NBA playoffs 2024-25: Ty Jerome, Jaden McDaniels headline list of unexpected Game 1 stars

The 2024-25 NBA playoffs are out of the gate with all eight Game 1s in the book. The biggest surprise so far? Probably the Timberwolves thumping the Lakers, though anyone who’s been watching the Wolves for a while now knows how good that team is, even if most people erred on the predictability and comfort of the Lakers when picking that series. 

There were some surprising individual performances, however. And that’s what we’re here to highlight. We know about the stars, but who were some of the lesser-known quantities who stepped up to unexpected levels in their respective playoff openers? With all respect to Davion Mitchell, who has been terrific for the Heat and was great again in Game 1, albeit in a loss at Cleveland. Let’s break down three of these, shall we say, role-player extraordinaries who contributed to wins.

Game 1 lessons from all eight first-round NBA playoff series: Knicks can go big, Thunder make statement

It feels a bit deceiving to hit Jerome’s Game 1 performance with the surprising tag because anyone who’s spent any time watching him knows he’s been fabulous for the Cavs all season and is capable of a lot more than just supportive stats and hustle plays. But if you claim to have predicted Jerome going for anywhere near 28 points, in the first playoff game of his career no less, you’re a liar. 

Jerome now owns the third-highest playoff-debut scoring output in Cavaliers history, trailing only LeBron James‘ 32 in 2006 and Kyrie Irving’s 30 in 2015. Jerome scored 20 of his 28 points over a 12-minute span covering the third and fourth quarters, all but single-handedly turning what was a pretty close game into a blowout. 

It’s a crime that the 20-minute rule applies to Most Improved Player, meaning a player has to play at least 20 minutes in a game for it to count toward the 65-game minimum to be eligible for these awards, because that minute area is prime real estate for some of the most improved players, guys like Jerome who start out at the back end of the rotation and continue to see their minutes rise as the season goes on. 

Jerome is now a critical part of this Cavs team, and he showed it in a major way with one of the best Game 1 performances of the weekend. 

You know what has to hurt the Lakers almost as much as their Game 1 loss to the Timberwolves? The fact that they actually drafted Jaden McDaniels, who cooked them for 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting. That was in 2020, when McDaniels was taken 28th overall and immediately dealt to the Thunder in the deal for Dennis Schroder. 

Again, this isn’t an unbelievably surprising performance for those in the Timberwolves know. McDaniels scored at least 20 points 11 times this season and had a season high of 30. He’s capable. He’s a streaky shooter in the big picture but on any given night he’s a weapon, as the Lakers fond out. He can put the ball on the floor and create shots more naturally than his defense-first perception would indicate. 

Still, like Jerome’s night for Cleveland, getting 25 from McDaniels in a playoff game is found money. The Wolves are going to go as far as the peripheral parts take them as Anthony Edwards can only do so much, especially on a pedestrian night by his standards; Edwards had 22 in the opener as L.A. was throwing everything at him. 

The Wolves won that game because they collectively played faster and more physical than the Lakers. Julius Randle, who has been great in April, had 16 efficient points with four 3-pointers. Naz Reid had 23 with six 3s. Those guys are more known scoring quantities, though, if not always consistently, especially in the case of Randle. 

McDaniels is a wild card in the truest sense, and he came up aces in Game 1. 

The Thunder are the betting favorite to win it all for a number of reasons. They have the likely MVP. Their defense is a killing machine. But there’s also the good old-fashioned fact that they just have a ton of really good players. Wiggins is one of them. On almost any other team he would be a starter, but on Oklahoma City, like Jerome on Cleveland, he didn’t even play 20 minutes in enough games to qualify for Most Improved Player.

Wiggins can do a bit of everything, Shoot. Defend. Function on or off ball. He’s one of OKC’s many cutting gems. He went for at least 30 points three times this season, and 41 once, and scored 80 over OKC’s final three regular-season games. 

So again, he’s a very capable player. To have him signed at $47 million over five years is a clearance-rack contract. But all of this said, to have Aaron Wiggins as the leading scorer in a historic 51-point playoff win is a headline nobody expected to be reading. 

But it’s true. Wiggins, in just 26 minutes while not even playing in the first quarter, led OKC with 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting. He made four 3-pointers and defended his back side off, as did everyone in a Thunder uniform. What a luxury to have a guy this good toward the back end of your rotation. The Thunder are so loaded.