TENDEX NBA playoff preview: Oklahoma City is the team to watch
Thunder has best TENDEX rating, People's Choice Lakers ranked near the bottom
The 2025 NBA playoffs presented by TENDEX take the mystery out of teams to watch, those to ignore, and those to put your money - and faith - on.
TENDEX bases its playoff team rankings - not playoff predictions - on regular-season team ratings.
The average NBA team has a TENDEX rating of 100.
Two things stand out as the playoffs begin Saturday:
1 The Oklahoma City Thunder have the best regular-season TENDEX rating.
2 The Los Angeles Lakers, a popular choice by many to advance to the NBA Finals, have one of the lowest TENDEX ratings among this year’s playoff teams.
What does that mean in TENDEX speak?
TENDEX says Oklahoma City should be favored to win its first NBA championship based on its 111.5 regular-season rating. If the Thunder win the title, their TENDEX rating would rank fourth overall among NBA champions with the best ratings since 1980.
The Thunder would come right after the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls (112.4), 1995-96 Chicago Bulls (112.2), and 2009-10 Los Angeles Lakers (111.6).
TENDEX also says the Lakers’ 2024-25 regular season rating presents them with a chance to make TENDEX history.
If the Lakers win the title, they would do so with the lowest regular season rating in modern TENDEX history (100.8).
Here are the five lowest regular season TENDEX ratings among NBA champions since 1980:
2020-21 Milwaukee Bucks (102.0)
2022-23 Denver Nuggets (102.3)
2000-01 Los Angeles Lakers (104.1)
2002-03 San Antonio Spurs (104.6)
2010-11 Dallas Mavericks (104.7)
TENDEX regular season ratings among 2024-25 playoff teams (excluding play-in teams)
Eastern Conference
Cleveland 107.7
Boston 104.9
New York 103.6
Indiana 103.5
Detroit 102.5
Milwaukee 101.5
Western Conference
Oklahoma City 111.5
Denver 104.7
LA Clippers 103.9
Minnesota 103.7
Houston 102.9
LA Lakers 100.8