There are few things better in life than playoff basketball. In particular there are few things better than playoff basketball featuring numerous stars. The biggest names in the NBA build their legacies in the postseason; championships are won and lost based on which superstar can outperform the other. Pitting the greatest talents in the sport head-to-head with everything on the line results in greatness, tragedy and triumph.
That, more than anything, is what makes the NBA playoffs so great. The giants who rule atop the game must go to war with one another, over and over again, until only one is left standing. There’s no room for error or quarter on the way to the pinnacle of the sport. The quality of each team still matters quite a bit but it’s the superstar matchups that will determine who will be featured on the biggest stage come the Finals, where the Larry O’Brien Trophy awaits.
Of course, not all superstar matchups are made the same. Some are undeniably more attractive than others due to shared history, playstyle, similar circumstances (or, ideally, all of the above). As the 2025–26 regular season comes to a close, let’s rank the six most appealing superstar matchups we could potentially see in the first round of this year’s postseason.
6. Jalen Brunson (Knicks) vs. Brandon Ingram (Raptors)
Sports fans love a late bloomer. Jalen Brunson was a nice player for the Mavericks, but only became a true superstar—and the beating heart of a championship-starved basketball mecca—when he left for the Knicks.
Ingram’s path hasn’t even been quite that linear.
The No. 2 pick in the 2016 draft by the Lakers, Ingram began his career toiling away on some pretty brutal post-Kobe Bryant, pre-LeBron James Los Angeles squads. By the time James joined the Lakers, Ingram had established himself as a solid NBA scorer and a potential building block for the franchise’s next era.
And then he was shipped to New Orleans in the Anthony Davis trade.
Ingram made his first All-Star team in 2020, earning Most Improved Player honors that year with the Pelicans, though he was clearly tabbed as the franchise’s second-banana behind the young Zion Williamson. After a solid-if-unspectacular run in New Orleans, Ingram was dealt to the Raptors last February, and made his second All-Star team in 2026. Already a consistent 20-plus-points per game scorer for most of his career, Ingram has taken steps forward on defense, and the combination with fellow All-Star forward Scottie Barnes is one that should prove to be a tough matchup for many teams—even a New York squad with plenty of firepower at the wing.
The Knicks are locked in at No. 3. The Raptors can hold on to the No. 6 seed with a win against the Nets on Sunday. Brunson and his New York squad, built to win now, faces serious pressure to make a run at the NBA Finals this year. Less is expected of Toronto, and there are questions about whether the Raptors have the offense to make noise deep into the postseason. If they can change that narrative, it will likely fall on Ingram, in his 10th NBA season, to truly prove himself on a national stage for the first time.
5. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder) vs. Steph Curry (Warriors)
Assuming the Warriors do, in fact, manage to battle out of the play-in tournament and earn a first-round date with the Thunder, there is no need to pretend it would be a close call for the defending champs. OKC would undoubtedly wipe the floor with Golden State. But Curry fighting valiantly against that inevitability in a duel against Gilgeous-Alexander? That’s the good stuff.
Curry has long felt comfortable in the Thunder’s building and several of his best career highlights took place in the process of ripping out OKC’s heart; his Mike Breen double-bang will probably be the first scene of his Hall of Fame montage. He’d undoubtedly put on a show even against steep odds—especially if his extended absence from January to April battling runner’s knee means he won’t suffer from tired legs in the way some stars do once the postseason arrives. SGA, of course, is guaranteed to entertain and as the head of the snake in Oklahoma City would be tasked with going bucket-for-bucket with Curry once the superstar shooter inevitably catches fire.
First-round matchups featuring the 1 vs. 8 seed are very rarely interesting. This would be the exception. Curry is still a top-tier star who will wreak havoc against even the Thunder’s elite defense. Gilgeous-Alexander figures to be even more dangerous as a playoff scorer with championship experience and his first series will be a great window into what’s to come. It is certainly far more interesting than OKC steamrolling the Suns or Trail Blazers.
4. Jaylen Brown (Celtics) vs. Paolo Banchero (Magic)
Despite the Celtics’ championship pedigree, it may have been the Magic that entered the 2025–26 season with more hype. Boston, of course, was expected to be without Jayson Tatum for most if not all of the season, and seemed destined for a one-year reset. Orlando, meanwhile, has an ascendent star in Banchero and an intriguing nucleus featuring Franz Wagner and Desmond Bane.
Of course, great franchises are great for a reason. The Celtics remain a strong championship contender thanks to Jaylen Brown’s best season yet, one that had him in MVP conversations while Tatum recovered from his torn Achilles suffered during last season’s playoffs.
The Magic did not quite take the step forward expected, improving by four wins entering Sunday’s final game against—you guessed it—the Celtics. And still, at 45–36, Orlando is in the same No. 7 spot that it ended in last year, though it can still jump up to No. 6 with a win against Boston and a Raptors loss to the Nets.
Banchero logged another solid season but it was not the huge leap many hoped for the 2022 No. 1 pick—though he did play 71 games for a Magic squad that desperately needed his availability with Wagner missing more than half of the season. There is no better opportunity for a young player to bolster his reputation than the playoffs, however, and if Orlando finishes at No. 7 and wins its first play-in game, it will once again draw Boston. While Tatum is back, Brown proved for most of the year that he can carry a team as the No. 1 option. Can Banchero say the same? We may get the chance to find out starting next week.
