The most watchable NBA teams so far this season
A good record and a good watch are different things. The Celtics are 9-2 and most of their games were over by the fourth quarter. The Hawks are 7-5 and more than half of their games were worth watching. If you're picking a team to put on at 7:30 on a random Tuesday, the standings only tell you half of it.
So I counted. Every night The Lineup Is ranks every NBA game, and after the final buzzer each game either cleared our bar for worth watching or it didn't. For each team I took every finished regular-season game since opening night and worked out how many of them cleared it.
The window is opening night, October 20, through November 10, 2026: 160 finished games. 45 of them cleared the bar, a little over one in four. I'll refresh this every month.
All 30 teams, ranked
Ranked by share of games that cleared the bar, with ties broken by count.
| Rank | Team | Games | Worth watching | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 76ers | 12 | 7 | 58% |
| 1 | Hawks | 12 | 7 | 58% |
| 3 | Rockets | 11 | 5 | 45% |
| 3 | Spurs | 11 | 5 | 45% |
| 5 | Lakers | 12 | 5 | 42% |
| 6 | Cavaliers | 11 | 4 | 36% |
| 6 | Heat | 11 | 4 | 36% |
| 6 | Timberwolves | 11 | 4 | 36% |
| 9 | Nuggets | 9 | 3 | 33% |
| 10 | Clippers | 10 | 3 | 30% |
| 10 | Knicks | 10 | 3 | 30% |
| 10 | Magic | 10 | 3 | 30% |
| 10 | Pistons | 10 | 3 | 30% |
| 10 | Suns | 10 | 3 | 30% |
| 10 | Trail Blazers | 10 | 3 | 30% |
| 16 | Celtics | 11 | 3 | 27% |
| 16 | Mavericks | 11 | 3 | 27% |
| 16 | Pacers | 11 | 3 | 27% |
| 16 | Thunder | 11 | 3 | 27% |
| 16 | Warriors | 11 | 3 | 27% |
| 21 | Grizzlies | 10 | 2 | 20% |
| 21 | Nets | 10 | 2 | 20% |
| 21 | Raptors | 10 | 2 | 20% |
| 24 | Hornets | 11 | 2 | 18% |
| 24 | Jazz | 11 | 2 | 18% |
| 24 | Pelicans | 11 | 2 | 18% |
| 27 | Bucks | 11 | 1 | 9% |
| 28 | Bulls | 9 | 0 | 0% |
| 28 | Kings | 11 | 0 | 0% |
| 28 | Wizards | 11 | 0 | 0% |
Ratings here use our scoring as of November 12, which gives regular-season overtime and early upset leads less weight than it used to.
The top of the list
76ers: 7 of 12
Philadelphia is 9-3 and six of those wins came by six points or fewer. They opened by coming back from four down at the half to win 106-100 at Madison Square Garden, with Tyrese Maxey scoring 28. On October 28 they were down 13 after three quarters in Indiana and won 114-109. Then 98-93 over the Knicks, 109-104 in Charlotte and 112-106 in Detroit. A 127-121 win in Chicago was close too, but the Bulls are 1-8 and it didn't make the list. Good team, lots of tight finishes, a star guard with the ball late. That's the profile. Their three losses were all by 13 or more, and none of them cleared the bar.
Hawks: 7 of 12
Atlanta is level with Philadelphia at the top and only 7-5, but the Hawks keep finishing close. They won the opener 132-125 in Orlando after trailing going into the fourth, with Nickeil Alexander-Walker scoring 31. They came back from 12 down to beat Cleveland 114-111, won 108-104 in Indiana behind 34 from Alexander-Walker, and beat Brooklyn 124-121. Even a couple of their losses, to Houston and Miami, made the list.
Spurs and Rockets: 5 of 11 each
The Spurs have the best individual reason to watch. Victor Wembanyama put up 52 points and 24 rebounds in a 112-111 win over Dallas, had 43 against Minnesota and 36 in an overtime win in Utah.
Houston started unbeaten, then lost close ones in Dallas (116-111) and Phoenix (102-99).
Cleveland and Minnesota sit just behind at 4 of 11. Cleveland's best night was a 127-125 overtime win over Minnesota that spoiled 47 from Anthony Edwards. Minnesota's games against Golden State, Houston and San Antonio all made the list too.
The bottom of the list
Kings, Wizards and Bulls: none
Sacramento is 1-10 and not one of its games finished within five points. The closest were a 114-108 loss to Miami and a 107-100 loss to Orlando. Losses to the Clippers, Spurs and Grizzlies were by 25, 27 and 31.
Washington is 4-7 and Chicago is 1-8, and the Wizards' 124-120 win in Chicago didn't clear the bar. That's on purpose. The first of our 11 factors asks whether these are two good teams or two bad ones, and a close game between two struggling teams has to do more to earn a spot. The Bulls' closest other games were six-point losses to the Knicks and the 76ers.
Bucks: 1 of 11
Milwaukee is 1-10, with no game decided by five or fewer and losses by 25, 32 and 32. Its one game on the list was a 127-116 loss in Philadelphia.
Raptors and Grizzlies: 2 of 10 each
Toronto has no game decided by five or fewer, and its average margin is the second widest in the league. The two that cleared were a comeback from 16 down to win 125-118 against the Clippers and a 121-114 loss to Orlando with 41 from Scottie Barnes.
Memphis is the strange one, and it goes in the surprises below.
Surprises
The Pacers have the most close games and sit mid-table. They're 3-8, but five of their 11 games were decided by five points or fewer, the most in the league. Three made the list: losses to the 76ers and Hawks and a 107-103 win in Memphis. A 123-120 win in New Orleans didn't, and neither did Cooper Flagg's 43 in a 125-122 Dallas win over them.
Three overtime games didn't save the Pelicans. New Orleans is 4-7 and near the bottom. Two of its overtime games made the list: a 141-135 loss in Denver after leading by 23, with Jamal Murray scoring 42 and Nikola Jokic posting a triple-double, and a 135-134 win in Memphis. The third, a 120-113 win over 1-10 Utah, didn't.
Winning big makes for dull TV. The Celtics (9-2), Lakers (10-2) and Thunder (8-3) all sit in the middle or lower. Oklahoma City's average margin is over 17 points. Luka Doncic scored 45 against Toronto in a game the Lakers led by 26, and it didn't make the list.
The Grizzlies are 7-3 and in the bottom third. Four of their games were within five points, including a 111-108 win at Golden State that didn't clear. Ty Jerome had 45 in the opener, a 20-point win. Their two that made it were a 135-134 overtime loss to New Orleans, with 40 from Jerome, and a 107-103 loss to Indiana.
The bar rewards the fourth quarter, not the stat line. Big scoring nights in blowouts don't make the list. Close finishes do, and when a big night and a close finish happen together, like Wembanyama's 52 or Edwards' 47, those games land near the top.
Our take
A table like this is backward-looking. What matters on any given night is which game on tonight's slate is going to be good. The Lineup Is ranks every NBA game every night on 11 factors, from Rankings and Close game to Star power and Rivalry, and keeps rescoring while games are on, so a dull first half that turns into a comeback moves up the list. Your teams always show up whatever their score, and with Pro you can weight each league so the NBA counts for more or less than everything else you follow. Tonight's games are at thelineup.is/tonight/nba.
The Lineup Is is an iPhone app that ranks every game by whether it's worth watching and tells you when one gets good.
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