Wow, the third NBA head-scratcher in a week!!!

Boston, through a trade with Brooklyn in 2013, just won the #1 draft pick in the NBA Draft Lottery.

This is beginning to beg a real question here:

Is the NBA (or, possibly, more correctly, it's television partners) all but ordering more super-teams to broaden the spectrum of the league beyond Golden State and Cleveland?

(As an example for tonight:  With 8:30 to go in the second quarter in Oakland, Golden State is up 44-19 on San Antonio.)

Consider:  For this year's Eastern Conference Final with Cleveland, even though Boston had the better regular-season record and has home court advantage, ESPN reports that the Superbook in Las Vegas (the largest legal sports-book therein) now has Boston a 6-1 underdog (+600) to win the series.  Cleveland, who has 10 days off for the series, is a 1-9 favorite. (-900)

According to one offshore sportsbook through Vegasinsider.com, Cleveland is only +320 to sweep the series.  Golden State, and it's noted these were before the series started, is +300 to sweep theirs, and +180 only to drop one game.

As things even stand now with only four remaining teams, the Superbook has Boston at 40-1 to win the title, Cleveland at 5-2.

My anonymous friend talked to me last night, after reading of the NBA on TNT Twitter account and all such, and researched the box score.

If last night was fixed, it wasn't anything out of the David Stern playbook.  Boston got more fouls called against them (24-17), and Washington got more freethrow attempts (WAS:  23-29  BOS:  20-25).

So if last night was rigged, I can only think of one real possibility:  Given the complete non-competitive nature of NBA playoff basketball, did Turner themselves pull the trigger and ask Washington to take a (the more believable, the better!) dive?

Without a reversal of fortune in Oakland tonight, the Cavs and Warriors, leaving tonight, would be a combined 18-0 in the playoffs.  Perhaps Turner felt that four games with some intrigue with Boston might outdo four with Washington...

But, as Brian Tuohy points out, though he does not believe them, he does hearken back to that one Vikings-Packers wild-card call from a number of years back when he asks:

I don't put a ton of stock into these media "oops" pre-releases but how many times are they wrong? https://t.co/2aZD9Qp66b

— Brian Tuohy (@TheFixIsInTuohy) May 16, 2017