Lena Williams reports that TV ratings were up 30 percent for the playoffs and 20 percent for the regular season.

Given the NBA's history of mendacity in ratings disclosures, I'm never able to take these reports at face value. But it's good news nonetheless.

UPDATE: a bit more on ratings.

Ratings for the 2003 WNBA Finals were in the 0.6-0.8 range. Ratings for last year's Finals fell sharply, down to about 0.2-0.3.

The reason was probably the Olympics and the smaller markets (Connecticut and Seattle instead of Detroit and LA).

This year, the league has been telling reporters that ratings are up 30% over last year. If that's true, it would look like we're in about the 0.4 range, which is still significantly lower than 2003.