This NBA season, perhaps more than any other I can remember, has shown off the dichotomy between regular season and playoff basketball. This is to be expected to a point. Players, coaches, and front offices are going to care the most about the championship tournament.
But the gap between regular season basketball and the postseason seems to be growing by the year. Is this a bad thing? I say no, but it may depend on your perspective as a fan or consumer. It's probably here to stay, though.
For the first time in several seasons, I didn't purchase League Pass. It was fun to be able to watch any game on a random night, and I was sure I would miss it. But I didn't regret it at all — it was easy enough to watch national games, highlights, and check standings and stats without feeling like I missed out on the way the season was unfolding.
With load management and the grind of an 82-game season in a high-scoring, up-tempo era for the league, it's reasonable to think that teams won't go all out from October to mid-April. But then it's also reasonable to think that fans like me won't watch the regular season as much.
The "problem" of regular season basketball is at the heart of the discourse about the league not doing as well in the ratings. And somehow, this issue has made me love the playoffs even more.
Even with the teams I root for in the regular season (Mavs and Hornets) each having seasons from hell, I've loved watching the first round immensely.
An NBA playoff season can start a bit slow with the elite teams beating up on lower seeds, but this past round had just about everything I could have asked for.
There were dominant performances by the No. 1 seeds. The Nuggets and Warriors each showed championship mettle in series that went the distance. The Knicks and Pistons had a six-game fight where every single game was compelling. Anthony Edwards and the Wolves bullied LeBron James and the undersized Lakers in a series that we may think of as a changing of the guard in a couple years.
Throughout the round, there was a good mix between offense and defense that isn't always noticeable in the regular season. Games got so physical that some even asked if it was becoming a problem. That's not usually a question that gets asked in January.
With eight teams left and the second round already providing some surprises in the first couple games, I'm not only looking forward to every series over the next 10 days, I'm looking forward to every potential matchup left — and that's not something I say every May.
I don't think there's any combination of teams in future rounds that would make me uninterested. Indiana and Minnesota in the Finals wouldn't have the league or ESPN doing cartwheels, but it would be fantastic basketball, as would a Golden State/Boston Finals.
Even as someone who couldn't get enough of the Olympics last summer and generally thinks all levels of basketball should have FIBA rules or close to it, the nine weeks of the NBA playoffs are as good as the sport gets in quality and competitiveness. And with that, it's also okay to admit that the regular season can be lackluster for long stretches.
Is that a problem that needs fixing? I don't know, but if given the choice as a fan, I'd take the playoffs being a clear showcase of skill and intensity over a regular season that's maybe 20% better.
A clear solution that would make the majority of the season better would be to chop games. I particularly like the possibility of a double round-robin schedule with 58 games. But we all know owners and players aren't going to go for that income loss.
It's not the worst thing for the league to have an amazing playoffs most years and a regular season that's not going to blow anyone away. And even if I might be watching less basketball overall from October to June, I'm more appreciative than ever about how good playoff basketball is and will be for the rest of the spring.
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