{"id":697283,"date":"2026-04-04T05:21:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/697283\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T05:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:21:17","slug":"nba-approaching-all-time-levels-of-ugly-after-blowout-filled-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/697283\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA approaching all-time levels of ugly after blowout-filled Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

In theory, a professional sports league is an enterprise that allows the average person to watch some of the world\u2019s best athletes play a competitive game. The modern NBA has made it easy to forget that.<\/p>\n

Perhaps time will be kinder to the league\u2019s 2025-26 season than we\u2019re about to be, but Friday might have been the clearest possible window into just how miserable professional basketball has become with the playoffs just a couple weeks away.<\/p>\n

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In one day, we saw:<\/p>\n

Does that sound like stuff that happens in a league where the incentives are in alignment? Even the bright spot of the day, Cooper Flagg\u2019s 50-point game<\/a>, came with a tinge of wrongness considering he got there because an ejected coach\u2019s replacement put him back in a decided game and let it rip.<\/p>\n

As the regular season comes to a close, the NBA conversation has been dominated by breathtaking levels of tanking and the league\u2019s \u201cbetter in theory than in practice\u201d eligibility rules for end-of-season awards. We already know Don\u010di\u0107, Cade Cunningham, Anthony Edwards, LeBron James and several more won\u2019t be making the All-NBA teams, with Nikola Joki\u0107 and Victor Wembanyama a sprained finger from joining them.<\/p>\n

\"Milwaukee<\/p>\n

The NBA regular season is almost over. Its issues will linger.<\/p>\n

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)<\/p>\n

Those are the stars staring down the 65-game limit. Another type of star in the NBA right now is the one not playing while his team looks at the 2026 NBA Draft class<\/a> the way a cartoon dog looks at a ham.<\/p>\n

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A list of examples: Anthony Davis, Trae Young, Michael Porter Jr., Tyrese Haliburton, Ivica Zubac, Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, Jaren Jackson Jr., Lauri Markkanen, Kyrie Irving and Ja Morant. Plus Antetokounmpo, apparently against his will.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not saying none of those injuries are legit, but it seems undeniable a full third of the league has opted against playing competitive basketball right now. And that\u2019s how you get eight blowouts in nine games on a Friday, with the lone competitive game between two of the worst teams in the league.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s something to consider: Per Justin Kubatko of Statitudes<\/a>, the month of March saw 24 games decided by at least 30 points, an all-time high. In three days of April, we have already seen six, and an Atlanta Hawks-Orlando Magic game on Wednesday was one point away from making it seven.<\/p>\n

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Maybe the playoffs will save us all (the Oklahoma City Thunder are nearly odds-on favorites to win it all at +130 at BetMGM), but the league\u2019s structural issues are evident enough that change is clearly needed.<\/p>\n

A change that would not help those issues is adding another two teams to the league, as the NBA appears poised to do soon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In theory, a professional sports league is an enterprise that allows the average person to watch some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[108,495,375,676,7,909,225,4672,532,178,496,967,976,185,150,368,562,6,33587,470,253,179,87719,477,494,278,693,3212],"class_list":{"0":"post-697283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-antetokounmpo","9":"tag-anthony-davis","10":"tag-anthony-edwards","11":"tag-atlanta","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-cade-cunningham","14":"tag-cooper-flagg","15":"tag-domantas-sabonis","16":"tag-ivica-zubac","17":"tag-ja-morant","18":"tag-jaren-jackson-jr","19":"tag-kyrie-irving","20":"tag-lauri-markkanen","21":"tag-lebron-james","22":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","23":"tag-luka-doncic","24":"tag-michael-porter-jr","25":"tag-nba","26":"tag-nba-regular-season","27":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","28":"tag-nikola-jokic","29":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","30":"tag-professional-sports-league","31":"tag-sacramento-kings","32":"tag-trae-young","33":"tag-tyrese-haliburton","34":"tag-victor-wembanyama","35":"tag-zach-lavine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}