3. Cade Cunningham (Pistons) vs. LaMelo Ball (Hornets)
A pair of 24-year-olds who have led the way in two of the Eastern Conference’s biggest breakout campaigns in as many seasons, we could get an excellent point guard matchup in the No. 1 vs. No. 8 seed series if things break correctly in the play-in tournament.
Cunningham, the No. 1 pick in the 2021 draft, had the Pistons in a similar position last year to where Ball has the Hornets this season. Detroit returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2019 on the strength of Cunningham’s first All-Star and All-NBA campaign. His numbers are strong once again in 2025–26 (24.2 points per game, 5.5 rebounds, a career-high 9.8 assists on .463/.344/.812 shooting), and after finishing sixth in the East a year ago, the Pistons are the top seed this year, entering the playoffs with legitimate title aspirations.
Ball, who was taken third in the 2020 draft, and Charlotte have taken a more meandering road to contention. The 6′ 7″ lead guard has been an impressive scorer for some bad teams throughout his career, averaging at least 20 points per game every season since his second year (2021–22). It hadn’t translated into winning. The Hornets entered the year 143–257 with no playoff appearances during Ball’s career, and had been trending in the wrong direction since ‘22. While he is still the focal point of the franchise, he’s taken a slight step back as the team’s go-to scorer, with his 20.1 points per game being his lowest mark since ‘21–22 and his 28.0 minutes per game the lowest of his career. At the same time, he’s having one of the most efficient scoring seasons of his career, has a career-low 2.8 turnovers per game, and has helped Charlotte turn into a truly deep unit.
Five Hornets are averaging in double digits this season, with forward Brandon Miller taking over as the team’s leading scorer by a hair and Kon Knueppel putting together one of the great shooting seasons we’ve ever seen from a rookie. Ball looks more like a franchise point guard than ever before, and after a dreadful start to the season, Charlotte enters the postseason with momentum and are the most intriguing team in the play-in tournament. If they win a pair of games to make it through from the No. 9 vs. No. 10 bracket, a date with Detroit awaits in the first round, bringing the Pistons–Hornets parallels into stark focus.
2. Nikola Jokić (Nuggets) vs. Anthony Edwards (Timberwolves)
These two enjoy a rich, recent playoff history. Jokić steamrolled Edwards in the latter’s first foray into the playoffs in ‘23 before going on to win that year’s title. The following season Edwards got him back, leading the Timberwolves to a shocking second-round, seven-game upset over the defending champion Nuggets in ‘24. The rosters around both players have changed since then but they’ve both remained consistent in their postseason excellence. A meeting this season would make for a wonderful third edition of this budding rivalry, and it will be set in stone if Denver can win its final game of the year on Sunday night.
Jokić will finish this season as the first player to ever lead the NBA in rebounds and assists per game. He isn’t anything to sneeze at as a scorer, either, putting up over 27 points per night on outstanding efficiency. He always takes it up a notch once the playoffs hit and is fun to watch every single night from April to however long Denver survives. Edwards took another leap in his game this year, developing greatly as a distributor and cleanly slicing through those tricky double teams that gave him so much trouble this time last year. And, of course, he can still put the ball in the basket at a tremendously high level; the athleticism on display while he does so makes Edwards one of the most exciting players in the league today.
To put it simply these are two electrifying basketball talents who can and will dominate the flow of the game for every minute they are on the floor. The war that will ensue when they try to do so while sharing the court together should be one of the best shows the first round has to offer.
1. LeBron James (Lakers) vs. Kevin Durant (Rockets)
Much of the last decade was defined by matchups between The King and KD. The two first met in the 2012 NBA Finals, when James proved victorious and won his first-ever championship. Several years later Durant defected to the Warriors and battled James’s Cavaliers twice more on the biggest stage in basketball, earning his two rings in the process. But since then, they haven’t met once in a postseason clash with everything on the line.
We’d love to see that change in the form of a first-round playoff matchup this year. A lot has changed since their last meeting in ‘18; the two superstars are now elder statesmen of the league and continue to keep Father Time at arms’ length with outstanding seasons relative to their age. What’s more, they both enter the postseason bearing enormous responsibility and the weight of extremely high expectations for their respective teams. Durant is the primary offensive engine of the Rockets and their late-game offense relies almost entirely upon his ability to sink jumpers over anybody in his way. James watched his superstar teammates fall to injury earlier this month and now the Lakers will only go as far as he can carry them at 41 years of age. The consequences will be significant for the losing side no matter what.
It doesn’t matter how old they are, LeBron vs. KD always makes for appointment television. But under these circumstances? Desperation reeking and teams in need of one last magic act from all-time greats? The chances of an incredible duel between the two all-time stars is quite high. So, too, is the chance this will come to fruition; the Lakers have to win on Sunday night and see the Nuggets lose in order to clinch the third seed. Otherwise they are fated to battle the Rockets in the 4 vs. 5 matchup.
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