Timing is Everything

[101A]

The Spurs, IMO, have been set up by the schedule makers:

Play tonite (West Coast Time) against Phoenix (probably most tiring road game in the L):

Grab a plane, fly for 3 - 4 hours (lose TWO more with the time change & arrive in SA around 2 - 3 A.M....

Tip off against LA 16 hours later!

THEN....

Rest rest rest - you got Houston at 2:30 on Sunday.

On the schedule, it just looks like any other 3 games in 4 nights; but it is actually 3 games in barely over 2.5 days! (64 hours)

Normally I would be bummed if the Spurs didn't sweep these three, but I'll be happy w/ 2/3 if they can get it.

[101A]

BTW:

Houston doesn't play again until SUNDAY!!!

The league wanted the Spurs to fall on national television when this schedule was made.

[GoSpurs21]

Spurs always get shitty schedules learn to deal with it or it will just drive you crazy

[Solid D]

I'm sure the schedule-makers didn't go out of their way to be nice to the defending champs but I would think that a 3-week Rodeo break creates a scheduling stress for them.

[T-Pain]

hey its always good for the spurs to get national attention. i remember when the spurs were never on NBC back in those days.

[FromWayDowntown]

The Spurs, IMO, have been set up by the schedule makers:

Play tonite (West Coast Time) against Phoenix (probably most tiring road game in the L):

Grab a plane, fly for 3 - 4 hours (lose TWO more with the time change & arrive in SA around 2 - 3 A.M....

I'm not completely up on the time zone changes, particularly in Arizona (which stays on standard time throughout the year), but for years, the NBA had a policy that a team could not play back-to-back if doing so required it to cross more than one time zone. (for the Spurs, in the Central Time Zone, this would only apply to front-end or back-end games played in cities in the Pacific Time Zone) The Spurs cannot, for instance, play in LA on a Tuesday and play in San Antonio on Wednesday. I would assume that Phoenix is actually only an hour behind San Antonio, but I may be wrong and the policy may have changed.

It's still a bitch of a schedule, but the Spurs can't control that. If they play well, they'll have thrived through adversity.

[SenorSpur]

The Spurs, IMO, have been set up by the schedule makers:

Play tonite (West Coast Time) against Phoenix (probably most tiring road game in the L):

Grab a plane, fly for 3 - 4 hours (lose TWO more with the time change & arrive in SA around 2 - 3 A.M....

Tip off against LA 16 hours later!

THEN....

Rest rest rest - you got Houston at 2:30 on Sunday.

On the schedule, it just looks like any other 3 games in 4 nights; but it is actually 3 games in barely over 2.5 days! (64 hours)

Normally I would be bummed if the Spurs didn't sweep these three, but I'll be happy w/ 2/3 if they can get it.

I've also found some curioisity in some of the season's scheduling. One particular stretch that comes to mind from earlier this year is:

Sun Dec 18th - @ OK City
Tue Dec 20th - @ Milwaukee
Wed Dec 21st - @ New York
Fri Dec 23rd - vs Toronto (home)
Sun Dec 25th - @ Detroit

WTF? What was the use of having the Spurs come home for a single game only to go back out for yet another eastern conference game? Why didn't the league either allow the Spurs to stay out one the road through XMAS or schedule the XMAS day game at S.A.?

I found this to be a very "hopscotch" manner of scheduling.

[boutons_]

Sean E. commented a few times on some spots in the Spurs schedule where the fly out and back, out and back, out and back, hop and scotch. You'd have to look at all 30 schedules to know that this was specific to the Spurs.

I'd really like to see the set of rules that controls the schedule-building software. I bet it's really complicated (and still evolving, since God didn't design it), plus the ability to stick certains matchups to certain dates, "TNT Thursdays", Christmas, RRT, while letting the other games fall wherever.

The Pistons guys complain about 8 games in 12 days.

I bet most teams bitch about something in their schedules.

[TDMVPDPOY]

we are the champions, so how do you want it? cooked /medium or rare?

[Obstructed_View]

Guys, this is the team that uses the longest road trip in the league to their advantage.

If the Spurs are a championship team, they'll handle their business. They already lost their game for the week. They certainly aren't the only team that has rough spots in the schedule.