Adebayo didn’t have a bad game offensively, but he really left his mark on the defensive end. As one of the premier defenders in the league, Adebayo was able to do a bit of everything to help Miami keep their season alive. His seven “stocks” matched his season-high, and he recorded his third straight double-double. Adebayo be tasked with slowing down Cleveland’s two seven-footers in the first round of the playoffs as the Heat look to pull off their second win over a No. 1 seed as a No. 8 seed in the last three years.

Conley has been a consistent starter for most of the season, but he hasn’t been productive in the box score, especially during the postseason. However, he changed that on Wednesday. He set new highs for points, rebounds, assists and three-pointers during these playoffs as Minnesota closed out their series with Golden State to return to the Western Conference Finals. Conley will continue to start, but it’s unlikely that he replicates this production in the next round.

The turnovers weren’t pretty, but everything else went right for Edwards in Game 5 as Minnesota completed their second straight gentlemen’s sweep. He didn’t score 30 points, which he had done in the two games in Golden State, but Edwards did dish out a new playoff career high for assists in a new game, which also matches his career high for dimes in the regular season. This was a fantastic performance for Edwards, even if he didn’t dominate as a scorer. He’ll need to continue to play at a high level in the Western Conference Finals, whether it is against Oklahoma City or Denver.

Randle played at a high level in the first round, but he was dominant in the gentlemen’s sweep of the Warriors. He struggled in Game 1, which Minnesota dropped, but during the final four games of the series, Randle averaged 27.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.8 assists, one steal and two triples while making 55.7 percent of his shots. Turnovers were still an issue, but they didn’t prevent the Timberwolves for winning four straight games. They’ll now await the winner of the Thunder-Nuggets series, and if Randle continues to play like this, Minnesota will have a chance to make the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.

Ward was responsible for the only run off Randy Vásquez and the San Diego pitching staff in yet another loss for the Angels. He’s gone deep 10 times in 2025, and two of those have come in his last three games. Ward will turn 32 this December, and assuming the Angels are out of playoff contention — and they will be — it’s pretty easy to picture him wearing a different uniform by the time August rolls around.