2025 NBA Playoffs results, highlights, recap April 25 including Anthony Edwards clutch game

It was a sweep for the home teams on Friday night, 3-0.

TIMBERWOLVES 116, LAKERS 104 (Minnesota leads series 2-1)

It raised the eyebrows of some casual fans when Minnesota signed Jaden McDaniels to a five-year, $136 million extension, a deal that kicked in this season. Was he worth more than $27 million a year on average?

This is the Jaden McDaniels Minnesota hoped it was paying for. He has been the difference in this series. McDaniels had 25 points in Minnesota’s Game 1 win, and then on Friday night, he put up 30 on 13-of-22 shooting in Minnesota’s clutch win at home.

This felt like a confidence-boosting win for the Timberwolves in front of a raucous Minnesota crowd. This looks like a team starting to believe in itself. Minnesota is simply outworking Los Angeles through most of this series and did it again Friday night, including running past the Lakers for 21 fast-break points (and a lot of other early offense). Minnesota is capable of playing some incredible high-level basketball — something we have seen dating back to last year, before the Karl-Anthony Towns trade — but it doesn’t do it consistently.

Did Game 3 — and the 13-1 run to close the game — change that? They sound like a team that believes in itself. However, the real test is Sunday: Can they come out and take Game 4 against a desperate Lakers team, taking total control of the series?

The best adjustment J.J. Redick can make before Game 4? Get Luka Doncic healthy. A great LeBron James game — which we got Friday with 38 points — will not be enough.

MAGIC 95, CELTICS 93 (Boston leads series 2-1)

While the focus in this series has been on Orlando’s physicality and how far it goes, Boston had been able to execute well enough against it to pick up a couple of wins at home.

That flipped Friday night in Orlando — the Magic were a little more desperate and Boston got a little sloppy with the ball. The Celtics had 21 turnovers on the night, and while some of those were instances like Payton Pritchard having the ball stolen in the backcourt, there were a couple of 24-second violations and a lot of offensive fouls.

At the same time, the Magic fixed another of their problems on the court: The third quarter. They had been outscored by 19 in the third in the first two games in Boston, and that’s where things tended to get away from them. Not in Game 3 at home. Orlando opened the third quarter on a 14-0 run, retook the lead, and changed the dynamic of the game.

The Magic’s depth also showed out, with things like good play off the bench from Anthony Black.

BUCKS 117, PACERS 101 (Indiana leads series 2-1)

Doc Rivers made his big change, moving Gary Trent Jr. into the starting lineup.

Well, that couldn’t have worked any better.

Trent’s nine 3-pointers tied Ray Allen for the franchise record for most in a postseason game. It was Trent — along with Giannis Antetokounmpo, who also scored 37 — who sparked the Bucks’ third-quarter comeback and kept their season alive.

Game 4 becomes huge in this series. Can the Bucks get stops again when they need them? Can the Bucks get someone to step up and help Antetokounmpo again? If not, if the Pacers score their way to a 3-1 series lead, this is over.