My 5 Favourite NBA Playoff Series of The Last 5 Years

With the NBA playoffs set to officially kick off this weekend, I thought it would be a great time to look back at some of the best playoff series we’ve had over the last five years and give you my top five favourite series, dating back from last year’s postseason to the 2021 postseason.

Here’s hoping for a great and competitive spring of hoops this time around, and let’s see what can make this list come this time next year.

(5) Timberwolves vs. Nuggets — 2024 West Semifinals (MIN Won Series 4-3)

Honestly, this series probably should be higher, but truth be told, I was in Greece for most of it, so I was either dead tired while watching or even missed a couple of the game. Not to mention, I don’t actually think the games (aside from Game 1 and Game 7), were that great. Games 2 through 6 were all blowouts between the Timberwolves and Nuggets, and the series truly was not that close besides the opening and closing game.

However, I do think over the past couple of years, we have seemingly forgotten how unbeatable we thought this Nuggets team was at the time. They were coming off a championship in 2023 and they were the overwhelming favourites to defend their title in 2024. Nikola Jokic won the third MVP award of his career in 2024, and it just felt like the Nuggets were going to run through the Western Conference on their way to the NBA Finals.

And then we saw Anthony Edwards come into the true superstar we now know him has. He had unreal moments like Game 1 when he went for 43 points and even in Game 4, where he dropped 44 in a loss. This was truly the moment Anthony Edwards arrived as an NBA superstar, and he showed us he very well could be the future face of the NBA which was a major topic at the time.

Then, of course, while the games were not always that great, there were some pretty memorable moments.

Facing elimination in Game 6, the Wolves absolutely dominated the Nuggets 115-70, where no defending champion had ever lost by more in a playoff game. And then, of course, Game 7, where the Timberwolves stormed back from a 20 point deficit on the road to shock the world, which ended up being the largest comeback in any Game 7 in NBA history.

Overall, while Games 2 through 6 may not have been that competitive, the juice, the physicality, and the hatred these two teams developed throughout the series was intense. And now they are set to go back at it again with a playoff rematch starting this weekend, and I truly do not know who to pick.

(4) Warriors vs. Lakers — 2023 West Semifinals (LAL Won Series 4-2)

This series probably was a bit affected by nostalgia for me, but who cares? It was likely the final time we will have seen LeBron James and Steph Curry go up against one another in the postseason and it was a pretty competitive series. Not to mention, it was nice to see them finally play on an even playing field.

For years, it was LeBron and his Cavs against Curry and Durant’s Warriors, and this time, we got to just see the Golden State big three go up against Anthony Davis and LeBron.

At the time, I’ll be honest, I thought the Warriors were going to win this series. I just trusted them more as a team, they were the defending champions, and if you recall, the Lakers had struggled for the first half of that year until they made a series of trades to improve their roster, but it truly was Anthony Davis who was the difference in this series.

He was a problem Golden State just couldn’t handle. AD averaged nearly 22 points and 15 rebounds a game. LeBron was super efficient, and while Steph was good for a majority of the series, averaging about 27 points per game, the Warriors just didn’t have the depth or energy they had the previous year when they won the title.

And of course, we all know the chemistry on the team was a bit off after the Draymond Green and Jordan Poole incident in training camp which affected that group that entire season.

One key game that really stands out for me is Game 4, that back and forth between the Warriors and Lakers. That was just one of the all time great playoff games of the last five years, in my opinion. And while that was really the only true nail biter aside from Game 1, where Jordan Poole for no reason put up a shot from near half court to try to win the game, it was nice to see one last time LeBron and Steph in somewhat close to their primes on an even playing field.

In a league that has been up and down for the most part this decade to say the least, it was nice that we as fans were rewarded one last time to see the two iconic superstars of this generation go at it.

(3) Celtics vs. Knicks — 2025 East Semifinals (NY Won Series 4-2)

I’m very well thought about making Celtics-Knicks higher on this list, because if you just recall last year, the hype going into this Boston-New York series was insane. They hadn’t played in the playoffs since 2013 and finally these two iconic brands were both finally good again at the same time.

I also don’t think we talk enough about how unbeatable we thought the Celtics were at that time last year and they won the title in 2024 and seemed poised to at least get back to the Finals in 2025.

Of course, a lot of that series is defined by Jayson Tatum tearing his Achilles in Game 4, despite him putting on one of the greatest games of his career in that moment, only for him to suffer the worst injury you can possibly have in pro basketball.

