway.
2025 playoffs (5 games): 33.0 PTS | 15.4 REB | 6.6 AST | 60.6 FG%
Arguably no player had a tougher first round than Antetokounmpo, who had to contend with the Pacers’ walled-off defense and to shoulder the load without Damian Lillard for the vast majority of the series. Indiana won the war, but Antetokounmpo won so many of the fights throughout the matchup, piecing together an incredible stat line of 33.0 points, 15.4 boards and 6.6 assists, all while shooting 60% from the field. It wasn’t enough to get out of the opening round, but you certainly can’t point to Antetokounmpo as the reason why.
2025 playoffs (4 games): 31.3 PTS | 11.3 REB | 5.3 AST | 1.5 STL
Tatum starred in the first round, playing against the conference’s best defense — and perhaps its most physical defense — and still managing to average 31.3 points and 5.3 assists per game. And he did it despite injuring his right wrist so severely during a hard foul in the series opener against Orlando that he had to sit out Game 2. None of it stopped Tatum from shooting 50% from midrange for the series or hitting 4-of-5 from deep in the close-out Game 5.
2025 playoffs (6 games): 31.5 PTS | 8.2 AST | 4.0 REB
Brunson, playing through ankle issues that forced him to briefly exit Games 1, 2, 4 and 5 against the Pistons, wasn’t as efficient as he usually is during the hard-fought six-game series. Nonetheless, the New York captain found a way to hit the 30-point mark five times. That included the 40-point showing he had in the finale, which Brunson ended with an ice-cold 3-pointer over Ausar Thompson. Brunson’s series ender and his playoff-best 11 points per game in fourth quarters during the first round further validated his candidacy for the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year.
2025 playoffs (5 games): 26.8 PTS | 8.4 REB | 6.2 AST | 1.2 STL
Minnesota’s close-out Game 6 wasn’t Edwards’ finest shooting display: He was 5-for-19 and missed all 11 of his 3-point tries after leading the NBA in treys during the regular season. But Edwards’ game isn’t predicated on merely scoring anymore, and it hasn’t been for some time. He registered eight dimes or more in three of the five games against the Lakers in Round 1. And in his dominant 43-point Game 4, Edwards didn’t have a bucket over the final 7½ minutes of the contest. Instead, he used the defensive attention he drew to facilitate and tallied a pair of assists to close out the game.
2025 playoffs (5 games): 29.4 PTS | 8.4 REB | 4.2 AST | 44.4 3P%
Perhaps it was fitting that the Magic hung around in their season-ending loss to Boston until Banchero, their franchise player, picked up a fifth foul early in the third quarter and had to sit. After the call, the defending champs pounded Orlando without Banchero during a 30-9 run that effectively ended the series. It highlighted just how vital the 22-year-old forward is to what the Magic do, particularly on offense. Banchero shot 44% from deep in the series while his teammates shot just 22% (29-for-129) from distance.
2025 playoffs (7 games): 25.0 PTS | 7.6 REB | 4.7 AST | 40.5 3P%
Despite his truncated regular season, Leonard put together a highly impressive playoff run, one that’s hard to believe given how few games (37) he logged leading up to it. He had a video-game-like Game 2 against Denver, shooting 15-for-19 from the floor while putting up 39 points. Not only did he average an efficient, series-best 25 points per game in a round that featured three-time MVP Jokic, but Leonard also was the disruptive defender we’ve long known him to be, with a playoff-best 29 deflections in the opening round. More than anything, it was good to see Leonard healthy in the postseason again, given what the past few years have looked like for him.
2025 playoffs (5 games): 25.6 PTS | 4.0 AST | 1.4 STL
Mitchell, much like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams, spearheaded a team that dismantled a No. 8 seed so thoroughly that we didn’t get (or need) to see him in fourth periods at times against Miami. Still, Mitchell was fantastic, and he largely held down the backcourt in the final two games of the series, which fellow All-Star Darius Garland missed. (Mitchell’s Game 1 showing against the Pacers on Sunday marked the eighth consecutive playoff series he has led off with a 30-point performance, breaking a record held by Michael Jordan.)
