The NBA needs to fix its playoffs scheduling

The NBA playoffs are in full swing, and fans like myself are now treated to the highest level of basketball every night. But, dare I say, almost too many nights? I know in a past article I wrote about how the NBA needs to fix the all-star weekend, and now I am here to fix the playoff scheduling. Specifically, how rounds can last up to 2 weeks, why that should not happen, and how the NBA can fix it. 

In the NBA, every playoff series is a best of 7. I have no particular problem with this. But what I do have a problem with, is how long it takes to get those possible 7 games done. For example, let’s take the Nets-Bucks series. Game 1 on Easter afternoon saw Jayson Tatum hit a crazy buzzer-beating layup to win the game for Boston. Normally, if a team had 2 games in a row at home in the regular season, they’d either have a back-to-back or have a single night off before playing the next day. The gap between games 1 & 2 in this series? 2 days. Why is it 2 days? There is no travel needed, you cannot argue strategy because a couple of other series only get one day. It doesn’t make sense, the gap simply kills some of the buzz surrounding the series. The only argument to be made, for the first round at least, is that they don’t want multiple games going on at the same time, or they don’t want to start games too early to the point where west coast viewers can’t watch. But, in the first round, that’s not the worst thing. It’s not like it’s the conference finals and there are only 2 series and their game times are both colliding.

Having 4 series in 2 or 3 different time slots each day can work fine because, after all, the chances one game is a blowout and not entertaining is high this early in the playoffs. You might as well have 2 at the same time and hope one is better. Or, like March Madness, just start the games something simple like 10-20 minutes apart. That way they won’t both end at the same time. The NBA had it perfect during the 2020 playoffs in the Orlando bubble. Teams would play every other day, the entire playoffs. The only way a team wouldn’t play at this rate is if they were waiting for their next opponent, which obviously will happen. This way, in the bubble, the max we ever had a 7-game series go was 13-14 days. Under the current format, a 7 game series could last over 15 days. That’s simply just too long. Or even a sweep, a 4 game series, could last 9+ days. Who wants to watch a week and a half of a 1 seed dominating an 8 seed? Probably only fans of the team that’s winning. 

So, the solution is simple. Make games every other day in the postseason. The only exception I could possibly see is if teams have a long travel distance between them, and need a travel day plus an off/practice day. If that does occur, simply have 2 games at the same location be played on back-to-back nights. It is a solution worth trying, and one that I imagine many loved during the bubble. The NBA has always seemed to look for ways to entertain, and this is the next step to making the NBA playoffs entertaining, while not having a single round of an entire playoff last over half a month.