Hey NBA......PLAY YOUR GAMES!!!!

                 

The NBA playoffs make no sense.

Remember when the first round of the NBA playoffs was a best-of-five??  Yet, for some reason it took two weeks to play that series.  I am a Lakers fan....and I'd routinely see the Lakers play Game 1 on Sunday afternoon then Game 2 on Friday night.  Yeah, FOUR OFF DAYS between two games played in the same city. 

The NBA did for TV, as they could show every game on TNT during the week instead of overlapping games.  Now, it is a best of seven....meaning there are 3 games on per night with NBATV getting one of the games.  Clever. 

Still, the second round has been a best-of-seven for quite a while and the schedule is still messed up.  There will be THREE Game 7s to be played.  Today is Saturday and there is no NBA action.  Alright, that's fine.  But on Sunday, there is just one game.....the Cavs-Pistons finale. 

The Spurs-Mavs and Clippers-Suns wait until Monday night to crown their series winners.  For the Texas teams, that gives them an extra day off to prepare [and help with the big travel from Dallas to San Antonio....ha ha].  For the Suns and Clippers, they haven't played since Thursday, meaning they will have a full three days off between games.  Ten days ago, the Mavs and Spurs had three days off [with no NBA action on Thursday the 11th].  What is that?

Maybe it is the NBA's committment to Turner and ESPN.....read: cable.  ABC has barely carried any games at all during these playoffs.  This is sooooo NHL of them.  Wait, the NHL gets the same run on NBC [and OLN....which will be renamed "Versus" in the fall....has been going balls to the wall for the rest of the time].  So what's up NBA?

Why shaft us?

Why not have the ULTIMATE day of NBA basketball.  Why not have the Cavaliers and Pistons tip off at 12:30pm.....the Suns and Clippers at 3pm.....then the ultimate game, the Spurs and Mavs tip off around 6pm??  This would be a great tension packed day of hoopage.  I mean, you will have the last two champions, the defending NBA Finalists, and top seeds in each conference playing for their lives.  You will have, arguably, the top performer in these playoffs, LeBron James, playing for his survival and his legend.  You will have the MVP of that last two NBA seasons, Steve Nash, playing to stick around.  You will have the NBA's 2nd largest market [and largest playoff market] seeing if the Clippers can go where no Clip team has gone before.  You will have Mark Cuban on another Game 7 stage trying like crazy to finally get his team over ANY hump. 

This is a day where Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, LeBron James, Elton Brand and those Pistons Five playing to move on.  We can get to see, in one big swoop, which teams join the Miami Heat in the NBA's Final Four.

And you are screwing it up, Mr Stern.

The NHL does it right.  You play every day.  Sure, it gets exhausting...but that's what makes it special.  It isn't always the best team that wins it....but the team with the biggest heart and willingness to win in this "second season".  The NBA and it's primp primadonnas should learn to do the same. 

We don't want a big buildup and the sit and wait for days to see what happens in the final act.  Especially for you to turn around and schedule Game 1 for each of the conference finals with just a day off to prepare.  THAT is when it is allowable to wait an extra day or two to play the next game.

Give us what we want, David.  We are the ones paying for and watching this stuff. 

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Who am I picking in these games???  The home team, of course.

In my "HOOPS ASSASSIN" by The SPORTZ ASSASSIN blog, I picked the Pistons to win in 5 games [okay, it will take longer], with both the Suns and Spurs winning in 7 games [I also had the Heat winning in 6].