NBA Mid-Season Highs and Lows

Up to now, NBA articles have been conspicuously missing on Deep Into Sports for the 2009-2010.

I’ll admit it: the NBA is my least favorite of the Big Four sports leagues. I like the sport of basketball–I’m a huge fan of the college game–but the pro version doesn’t really become that interesting to me until the second half of the campaign, i.e. when the NFL season ends and the playoff picture starts generating genuine speculation.

Heck, examining the NBA standings as they currently, well, stand, the outlook for the season appears pretty much identical to that which the league had in February 2009, that a Finals match-up between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers is the most likely outcome.

Of course, that didn’t happen in the 2008-2009 campaign; that’s why they play the game.

The Lakers are coming off a 5-3 Eastern Conference road trip, thus answering any lingering questions as to whether their success prior said trip was largely associated with the disproportionate number of home games the Lake Show had played up to that point. Most telling, however, is the big game that they lost, falling to the Cavaliers for the second time this season.

Last year, that relationship was reversed. Last year, the Lakers were the team to beat, and Los Angeles ran the gamut.

This year, the Lakers upgraded with Ron Artest, the Cavaliers with Shaquille O’Neill. Which team has made greater strides? On top of which, you know that when it comes to beating the Lakers, Shaq has a chip on his shoulder.

This year, the Cavaliers are the team to beat.

On the negative side… is there any more star-crossed team in the NBA than the Clippers? Overall #1 draft pick Blake Griffin falls to injury in the pre-season, and then, just as he is supposed to return, it is announced that he is out for the year.

Even Cubs fans must have sympathy.

Still, the Clips are only 6 games under .500 and 6 games out of the last playoff berth in the Western Conference. Compared to the New Jersey Nets, the Clippers are playing lights out. Right now, the Nets are 4-43.

4-43?

4-43.

That’s a whopping .085 winning percentage. That’s almost inconceivably bad. That’s… an embarrassment.

To put that number in perspective, the Nets are on pace to finish the year 7-75. The next worst team in the NBA as of this moment (the Minnesota Timberwolves) already has eleven wins (the T-Wolves are 11-38). The worst team last year, the Sacramento Kings, finished the season 17-65. 4-43 and the extrapolated 7-75 makes expansion teams look good.

How can a professional franchise be that bad. Seriously, how is that possible?

• May 25, 2009 -- NBA Conference Finals Dogfights (0)
• June 17, 2009 -- Rain on the Parade (1)
• May 17, 2010 -- Rajon Rondo and the Boston Celtics – NBA Basketball (2)
• October 29, 2009 -- Tim Donaghy Strikes Back (14)
• June 25, 2009 -- Sports Bright: The Beauty of Sports Redux (4)