Despite that, the first three half of this series was insane. The Knicks in Games 1 and 2 in TD Garden came back from damn near 20 points in both games to win right at the end. Game 3, the Celtics came back to New York and picked up the win to get themselves right back in the series.

Then in Game 4, Tatum, like I said before, near the end of the game, had 42 points and was playing one of the best games of his career, only for him to tear his Achilles. It was heartbreaking in the moment for basketball fans, but it was somewhat nice to see the Knicks and their fans finally get back to the Eastern Conference Finals after so many years of frustration. It was New York’s first time back in the Conference Finals in 26 years.

At the time, we thought it might have been the end of an era in Boston, only for them to come back this year and, in my opinion, still be the championship favourite in the Eastern Conference at least. Tatum is back, he looks healthy, and it looks like he has fully recovered from the Achilles.

So while we did think the series would have way more long term ramifications for the Celtics, I just think seeing those two iconic brands go at it in such an intense series, with Games 1 and 2 being potentially two of the most memorable playoff games last year, was just so sick. And I really hope this year in Round 2 we get an encore where both teams are healthy and it is just as competitive as it was last year.

(2) Mavericks vs. Thunder — 2024 West Semifinals (DAL Won Series 4-2)

This was the series where I think we all saw how great this Kyrie Irving and Luka Dončić pairing could be in Dallas. Of course, we know how that ended, with less than a year later Luka being shipped off to the Lakers for Anthony Davis, and Kyrie Irving suffering a torn ACL.

But at the time, this duo seemed poised to compete for championships for years.

The Thunder were the number one seed at the time. We knew they were building something special over there, but they had to learn how to win. They were one of the youngest teams in the league at the time, and they looked every bit of it.

The Mavericks were the more poised team throughout most of the series. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams & Chet Holmgren had real struggles in this series. And it really just came down to which team executed better in the clutch moments, and that was where Dončić and Irving shined.

One of my favourite memories of the series, of course, is Game 6, the closeout game, where the Mavericks came back from 17 in the second half and won the game on free throws. Ironically, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander fouled P.J. Washington with about two seconds left, where Washington made the first two free throws and then missed the third one on purpose to run out the clock, and it was one of the crazier endings in recent playoff history.

Looking back on the series, it really does make me upset that the Mavs traded Luka because I do think this Mavericks-Thunder rivalry really could have been something if both teams stayed healthy. Kyrie and Luka, we know, could go on deep playoff runs together, and we have seen what the Thunder have done since.

So it really does frustrate me looking back on it because who knows what the NBA would look like right now. But at the time, this was probably one of the more competitive and underrated playoff series of the last five years.

(1) Bucks vs. Suns — 2021 NBA Finals (MIL Won Series 4-2)

It didn’t feel right not to have an NBA Finals as the number one on this list, and this is the last year this Finals specifically would qualify for any list like this, so I just felt like I had to put it at number one.

This is, by far, in my opinion, the best Finals of the 2020s. It was better than Celtics-Warriors in 2022. It was better than Nuggets-Heat in 2023. It was better than Mavericks-Celtics in 2024. And while OKC and the Pacers did go seven last year, I just think this series was way more competitive all around.

We had Giannis, who we didn’t even know if he was going to be healthy enough to play in this series, which some people seem to forget after suffering a knee injury in thr Eastern Conference Finals, and yet he showed up in Game 1, and in Games 1 and 2 the Bucks did not look that great. Giannis did not look fully healthy, it seemed over... And then they didn’t lose another game after that.

They were down 0-2 to Chris Paul and the Suns, and it looked like CP3 was finally destined to get that first ring. But he did what Chris Paul teams often do in the playoffs, and that’s come up short.

This series was Giannis emerging into what we thought was the best player in basketball at the time. We thought this was the start of his era. And while it’s been disappointing for him and the Bucks in the playoffs since, that doesn’t take away from what they accomplished in this series.

Some of the iconic moments include Game 4, where Giannis absolutely rejecting Deandre Ayton at the rim to tie the series at 2. In Game 5, Jrue Holiday’s steal near the end of the game to lob it up to Giannis to win it on the road and set up that historic Game 6.

With the Larry O’Brien Trophy in the building, Giannis went for 50 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 blocks in the closeout game.

One of the best Finals performances ever to deliver Milwaukee’s first championship in 50 years.

Like I said, it didn’t feel right not to have an NBA Finals at number one, and this has, in my opinion, been the best NBA Finals of the 2020s in my opinion.