Archive for June 16th, 2008

Monday, June 16th, 2008

NBA Should Change Finals Format

Watching the fifth game of the NBA finals last night, I was puzzled for a moment as to why I was staring at big purple-and-gold colored graphics on the court.

Game 5, which is often a critical, turning-point game in best-of-seven series, is inexplicably played on the court of the lower-seeded team, in this case the Staples Center of the Los Angeles Lakers.

In every other round of the NBA playoffs, the league uses a much more reasonable 2-2-1-1-1 format.

According to the Sporting News, “the switch was made in 1984 … partly because of the difficulty in travel from Boston to Los Angeles, which met in both 1984 and 1985.”

It’s time to reverse that very poor decision.

Had the game been played at the TD Banknorth Garden, the Boston Celtics would almost certainly have prevailed in last night’s game, which the Lakers seemed destined to lose when star Kobe Bryant went cold at the beginning of the second quarter.

While only twice since 1984 has the home team swept games three through five, to switch formats in the middle of the playoffs is nonsensical. If there is really a concern about the amount of travel, then the 2-3-2 format should be considered for universal adoption.

In reality, however, the more fair system is one where each team plays two of the first four games on its home court and then must win a game on the road, or risk a toss-up game seven. The NBA has lots of issues, certainly, but this is at least one that can easily be fixed.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr user Juan E)

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