Pretty sure we can pen in the lakers for the Sunday/2:30/ABC spot. ABC probably also wants the Heat for their Saturday/2:00 spot, especially since the Heat will be playing New York or Philly.
Lakers on Sunday afternoon from Staples probably means the Clippers at home from Staples have to be in the Saturday/9:30 spot.
The Sunday/12:00 spot needs to go to a game on the east coast, i.e. the Celtics.
Bulls and Thunder get the Saturday/7:00 & Sunday/6:00 spots in whatever order.
Pacers and Spurs split the remaining spots, Saturday/4:30 & Sunday/8:30. Pacers saturday afternoon, Spurs Sunday night seems to make more sense given the Pacers eastern time zone opponent Orlando and the Spurs mountain time opponent Utah.
I'm going to assume the Lakers get their usual 2:30 Sunday slot. I'm also going to assume that whoever gets the Knicks in Round 1 will get the 2 pm Saturday slot.
Spurs/Jazz smells a whole lot like a TNT, Sunday evening series, along with Indiana/Orlando.
The later the better IMO.
One back to back for a series or multiple back to backs?
Only one per series, I would think.
In 1999, there were back-to-backs in 3 of the 4 conference semifinals. The Lakers and Spurs played Games 3 and 4 on Saturday, 5/22 and Sunday, 5/23. The Jazz and Blazers did the same thing. And the Hawks and Knicks played Games 3 and 4 of their series on Sunday, 5/23 and Monday, 5/24. Indiana and Philadelphia managed to avoid that problem, but there doesn't seem to be any particular reason why that happened (other than that there wasn't a need to get that series on TV on Sunday).
There were also two Conference Semifinals in 2003 that had back-to-backs -- Dallas v. Sacramento and Detroit v. Philadelphia; those seem to have been necessary because Dallas and Detroit each needed 7 games in Round 1 to eliminate their opponent.
At this point, the 2nd round is scheduled to start on May 14-15. The schedule allows for a move-up to May 12 or 13. I tend to think that if a series starts on 5/12 or 5/13, there likely won't be a back-to-back in that series; if a series starts on 5/14 or 5/15, I think there's a strong chance that there will be a back-to-back in that series. I also tend to think that the league will allow a set Second Round series to start even if the First Round isn't completely over. That happened as recently as 2010.
all the more reason to go for the sweep in the first round.
but the obvious solution to me was to go back to best of five series for the 1st round, its not like they've been best of seven forever
Do we know when the schedule for game one will actually be announced? I need to know so I can make my plans for driving in for game 1!
I shouldn't be surprised, but I am
So to avoid the back-to-back, the Spurs not only need to make quick work of the Jazz, they need the Clippers/Grizzlies to make quick work of the Grizzlies/Clippers.
Unfortunately, that looks like a 6 or 7 game series on paper.
Do we want to avoid the back-to-back?
Fewer games = less money; that was never even a remote possibility.
Nor should it have been. Until 2000, playoff back-to-backs were fairly commonplace. Between 1985 and 1999, there was only one season (1991) in which there were no playoff back-to-backs.
The league has at least abandoned the scheduling system it once used to use in which some teams played back-to-backs in the conference semifinals and then turned around to play back-to-backs in the conference finals, too. In 1988, the Celtics and Hawks played a back-to-back on 5/15 and 5/16 while the Pistons and Bulls played a back-to-back on 5/14 and 5/15; when the Celtics and Pistons met in the Eastern Conference Finals, that series started with a back-to-back on 5/25 and 5/26. Doubt we see that again -- a back-to-back in the conference finals hasn't happened since then (there were also back-to-backs in the ECF in 1985, 1986 and 1987).
Yeah, it definitely takes two to tango in avoiding the back-to-back. Miami and Indiana, for example, would seem to be a good candidate to avoid it.
If the Spurs have to play a back to back in the second round because they finished off utah early and the clips/grizz series went long, I'm actually okay with that.
What events are going on in each arena for each team? That way we can call bull on Stern when he gives the Spurs a Saturday Start.
Don't you guys recall a time when Stern said that he needs to look after his league membership and tell the media partners that sometimes their requests aren't the #1 choice.
I think this happened when Pop's team was forced to play a game Saturday Day Time after playing a late game Friday night.
Maybe it was the San Antonio-New Orleans Game 7 where the Spurs won, had to sleep on a plane and then be in LA for game 1 of the next series.
I hope Spurs get more than a day of rest before the second game. I think their seeding should give them that automatically though.
The one that always occurs to me is 2006, when the Spurs played Game 6 of the first round at Sacramento on a Friday night and then had to play Game 1 of the WCSF against Dallas in SA on Sunday afternoon.
If the Spurs have to play a back-to-back, I'd prefer it be at home (in other words, Game 1 and Game 2 of the WCSF). But I believe it's much more likely that the back-to-back will be on the road in Game 3 and Game 4. Worst case scenario would be a back-to-back with travel, but I doubt that happens because the NBA likes to make sure the media has enough time to get between cities in the playoffs.
Didn't the Spurs have to play a b2b in 2008? Game 7 @ NO and Game 1 @ the Lakers?
I suspect that the anticipated back-to-backs would be 5/19 and 5/20 -- perhaps 5/20 and 5/21, though I doubt it -- which (assuming a Round 2 start on May 14 or 15) would be Games 3 and 4.
No. In 2008, the Spurs played a Monday night game in New Orleans, slept on the tarmac, and then played a Wednesday night game in Los Angeles. The cir stances were unusual and disfavorable, but not a back-to-back.
Saturday schedule would be nice for me, so it has a chance to be aired live in my country.
The Spurs have done so well on back-to-backs recently that I'm not worried about it at all. It will be a back-to-back for the other team as well.
b2b in playoffs
stern go fuk yourself
I don't have any stats to back this up, but I've heard the general opinion that if teams play each other in both games of a back-to-back, they tend to split the pair.
If you choose to accept this as truth, you would actually want the B2B on the road. It gives you the opportunity to split the pair on the road, while still retaining the possibility of sweeping your two games at home.
Fake Stern quote: "The fact that Pop sat his best players the last two games of the season made it much easier for us to schedule the Spurs on Saturday."
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