2025 NBA Playoffs

[buddha]

32 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Mostly 2 small market teams I suppose? But  I think the law of decreasing returns sets in. The regular season ended close to 2 full months ago. Most teams in the playoffs have been out of them for a month. At this point in the calendar, for the average fan these games have lost a sense of connection to the season. Same goes for the NHL. NFL gets to the SB in 5 weeks, that's probably long enough for a playoff to run.

its almost ALL that its two small market teams.  the finals always take too long and are too far removed from the regular season.  it hasnt affected ratings like this before.

combine that with the fact that they have no league stars.  i know sga just won mvp, but most people dont know who he is.

[RandyMarsh]

On top of being small market teams I think both teams are just apathetic to non fans of those teams. Like sometimes fans like that will watch just to root against a certain team or player but I don't think either team has people that care that much about them to watch for that reason.

[Deleterious]

The league does a bad job promoting young stars.  A third of the league plays on  Christmas day with Ant and Victor being the only two young guys to play this year.  Half of those games should be young guys.  Neither of these teams played, how is that?  Sacrifice one days ratings to build long term ratings.

I also agree with Silver that so much of the media coverage is negative.  But what he doesn't mention is, if everyone says bad things about you, maybe you need to look in the mirror a bit.  I mean, why is the casual fan turning the finals on?  Last time he turned an NBA game on was the all star game and he saw 24 guys that didn't give a ****.  

Shame really.  Game 1 was really entertaining.  

[Deleterious]

Andrew Bynum hasn't played since 2014.  He is 3 years younger than Lebron.  

 

[Deleterious]

The Pacers victory sure helpe your OKC price if you still believe in them.  Their series price is down from -800 to -300. 

Pacers are an 11 point dog tonight.

[Deleterious]

Lol Siakam just held the ball as time ran out. 

[Deleterious]

I see a few empty inches on the court where they could squeeze in some more advertising.

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

Game 2 had the lowest ratings for a game 2 since 1988. But maybe we're looking at this wrong. 

Sunday's game was still the highest rated thing on TV for the entire weekend.  And its ratings were 50% higher than #2. 

People don't watch as much TV as they once did.

[buddha]

4 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Game 2 had the lowest ratings for a game 2 since 1988. But maybe we're looking at this wrong. 

Sunday's game was still the highest rated thing on TV for the entire weekend.  And its ratings were 50% higher than #2. 

People don't watch as much TV as they once did.

last years nba finals game 2 had 4 million more viewers.

they had streaming last year too.

nobody cares about okc and indiana.

[gehringer_2]

16 hours ago, Deleterious said:

People don't watch as much TV as they once did.

If you mean 'live TV' for sure. But unless in the absence of data to the contrary my default would be to believe total hours in front of some kind of video stream are still increasing. But I can believe that as people get more and more acclimated to watching what they watch on their own schedule it does decrease the appeal of having to meet the fixed schedule of a sporting event to watch it.

Heck, I still watch most Tiger games but I'm halfway to not watching them live. I have them recording and usually start on the recording at some point after the game starts.

[buddha]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

If you mean 'live TV' for sure. But unless in the absence of data to the contrary my default would be to believe total hours in front of some kind of video stream are still increasing. But I can believe that as people get more and more acclimated to watching what they watch on their own schedule it does decrease the appeal of having to meet the fixed schedule of a sporting event to watch it.

Heck, I still watch most Tiger games but I'm halfway to not watching them live. I have them recording and usually start on the recording at some point after the game starts.

my kids watch almost no "live tv."  maybe an award show.  but they watch tik tok and youtube.  almost nothing on regular tv. 

[Betrayer]

If Indy wins the series will this be the biggest David vs Goliath win since '04? Maybe Dallas (another Carlisle team) over Miami? Obviously, Lebron beating the Warriors by himself was big but that was mostly because he was down 1-3 already so that's a slightly different narrative.

Side note, the schedule for the Finals is absolute garbage. I don't understand why they've done it this way. Just make it every other day. I know they're trying to keep the NBA in the news all year long, but we don't have to fill every minute until the draft.

[Deleterious]

15 teams have won 80 games combined regular/playoffs. 

13 won the title

1 lost (Warriors) 

1 TBD OKC

It would be monumental if they lose.

[Deleterious]

Mathurin was a disaster

[GalagaGuy]

Williams got so lucky to get up and walk away from that fall.  Dude was like 5 feet in the air and came down directly on his back.  

[RandyMarsh]

2 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Mathurin was a disaster

Looked like Nick Anderson in the 95 finals or Ausar against the Knicks at the free throw line at the end. 

[Deleterious]

13 hours ago, RandyMarsh said:

Looked like Nick Anderson in the 95 finals or Ausar against the Knicks at the free throw line at the end. 

I was more offended by the two fouls on the inbound plays.

[Deleterious]

Unbelievable that we're not watching a playoff game right now.

[Betrayer]

1 hour ago, Deleterious said:

Unbelievable that we're not watching a playoff game right now.

This schedule is such a momentum killer for the NBA. How do you not have a game the entire weekend? Games should be every other day.

[Deleterious]

Imagine Cade without a FG and you're still in it at the end of the game like Indiana is right now. 

Goes back to what Betrayer said. We need two way players.

[buddha]

is tyrese haliburton's dad there getting in everyone's face and taunting the other team?

no?  hmm...

[Deleterious]

 

[Hongbit]

6 hours ago, Deleterious said:

 

It will be interesting to see if they stay the course with these players or if they create a package to acquire Giannis or Jokic.    

[Deleterious]

2 hours ago, Hongbit said:

It will be interesting to see if they stay the course with these players or if they create a package to acquire Giannis or Jokic.    

Going to copy and paste a response from someone on Reddit when asked the odds OKC looks at Giannis this summer.

Quote

Zero.

Speaking as a very enthusiastic OKC fan.

Since the Paul George trade, Presti has made it clear, both by his statements and his actions, that he is all in on developing young players and has no interest in pursuing superstars.

IHart is the biggest free agent signing in OKC history.

OKC has the entire squad under contract next year and still more draft picks than he needs.

OKC has a championship caliber team as it is, and acquiring Giannis would mean breaking them up and undoing years of progress in developing the players and acquiring picks... And for what? To help them compete for a championship? They just had one of the most dominating seasons ever.

Any off-season trades will be to consolidate picks, roster spots, or free up salary. It'll be interesting to see how he handles Dub and Chet when their rookie deals are up. Supposedly he instructed ownership to invest their savings while they're under the luxury tax to help pay the tax when it comes... Who knows if that actually happens.

They have the 15th pick plus a mid 20s pick in the 1st round this year. They'll most likely pick someone that's a work in progress. Similar to Ousman Dieng, poku, and topic. Maybe they work out. Maybe no. He doesn't hit on all of them but he seems to hit on more than he misses.