2025 playoffs (7 games): 24.0 PTS | 5.7 AST | 5.9 REB | 39.2 3P%
Coach Ime Udoka and the hard-nosed Rockets made no secret of their intentions to hound Curry in the first round. They threw aggressive zone looks at him and made things as uncomfortable as possible as Curry played through an injured left thumb. On some level, the plan worked. Curry’s efficiency cratered in the latter half of the series. But in the decisive Game 7, Houston sold out again on stopping Curry early, opening up an opportunity for fellow Warriors sharpshooter Buddy Hield to go off for six 3s and 22 points in the first half. Curry then caught fire to close things out, as he often does, pushing the Dubs into the West semis.
2025 playoffs (6 games): 18.3 PTS | 11.8 AST | 5.8 REB | 1.2 BLK
Haliburton hasn’t shot it all that well this postseason, but he’s still the unquestioned quarterback and driving force of a potent Pacers offense. He is averaging nearly 12 assists per game to this point. Haliburton also made a handful of key plays defensively in the series-opening upset win over top-seeded Cleveland on Sunday.
With apologies to …
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored plenty but did so unevenly and a bit inefficiently (40% overall and 25% from 3) during OKC’s overwhelming sweep against Memphis. It obviously didn’t matter a lot, given the nature of the series and that co-star Jalen Williams (whom we also owe apologies to) was fantastic, averaging 23 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists on 54% shooting from the field. Both guys will have opportunities to scale the list as the competition ratchets up.
Reigning Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, who was efficient in the gentleman’s sweep against Orlando as he continued to play through the bone bruise in his right knee that prompted him to get pain-management injections. He was spectacular in Game 2 of that series, exploding for 36 points on just 19 attempts. Brown never reached the 20-attempt mark in the series.
Julius Randle, who’s coming off the best playoff series of his career after having co-starred with Edwards to the tune of 22.6, 5.2 and 4.4 on 48% shooting and 39% from 3, enormous improvements from the lackluster postseason figures he logged during his Knicks tenure.
LeBron James and Luka Doncic, who both exited the playoffs hobbled — James with a sprained MCL and Doncic with a back injury — and struggled mightily with fatigue as games with the Timberwolves wore on. Each superstar had eye-popping metrics in the series on good efficiency but shot just 33% and 30%, respectively, from the field in fourth periods. Doncic, specifically, struggled defensively and finished with just three assists (and three turnovers) in his 47 fourth-quarter minutes.
Cade Cunningham, who averaged historic numbers (25 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds) for a player’s first NBA postseason, but will also look back on the series with the Knicks and realize he has to shoot better from deep (18%) and turn it over at a far-reduced clip (five per game).
Franz Wagner, who, as Orlando’s second option, had averages that looked a bit like Cunningham’s. Unfortunately, the lackluster number from deep (19%) also was a commonality there.
Karl-Anthony Towns, whose numbers (19.7 points and 10 rebounds per game on nearly 50/40/90 splits) look good enough, but his play was highly uneven throughout a hard-fought first round with the Pistons. Towns’ foul trouble complicated things for the Knicks at times, including Game 6, during which he fouled out before Brunson hit his series winner.
Alperen Sengun, who provided his usual triple-threat production for Houston through its seven-game defeat. He got a massive boost from swingman Jalen Green in Game 2, and floor general Fred VanVleet ignited down the stretch of the series. But make no mistake: The center’s efficient contributions consistently kept Houston afloat against the Warriors.
Jamal Murray, who wasn’t consistent enough to make the top 10, but whose Game 5 showing against the Clippers (43 points on 26 shots with seven assists) was easily one of the best performances of the playoffs. He finished the series averaging almost 23 points and six assists with 48/40/90 splits.
