Breaking down NBA Finals Scheduling

The NBA Finals started on May 30 but a potential game 7 wouldn't be until June 16. That seemed really drawn out to me. So I thought it warranted a look back to see how the schedules got drawn out over time.

To do this, I'll look at some 7 game series and how many total days they were scheduled for:

2019: 18
2016: 18
2005: 15
1994: 15
1984: 17
1978: 17
1974: 15
1960: 14
1955: 11

(Fun Fact about 1955 Finals. The Fort Wayne Pistons made the finals but their arena was booked so their Finals home games were played in Indianapolis. Also, They played a game in Syracuse on April 2 and then in Indianapolis on April 3! The Pistons would move to Detroit in 1957.)

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If you just played every other day, you could finish in 13 days.

Here's what it would look like if you played every other day plus a travel day:

Day 1
Day 3
Day 6
Day 8
Day 11
Day 14
Day 17

The NBA basically does this now, except there is an additional day gap between game 1 and game 2.

Here are the days of the week broken down by 2019 Finals games:

Thursday: 2
Sunday: 2
Wednesday: 1
Friday: 1
Monday: 1

Sure seems like the NBA doesn't want to play Finals games on Saturdays.

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I thought the 2005 schedule warranted a closer look as it was the most recent (modern) 15 day schedule. It followed the 2-3-2 schedule.

Day 1 - Thursday
Day 4 - Sunday (travel)
Day 6 - Tuesday
Day 8 - Thursday
Day 11 - Sunday (travel)
Day 13 - Tuesday
Day 15 - Thursday

Clearly this schedule was driven by the belief that the day of the week was the most important factor. Both times the series switched cities there was only a 2-day gap. But the series also included two 3-day gaps covering non-travel days, to avoid Saturdays.

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There's nothing inherently wrong with today's schedule, I just think the extra days are annoying, breaking up the rhythm of the series. If I were to design a schedule it would include the following restrictions:

Only 2-day gaps between games 1 and 2, games 3 and 4.
3-day gaps for travel aren't mandatory as proven by the 2005 schedule.
And to please the NBA, no Saturdays.

Here's a nice 14-day option:

Here's a slight variant that starts a day earlier, allowing for an extra travel day after the first city.

Nice flow, eh?