Is that the first three quarters of a good game are meaningless. The teams spend three quarters feeling one another out, then in the fourth quarter everything happens. Sometimes, admittedly, a game is decided in the third quarter. But that’s by definition a bad game, and not worth watching. Compare to baseball or football, where the early going is often decisive, even in a good, competitive game. I.e., there’s a reason to watch the whole thing. Yes the fourth quarter is the most exciting in football, the 7th, 8th and 9th the tensest in baseball. But specifically: the preceding quarters and innings have often contained the key moment of the game. In a good basketball game, you’d never say that of action in the first 3 quarters, unless there was an injury. Which is to say, does anyone really enjoy the first three quarters of a basketball game?
I’m not sure what the solution is. Maybe changing the scoring system, to a set system, ala tennis, and have five ten-minute sets and a team wins when it wins 3 out of 5. That would make you watch.
