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Today in Sports: Finding pretty patterns in NBA shooting, basketball ratings go up, and a legendary coach is accused of shady dealings.
Kirk Goldsberry, a geography professor at Michigan State University, breaks down the shot patterns for the starting lineups in tonight's NBA Finals and The New York Times compiled them into a nifty interactive graphic. The charts show where each player (as well the entire teams) likes to take, make, and miss all of their shots and reveals where they are the most effective. [The New York Times]
In other NBA news, television ratings were way up this season. Some feared a dip after the lockout eliminated several weeks of the season, but the shortened and compressed 66-game schedule seems to have suited fans just fine. The fact that they weren't playing games during the baseball playoffs and during the heart of NFL and college football seasons may also have helped them avoid low interest games that they usually find during the opening weeks of the season. [Marketplace.org]
Think Progress rounds up five U.S. cities currently being strongarmed by professional sports teams that want them to build a new arena or stadium. Even in the best of times, publicly financed stadiums are generally a terrible deal for local city and state governments, but they are even worse in times of austerity and massive cuts to social services. Especially when the $9 billion NFL wants to replace a Georgia Dome that's only 20 years old. [Think Progress]