ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith says NBA should be ashamed of competitive-less playoffs. Is he right?

In case you missed it, or turned it off at halftime, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics 130-86 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.

At times, the Celtics didn’t seem to care. LeBron James scored 30 points to go with seven assists, four rebounds and four steals. Cleveland hasn’t lost in the playoffs, and neither have Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

In this postseason, Cavs games and Warriors games have become predictable blowouts.

And while it may be leading to a very entertaining NBA Finals between Curry and James that fans have been anticipating all year, these preliminary playoff games haven’t been very watchable (outside of the Boston-Washington series in Round 2).

So is this good for the NBA?

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith doesn’t think so.

“Overall you’re just absolutely disgusted,” Smith said. “I cut off (Friday’s) game midway through the second quarter....I ran out of the house and got some White Castle (hamburgers)....and watched some of my General Hospital TiVo’s episodes. I don’t have time to watch this. It’s a disgrace and it’s embarrassing...The NBA should be ashamed of the product that’s been put out there...There’s so much sub par basketball.”

Yet, despite the blowouts, ratings are good. Game 1 of Boston-Cleveland drew a strong 4.7 rating in metered markets for TNT, up 15 percent over last year’s opening game of the 2016 Eastern Conference finals. Out west, Golden State’s ridiculously easy Game 2 win over San Antonio (136-100) drew a 4.3 rating for ESPN, just a tick down from a year ago from a conference final Game 2 it broadcasted in 2016.

Are fans just waiting for a Super Finals, or is the NBA headed to trouble? Stephen A. weighs in below.

This story was originally published May 20, 2017 at 12:12 AM with the headline "ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith says NBA should be ashamed of competitive-less playoffs. Is he right?."