The National Basketball Association’s staff tasked with creating the league’s annual schedule of games always face a daunting task. In addition to giving consideration to things like venue availability, the NBA schedule-makers must also factor in the league’s honest attempt to reduce the number of games each team will play on consecutive days. In recent years, the league has done exactly that, reducing the number of back-to-back games per team from an average of 19 for the 2014-15 season to an average of about 14 for the 2021-22 season. Still, despite those efforts, with franchises in cities from Boston to Los Angeles and from Miami to Portland (and the many points in between), the schedule will still include some brutal back-to-back games which involve travel of some distance, with some over 1,000 flight miles. There are plenty of teams scheduled to play home games on consecutive days, but not all NBA back-to-backs are the same.
“WAIT…WE’RE PLAYING WHERE TOMORROW?
It doesn’t happen often, but teams are sometimes faced with games scheduled on consecutive nights where the second game is nowhere near the first one. Those games can yield some surprising results. Back-to-back road games in New York and Philadelphia are one thing, but having to travel over 1,000 miles and entering another time zone to play a game the very next day is different. Earlier this season, on November 26, the Charlotte Hornets played a home game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, then had to board a plane for the 1,000-mile flight to Houston, Texas for a game the very next night. In that game, despite having travel accommodations their predecessors could only dream about, the Hornets allowed the rebuilding Houston Rockets, one of the league’s lowest-scoring teams, to score 146 points on the second day of back-to-back games. The tired legs were obvious.
Another difficult back-to-back sequence happens when the second leg requires travel to high-altitude Denver, Colorado. The Dallas Mavericks found this out earlier in the season when on October 28, they won a close game at home against the San Antonio Spurs, then had to travel to Denver for a game the next evening. While the distance between Dallas and Denver isn’t crazy, imagine playing a game one night, traveling 650 miles to Denver, then having the chase Nikola Jokic around for 2.5 hours in thin air the very next night. The fatigue showed as the Mavericks lost by 31 points while scoring only 75 points (including only 31 points for the entire second half) and shooting 29.5 percent from the field. Presumably, the front rim took a pounding that night.
Let’s see what happens on February 8 when the New York Knicks, who generally don’t load-manage, play in high-altitude Denver one night after playing in slightly lower altitude Salt Lake City. It will also be their third game in four nights. Fans of the Knicks fans shouldn’t overanalyze a lopsided loss there should it happen.
Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but the 2021-22 NBA schedule-makers seemed to lean heavily on a couple of rebuilding teams that weren’t expected to win many games: the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Orlando Magic. In addition to several other brutal trips later in the season, both have scheduled back-to-back games in March 2022 that will require travel from Orlando, Florida to Oklahoma City Oklahoma, a trip covering 1,100-miles. The Magic will play at home against the Golden State Warriors on March 22nd, then play in Oklahoma City the following night. The Thunder play in Orlando on March 20, then have a home game the following night against the Boston Celtics.
Seems unfair, but perhaps the schedule-makers assumed the Magic and Thunder will lose those games anyway.
NOW TOSS IN SOME HEALTH AND SAFETY PROTOCOLS
The pandemic is still here, and it forced the NBA to cancel some games and rearrange the schedule for some of the hardest-hit teams back in December. The Brooklyn Nets had a previously-postponed game in Portland rescheduled for January 10, one day after playing an afternoon home game against San Antonio. After the 2,500-mile trip, the Nets, playing without James Harden, lost a close one to Portland, who were playing without their starting backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
The New Orleans Pelicans had a game rescheduled in January 2022 that resulted in having to play in New Orleans and Philadelphia on consecutive nights (they lost the second game but fought valiantly). The Phoenix Suns had a game rescheduled in January 2022 that resulted in a 1,200-mile trip from Detroit, Michigan to San Antonio, Texas for a game the following evening. 36-year-old Chris Paul played a combined 60 minutes in both games, and the Suns, who haven’t done a lot of losing this season, won both games handily and were able to rest some of their starters during the latter stages of the first game in Detroit.
DON’T LET THE RESULTS FOOL YOU
Fatigue during the second leg of back-to-back games is a thing, especially if there were additional games stacked together before that. Four games in five nights or the end of a long road trip can bring about some sluggish performances. Evidently, not everyone thinks it makes a difference.
In the aforementioned Dallas Mavericks – Denver Nuggets game, it was widely reported that the Nuggets “held” the Mavericks to 29.5 percent shooting. No NBA team is held to 29.5 percent shooting. No NBA team holds another to 29.5 percent shooting. The Nuggets defense may have been stingy that evening, but when a team shoots that poorly there is usually more than one reason why. Likewise, when a team commits 20 turnovers, all those turnovers weren’t “forced” but they’ll be reported as such.
On December 7, 2021, the New York Knicks played in San Antonio and beat the Spurs by 12 points to snap a three-game losing streak. The Knicks played well that night, everyone who played, contributed to the win. While celebrating the win (“Man, if they can keep playing like this…”), no one mentioned or cared that the Spurs had played the night before in Phoenix and lost, ending a four-game winning streak which included a road win at Golden State. The Spurs looked a bit slow all night after about 1,000 miles of flying and losing an hour from the Rocky Mountain to Central time zone while the Knicks hadn’t played in three days, and the Knicks did well to take advantage.
The very same night, the Knicks traveled to Indianapolis to play the 10-16 Pacers the following evening. They flew about 1,000 miles and lost an hour going from the Central to Eastern time zone. They lost by 20-points and the Pacers had already scored 70 points at halftime. The Knicks’ last lead was 4-3, they trailed by as many as 27 points, and four of their five starters finished with a plus-minus rating of -15 or worse. All the optimism brought on by the win in San Antonio evaporated 24 hours later, and no one mentioned or cared that they’d played in San Antonio the night before, traveled a good distance overnight, and lost an hour. The vitriol only worsened as the Knicks would lose their next three games, including two at home.
The Knicks probably aren’t as good as they looked in the San Antonio game, nor are they as bad as they looked in the Indiana game the following night.
The top teams usually have the depth or talent advantage to overcome that type of travel schedule and still win, but even they have to overcome lethargic performances to do it.
PURCHASE THOSE ADVANCE TICKETS AT YOUR OWN RISK
When it comes to buying tickets to an NBA game in advance, if you just want to see an NBA game, go for it. If you want to see a certain player from the visiting side, that’s always risky but it’s best to check their schedule before blindly plunking down those dollars, especially if that player only visits your city once during the season. If the game you wish to see is part of a back-to-back scenario, there’s a chance that your favorite visiting player may not suit up for the game you want to see, especially if your team is not a strong one and the visiting team is.
Load management wins, we lose.
If you are going to see the home team play, regardless of the opponent, check the schedule anyway. If your home team has a game the day before and has to travel to the game you’re going to, or are playing in the first home game after an extended road trip and have less than two days’ rest, your players might have some dead legs. If the visiting team is near or at the end of an extended road trip, or are playing your team after playing the night and traveling a distance to your city, your team might look good that night, even against a superior squad, but it might also be a fool’s gold. And it might not be a competitive game.
Tired legs lead to sloppy play, poor shooting, and defensive indifference.
The product, man.
Now, if your team loses decisively at home to an inferior squad playing the second leg of a back-to-back while your team has been resting at home for 2-3 days, it’s cause for concern.
At some point, all 30 teams will get to use game and travel fatigue as a reason for sub-par performances.
Unfortunately, no one’s listening.
Photo by Sonia Nadales on Unsplash
