NBA playoff predictions: Expert picks for full bracket, with Celtics and OKC favored, Warriors, Lakers hopeful

The postseason has arrived in the NBA, and 20 teams enter the bracket with their eyes on the Larry O’Brien trophy. Some, obviously, have better chances than others. So how will things shake out over the coming weeks as we work our way toward the 2025 NBA Finals? That’s what we’re attempting to predict today. Below, our seven CBS Sports NBA experts have each filled out a full postseason bracket — yes, including the Play-In Tournament — and predicted a champion before the playoffs begin.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of love for the Boston Celtics and the Oklahoma City Thunder, who enter the playoffs with the best title odds. A few of us even see runs for the Warriors and the Lakers in the West against the less-experienced Thunder. Meanwhile, it might be a short stay in the playoffs for Nikola Jokić’s Nuggets and Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s Bucks if we’re right.

Let’s take a look at the current NBA title odds, and then we’ll get to the picks.

2025 NBA title odds

(As of April 15 via BetMGM)

Brad Botkin’s bracket

NBA Finals prediction: Thunder over Celtics. Everyone is talking about how stacked the West is, and it’s true … from seeds 2-8. Anything can happen in those series but OKC is the clear best team in the conference. The separation between Boston and Cleveland perhaps isn’t as clear in the East, but I still believe Boston is the team to beat with its versatility on both sides of the ball. It will make for a coin-flip Finals between Boston and OKC, but the simple truth is going back-to-back is incredibly difficult. Just look at how many times it’s happened in history. It’s not often. The Celtics will be the latest team to call short as the Thunder’s time has come. 

James Herbert’s bracket

NBA Finals prediction: Thunder over Celtics. I picked the Celtics to make it back to the Finals, but it’ll be a harder road than last time. If they meet the Cavs in the conference finals and aren’t at least close to full strength, they’ll be in trouble. Jaylen Brown‘s injury is already a concern. I’m bullish on the Thunder, but the rest of the West is messy. I picked the Warriors to make it to the conference finals, but if they lose to Memphis on Tuesday, this whole bracket is shot. My confidence meter is not high on any of these predictions. OKC gets the slight edge on Boston (or Cleveland, for that matter) based on its dominant regular season and its ability to shift shapes. The Thunder can play all sorts of different styles, and they’ve spent the past six months experimenting with the playoffs in mind.

Jack Maloney’s bracket

NBA Finals prediction: Celtics over Thunder. The defending champion Celtics shook off their strange midseason slump and are peaking at the right time. Kristaps Porzingis is healthy, they’ve looked dominant on both sides of the ball over the last few months and their lack of home-court advantage may actually be a blessing in disguise considering how well they’ve played on the road, both this season and in recent playoff runs. On the other side of the bracket, it’s been the Thunder and everyone else all season long. There’s been plenty of discussion about which West contender is best suited to knock them out in the playoffs, but the correct answer is none of them. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is playing at an MVP level and they have an all-time defense. It wasn’t a fluke that they finished 16 games ahead of everyone else in the conference.  If we do get a Celtics-Thunder Finals, it could be an all-timer. These are two incredible teams with deep, versatile rosters led by innovative coaches. The Celtics are fueled by a desire to repeat and prove last season’s title run was not an injury-aided fluke. The Thunder are motivated by last season’s second-round exit and all the doubt about how good they actually are. In the end, the Celtics’ experience on the biggest stage will give them the slight edge they need to lift the Larry O’Brien trophy again. 

Sam Quinn’s bracket

NBA Finals prediction: Thunder over Celtics. The East is relatively straightforward. It’ll be Boston and Cleveland at the end, barring something unforeseen. Give me the wing-ier team, the slightly more versatile and experienced roster than the younger Cavaliers group that has answered every regular-season question imaginable but has largely underwhelmed in recent postseasons. The West is more complicated. The Thunder have been the best team all year. After that? It’s a mess. The Lakers get a favorable bracket here, avoiding the Clippers and Nuggets entirely and getting the Warriors after what should be a knock-out, drag-out seven-game brawl in the first round. The Lakers have enough talent to overwhelm their first two opponents, but they need an offseason’s worth of moves to catch up to Oklahoma City. The Thunder have been the best team all year. That was Boston a year ago. At this stage, though, it’s worth wondering if years of long playoff runs begin to take their toll. Jaylen Brown is nursing knee pain. Jrue Holiday has taken a step back, and Kristaps Porzingis is always a bit of a question mark health wise. We’ve had six new champions in six years. Let’s make it seven with one of the great regular-season teams ever, the Thunder, ascending to the top of the mountain.

Bill Reiter’s bracket

NBA Finals prediction: Celtics over Warriors. The Boston Celtics remain the NBA’s best — and best-tested — team. The fact I’d suggest the Warriors will lose to them in the NBA Finals has more to do with taking, just barely, the field over a young, untested and extraordinary Thunder team. The Western Conference can feel like an optical illusion of excellence. You can hold each team up, at certain angles, and see a title contender. The Clippers? Since Kawhi Leonard rejoined the team, on-and-off, on Jan. 4, they are eighth in offensive rating, second in defense and third in net rating. How about the Timberwolves? Since the New Year, they’re fifth, ninth and fourth in offense, defense and net rating, respectively. Denver … well, they have Nikola Jokić. And so on. It’s a pick-your-poison minefield out West, and so I’ll pick Golden State — seventh in offense, third in defense, fourth in net rating since acquiring Jimmy Butler — to pull the play-in-to-Finals miracle. And then lose to the Celtics.

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Colin Ward-Henninger’s bracket

NBA Finals prediction: Celtics over Warriors. The OKC disrespect is real, and I don’t feel the least bit good about it. I’m the type of analyst who probably overly relies on experience, so the idea of Kawhi Leonard, Ty Lue and James Harden (not tasked with being the No. 1 option) against a relatively green Thunder squad has me basketball-drunk enough to pick the Clippers. The Lakers-Warriors series, if we even get there, is going to be a bloodbath, and I know that the Lakers have posed major problems for Golden State in recent years. But that was when Anthony Davis was in the equation, and I think the lack of size and rim protection will hurt them this time around, even if they have added Luka freaking Dončić. Ultimately I can’t pick against a team with Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green — three of the best playoff performers of the past decade — so I have the Warriors coming out of the West. The East is much more simple. I believe the Celtics are the best team in the NBA, so I’m picking them to win the title. No matter how it shakes out, however, this is going to be a fun ride. 

Jasmyn Wimbish’s bracket

NBA Finals prediction: Celtics over Lakers. The East is pretty standard. All season long it has felt like a collision course between the Celtics and Cavaliers, and I have Boston winning what I expect to be a seven-game series. In the West, while the Thunder have been the best team in the league, that blowout loss to the Lakers really stuck with me. The trio of Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and LeBron James is going to be difficult for the Thunder to contain, and while this may not be the best iteration of the Lakers that Dončić will play with, I think it’s enough to get past OKC. Doncic’s beaten the Thunder once already, I believe he does it again to get back to the Finals.