NBA Games of the Week: Epic 40-point blowout potential

NBA Games of the Week: Epic blowout potential

CLEVELAND, OH - OCTOBER 17: Dwyane Wade #9 and LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers walk up court during the game against the Boston Celtics on October 17, 2017 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images) /

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With so many NBA games it can be hard to know what to watch. Each week we’ll be recommending a few must-watch games for you, all built around a theme.

Blowouts in today’s NBA are patterned with a certain theme. Seeing a box score of 120-83 (Warriors-Pacers, Nov. 21, 2016) won’t make you wonder what the hell happened, especially after you remember the Warriors can win by 37 against any team.

Blowouts in the age of pace-and-space are about hitting your 3-pointers. In the past 10 years, teams have won by at least 35 points, while hitting at least 10 from deep, 105 times. In the 12 years prior to that (2006-1994), it happened 42 times. No such blowout happened before Dec. 29, 1994, when the Heat beat the Clippers 126-83, per Basketball-Reference. In that game, the Heat shot 14-of-22 on 3-pointers.

Perhaps blowouts aren’t as special as they used to be. The correlation between hot 3-point shooting and larger scoring margins makes too much sense for any of us to do one of those coffee spits from cartoons or like Shaq when he wants to add extra humor to an already hilarious story. (By the way, while searching for “coffee spit cartoon,” I learned the official name for it is called a spit-take, and there’s a tutorial on how to do it on YouTube. The internet is something else.)

The largest margin in NBA history, per Basketball-Reference, is 68, by the Cavaliers over the Heat 148-80. All 12 players for the Cavs scored at least five points, including now-Warriors coach Steve Kerr, and eight scored at least 10. The Cavs only attempted 11 3-pointers and made five. The past generations of the NBA is such a weird place.

So, if we’re talking about 35-point blowouts, why did I make it 40? For one, in the regular season, teams have won games by at least 35 points 707 times. That’s too many. The point of this is to have some fun. If we up the margin to 40, then that number cuts to 292. A 50-point win has only happened 31 times, and five times has a team won by 60 points or more. So 40 makes the most sense for fun and chances of happening.

Also, I was inspired by the Blazers-Suns opening night, where the Blazers won by 48 despite not having CJ McCollum. Here are five “can we win by 40 points” games to watch this week.

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