1. The first round of the NBA playoffs averaged 3.84 million viewers through Sunday. That is a 20% increase from last year and the highest average for the first round since 1993. I’m an NBA fan and have no ax to grind with the NBA. However, that 3.84 million number needs a MASSIVE asterisk. First and foremost, as I’ve told you many times in this column, Nielsen changed the way it measures viewers last September and pretty much every sport and every sporting event outside of the NFL draft has seen healthy increases in ratings. O.K., fine. The NBA should not apologize for getting the same bump that every sport has gotten. However, here are the two biggest differences regarding the first round of the playoffs from last season to this season. For the first time ever this season, the first-round games are exclusive to national partners. The games did not air locally, as they always have in the past.…