Tuesday, December 10th, 2019

• Unless you’re a millionaire exec, why would the NBA’s drop in TV ratings matter?

• Nemanja Bjelica, of all people, ruined Russell Westbrook’s best shooting night with Houston

• Which team is in the best position to secure the league’s worst record? 

• A look at the best point margins in the league

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The lead: None of us should care that the ratings are down  

This season, less people are watching the NBA on TV. As of November 22, games on TNT and ESPN were averaging 1.45 million viewers, which is down 18 percent from last year.This definitely has something to do with the fact that:

• The Internet has gifted all of us with the attention span of a rabbit

• Not many young people have cable

• We can all watch crystal clear games on NBA4free.com, for free 

• Dozens of sources on YouTube (including the NBA’s official account) offer 10-minute, digestible highlight videos of every game

There are also probably other factors -- the China thing, LeBron playing in the Western Conference, Zion’s injury, etc.Many hours of thinking have regrettably been devoted to this topic. Every media entity is lining up with a take. Rather than do the same, we’ll ask two questions: 

1. Do you still enjoy watching the NBA? 

If the answer is yes, then none of this matters. 

1. Are you, or anyone you know, a TNT or ESPN exec whose bottom line is impacted by less people watching primetime NBA games? Do you have money at stake here? 

If the answer is no, then, again, why would any of this matter?In fact, we would encourage all of you to start watching games exclusively on NBA4free.com. Let’s get that 1.45 million into the six digits.

 2. Bjelica with the buzzer-beater to beat the Rockets 

“Fuck it, we deserved this win”

-- Nemanja Bjelica, after hitting the deep 3 to beat the Rockets, 119-118, last night.

 3. The best teams in the NBA, by net rating   

(Source: NBA.com)

In Yahoo! fantasy football, your team’s record is not necessarily the best indicator of how good your team is. The real benchmark is points scored.

In the NBA, net rating is a comparable stat to your fantasy team’s points scored. It can sometimes tell you more than an overall record.

Net rating

= a team’s point-differential per 100 possessions, or how much a team outscores (or gets outscored by) its opponent over roughly the course of an average basketball game.

A good example of net-rating at work is the Miami Heat. They’re 17-6, which is the fourth-best record by win percentage in the league. By net rating, though, they’re at 5.3, which is eighth-best in the league,

while their strength of schedule so far

 has been favorable. We would be willing to bet the Heat pile up a disproportionate amount of losses to their 17-6 record over the next few weeks.

Elsewhere, the graph shows how scary the Bucks, with a 12.7 net rating, have been; they’ve outscored their last six opponents by an average of 27.8 points per game.

 4. Tank standings   

With some particularly bad teams in the NBA this season, it’s never too early to look at the race toward the bottom. Let’s gander at the live standings,

cleanly laid out by our friends over at Tankathon.com

:

The surprise tank of the season, of course, is Golden State. The only concern for the Warriors, though, is the two All-Stars in D’Angelo Russell and Draymond Green, and a winning coach in Steve Kerr.In the end, a clueless team like Chicago or Memphis might just lose itself into the top-four, edging out the Warriors.Interesting tank game of the week: The Knicks play the Warriors tomorrow, which could have huge implications on the top seed.Other Notables:The Cavs are sticking around, but how bad they want to be will depend on how willing they are to trade Kevin Love. If they do so, contention with the Knicks is a real possibility.Don’t count the Hawks out, either: 

• They have the fourth worst defense rating in the league (114)

• They’ve got the worst 3-point percentage (31.7%) 

• They average the most turnovers per game (17)

• They’re giving 42-year-old Vince Carter 15 minutes per game

Atlanta seems serious about a top-four spot.To see how your team competes in the fight to be the worst, head to Tankathon.com or follow them on Twitter.

• Chris Paulwith the crafty fake pass against Ruby Gobert last night. 

• Derrick Rose with a 2011-esque buzzer-beater over the New Orleans Pelicans last night.

• Celtics rookie Grant Williams finally hit his first 3-pointer last night, and now his teammates can stop calling him Ben Simmons.

• Ja Morant tricked two Warrior players with a fake behind-the-back pass last night.

• Brandon Ingramwith the jam over Andre Drummond last night.

• Mike D’Antoni has yet to extend his contract with the Rockets, which ends after this season.

• According to the Ringer, Kevin Love is angling to play for his hometown Portland Trail Blazers.

• A Reddit user pointed out that Bill Simmons’ roadmap for the Clippers to win a title back in 2017 is the complete opposite of what they ended up doing, and now they’re contenders.

Dirk’s Game 7 breakthrough and the decade’s greatest series: Spurs-Mavs, 2006 [Book of Basketball 2.0]