NBA Finals to change to 2-2-1-1-1 format

[fairweatherfan]

awesome. lets make the finals even longer so the league can make more money.


Love the new format. Hate the new schedule.

It's still a 7 game series - has it been confirmed it'll take more days?  Usually playoff series are keyed to have their biggest games on weekends, I'm assuming they'd still keep that the same.

Weekends are irrelevant except for the fact that they can have day games on the weekend, meaning people can watch more games. On weeknights, you really only have 2 times slots.

From my recollection, the Finals are Tue-Thur-Sun. Which of those 3 days it starts on depends on the length of preceding series. I believe they usually they have 2 possible start dates prepared, and if series go long, they use the second.

Of course, they have no idea which of the games will be the big games.

I believe weekend games get the best ratings, especially Sundays.  They also avoid Friday games like the plague for the Finals, because Friday ratings tend to be poor.

Either way I don't see an indication that the format change will lengthen the Finals, I'm just wondering where that assumption came from.

[KGs Knee]

awesome. lets make the finals even longer so the league can make more money.


Love the new format. Hate the new schedule.

It's still a 7 game series - has it been confirmed it'll take more days?  Usually playoff series are keyed to have their biggest games on weekends, I'm assuming they'd still keep that the same.

Weekends are irrelevant except for the fact that they can have day games on the weekend, meaning people can watch more games. On weeknights, you really only have 2 times slots.

From my recollection, the Finals are Tue-Thur-Sun. Which of those 3 days it starts on depends on the length of preceding series. I believe they usually they have 2 possible start dates prepared, and if series go long, they use the second.

Of course, they have no idea which of the games will be the big games.

I believe weekend games get the best ratings, especially Sundays.  They also avoid Friday games like the plague for the Finals, because Friday ratings tend to be poor.

Either way I don't see an indication that the format change will lengthen the Finals, I'm just wondering where that assumption came from.

Yeah, the NBA has gone well out of their way for a while now to avoid Fri/Sat games.

Sun night is almost always the NBA's best ratings night (not counting game 7).  I believe it's more about ensuring that Sun night slot.  Playing on Sat would be impossible if you wanted to have a day in between games.  Fri would work, but doesn't do as well as Thur.

[Fafnir]

Good, no reason to have a different format for the Finals. The fact that it was media driven instead of game driven always irked me.

[KGs Knee]

Also, I disagree with the sentiment the 2-3-2 gave an advantage to the "lesser" team.  Having all three of your home games in a row is difficult.  Beating a closely matched team 3 in a row is a hard task, even if you are at home.

[Fafnir]

Also, I disagree with the sentiment the 2-3-2 gave an advantage to the "lesser" team.  Having all three of your home games in a row is difficult.  Beating a closely matched team 3 in a row is a hard task, even if you are at home.

I think the overall number of expected winners by HCA and on a game by game rolling basis have been pretty consistent with the normal format.

But I dislike it when rules change for just one series, especially just as a sop to the media.

[GreenEnvy]

awesome. lets make the finals even longer so the league can make more money.


Love the new format. Hate the new schedule.

It's still a 7 game series - has it been confirmed it'll take more days?  Usually playoff series are keyed to have their biggest games on weekends, I'm assuming they'd still keep that the same.

Weekends are irrelevant except for the fact that they can have day games on the weekend, meaning people can watch more games. On weeknights, you really only have 2 times slots.

From my recollection, the Finals are Tue-Thur-Sun. Which of those 3 days it starts on depends on the length of preceding series. I believe they usually they have 2 possible start dates prepared, and if series go long, they use the second.

Of course, they have no idea which of the games will be the big games.

I'm pretty sure the Finals always start on a Thursday. I'm not sure if they have it all set when the  ayoffa begin, but before the conference finals begin they start advertising the date the finals begin and I'm sure all the dates are available online.

2-2-1-1-1 is definitely the way to go.