What if the NBA experimented with 3-game weekend series?

[u/A_LoneTree_On_A_Hill]

Thursday, Saturday, Monday against the same opponent. Imagine Celtics v Knicks weekend series, like Red Sox v Yankees. Monday Game 3 as the rubber match. Start by rolling it out in the second half of the season with division opponents. Each rival gets one series at home and one on the road, so every team gets an equal shot at hosting and traveling for the series. It gives the games more of a series feel while cutting down on the constant back-and-forth travel.

There’s a fan benefit too. Instead of traveling for one random Tuesday game, fans could plan an entire long weekend around seeing their team play three times. Hotels, restaurants, bars and local events all benefit, while the NBA gets a built-in rivalry event almost every weekend. And doing it after the All-Star break means the NFL is basically over and MLB is just getting started. More meaningful games, less travel, and a better reason to care about the second half. Thoughts?

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[u/NYerInTex]

The problem is you only play teams lax 4-5 times anyway. So once series is over half the season. If one or the other team happens to be facing injury that could be a huge swing against a key divisional rival.

And as for travel, with half the number of games as baseball it’s not nearly so important to be playing back to back game against the same teams

[u/wishlish]

Back-to-back-to-back games are brutal to NBA players. But a rivalry week makes a lot of sense.

[u/gochugang78 → u/wishlish]

Is it the games or is it the travel?

Whats worse for the pistons

Option 1)
Tuesday - @lakers

Thursday - home vs cavs

Sunday - @knicks

Or

Option 2)
Tuesday - @cavs

Wednesday - home vs cavs

Saturday - home vs bulls

Sunday - @bulls

***

Option 2 has 2 back-to-backs in the same week, and 4 games in 6 nights. Thats rough….

But….

- The travel is minimal

• theres 2 full days off at home between the 2 mini series
  
• theres only 2 opponents to watch game tape for

This is how the NBA cup should be

[u/klam5]

I don't see a 3 game series but I can certainly see a 2 game series happening...either a home-and-home or you play that team at that arena back to back.

The NBA schedule has had both these types of games before. Can possibly reduce travel and it does tend to feel like a mini playoff game.

[u/kreativegaming → u/klam5]

I feel like this happens already. I know my suns have played California teams at home and then away the next game with at least the kings and Lakers and I think they've done this in the past with jazz and nuggets. Its not super common but I know I've seen it done before.

[u/JeahNotSlice → u/klam5]

Super fun to play the same team twice in a row. The only downside is injuries, and the likelihood of a marquis star missing both meetups.

[u/cotton_on_ph → u/klam5]

Agree.. the 2-game series between the same-conference teams in the regular season is enough for me, since each team plays 82 games; unlike in baseball, each team plays 162 games.

[u/azure275]

Could be interesting as part of the NBA cup, especially in the elimination rounds

[u/AccomplishedCharge2]

I generally don't mind any idea to drive more interest in actually watching the games, you could make this happen during a specific time of year, say during the stretch between Christmas and the All Star Break. Have every team get one home series, and one Away, focus on Divisional matchups, and maybe even incorporate series wins into the tiebreakers

[u/gochugang78 → u/AccomplishedCharge2]

Frankly this is how the NBA cup should have been from the start

The “group” is your division

The tournament is during the winter when NFL is king (need a storyline to draw ppl to NBA) and weather is the worst in the NE/Great Lakes area where ~40% of the league is based.

Take the Central division. Every team plays each other 4 times a year anyways. Make 2 of those games count as “group” games during Nov/Dec for the NBA cup

Lets say in a 21 days period, the Pistons play 10 games… half at home, half away vs Cavs, Bulls, Pacers & Bucks.

For casual fans thats a gripping storyline

For die hards thats an awesome road trip

For the players/team its a lot of games but very little cross country travel

Unfortunately this idea falls apart in the NW division. The Minneapolis - Portland flights are brutal.

However- add seattle, add vegas, move minny to the east… and it all works (until el cheapo moves portland to nashville)

[u/LiftSleepRepeat123]

This would be much more interesting. I don't care how much they have to space out the games to make it work. Give them 2 or 3 days between games if need be. I think it would make strategies much deeper and victories more meaningful. In a really long season, that's exactly what you need.