Finding NBA games worth watching, without the spoilers

I usually follow the NBA during the playoffs. I enjoy the structure and the competition, and I don’t have enough time to keep up with the whole regular season.

But sometimes I just want to watch a good game. When that happens, I tend to pick the same team’s games and often end up watching a one-sided contest. Finding a better option usually means looking at scores, highlights or discussions—and spoiling the game before I’ve even started.

Recently, I asked AI to help me build something to solve this: a way to rank NBA games by how interesting they might be to watch, without revealing what happened.

The ranking considers things such as how competitive a game was, how much discussion it generated, and whether there was a standout individual performance. Those signals feed into a score, so I can choose a game without knowing the result or the details behind its ranking.

Games ranked by watchability, with watched games marked. The scores are ratings, not game results.

I can filter by date when I want something recent, or look across the whole season for games I’ve missed. The idea is simple: help me decide what to watch, then let me discover why it was worth watching for myself.

I also added a tracker to record the games I’ve watched, with a few stats showing how many I actually get through. A small addition, but a fun one.

So far, it works really well for me.

What I like most about this project is that I would never have made time to build it otherwise. It solves a minor frustration, and it would have stayed a minor frustration. With AI’s help, I could turn it into a working tool that fits the way I want to watch basketball.

I’m curious how many other small things in my day could be worth building something for now.