Nba has 30 teams. They play 2460 games a season, and their venues are all over the United States. It's not easy to arrange so many games.
As early as a few years ago, the NBA claimed that all their schedules were randomly selected by computers. In fact, not all competitions are selected by computer, and some important competitions are arranged artificially.
The timetable will take into account many factors.
The NBA schedule is arranged by Matt Winick in the NBA office. He will consider many factors when arranging his schedule.
First of all, the number of matches is fixed: each team will play two games with each team in another division, at home 1 and away 1. For example, this year's regular season, the Lakers and Celtics will play a game in Boston and a game in Los Angeles.
Secondly, each team has to play four games with teams in the same division, two at home and two away. For example, the defending champion Celtic will play four games with the 76ers.
Finally, teams in the same division but not in the same division will play three or four games. For example, the Celtics will only play three regular-season games with four teams-Bobcats, Bulls, Bucks and Wizards.
The opponents who play three games rotate every year, so that the Celtics will play the same number of games as each team in a few years-they only played three games with the Hawks, Magic, Pacers and Pistons last year, so the Celtics' games this season are as follows:
15 x 2 opponents in the western conference, 30 games; Four opponents in the Atlantic Division, x 4, times16; Six opponents in the Eastern Division x 4, 24 games; Four opponents in the Eastern Division x 3, 12 games; Total: 82 matches.
When the NBA completes the first draft of the schedule, they will send it to the teams for review. Teams usually can't change the date and start time of the game without special reasons.
On the day of the home game, each team announced itself.
The NBA plays 1230 home games every season. So, how does the NBA decide the home game time?
According to NBA regulations, every March, each team needs to submit a list of NBA games that can be played at home for 50 to 75 nights.
Like the Celtics, their home stadium, the North Shore Garden Stadium, was rented by the bruins family. The stadium was not only used as the home of the Celtics, but also held many concerts and other activities. These events are sometimes held at the same time, which is why after the annual All-Star Game, the Celtics always go to the West Coast for a week-long away trip, because the Disney Ice Show will be held at the North Shore Garden Arena.
Celtic and bruins family usually use home agreement time on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. In most cases, Tuesday and Thursday are the days when they play away games.
The habit of playing away on Tuesday and Thursday has made the Celtics suffer a lot this season. The Celtics know that the NBA will definitely let them and the Lakers play the leading role in the Christmas War, but the Boston people's wish is to play at home on Christmas Day, which is not only the lofty status of the defending champion, but also an effective way to prevent the Lakers from winning revenge through this important game that has attracted the attention of hundreds of millions of fans. When they got the timetable, they found themselves going to Los Angeles for the Christmas War. This result made coach Rivers and Celtic players very unhappy.
Who can blame? It's all because of their habit of playing away from home on Tuesday and Thursday, which caused them to lose the right to play at home in this year's Christmas war. When the NBA arranged the Christmas game between the Lakers and the Celtics, it was in consideration of this habit of the Celtics that the game was arranged in Los Angeles.
But Celtic habits are slowly changing. This season, the NBA has arranged four home games for them on Tuesday and Thursday (their games on Tuesday and Thursday are *** 14, including the away game 10). This year's opening match (Tuesday, local time, 65438+28,00) is the first time that the Celtics have played the regular season at home on Tuesday since March 18, 2003.
The Spurs are often troubled by not being able to play at home for a while.
Every year from the end of June to the beginning of February in 5438, the Spurs will have a series of eight away trips, which are called "cowboy trips". Because their home is in&; T center will hold an annual competitive competition during this period. This year, their "cowboy tour" began with the Warriors on February 3rd and ended with the Wizards on February 22nd. In addition to Warriors, Nuggets and Wizards, the eight opponents are Celtic, Nets, Raptors, Knicks and Pistons.
The same is true of rockets. In 20081early October, 165438+ they ushered in five away trips for 9 days, because Toyota Center will hold the 9th Latin Grammy Awards Ceremony.
The Lakers can't play back-to-back at home.
Kobe Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers are an idol team, but they are also very particular about the schedule. The most unforgettable thing is that they can't play back-to-back games at their own home. It's not my own place. It's a little depressing.
The reason why the Lakers can't play back-to-back games at home is that their home stadium, Staples Arena, not only hosts the Lakers' games, but also hosts the Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Kings (hockey) and other events, including the World Figure Skating Championships.
Because Los Angeles is an international metropolis, it often rents Staples Arena to hold some product fairs and other activities, which also affects the Lakers' schedule.
Also, most Lakers' home games will start later, usually at midnight 10: 30 (Beijing time1kloc-0/0: 30), because Staples will have other activities before the home game.
The TV broadcast changed the schedule.
After many adjustments and confirmations, the final full version of the NBA schedule will be open to the public, and fans will begin to argue about the so-called "conspiracy theory" about their favorite team schedule.
Of course, this does not mean that the NBA has completed the work of making the schedule. Cooperative TV stations sometimes adjust the game time during the season. The exclusivity clause in the agreement means that some games must be adjusted before they can be televised. For example, after the Celtics got Kevin Garnett last season, the time of some games was changed because of the TV station.
Problems such as winter climate and travel may also lead to the rescheduling of the competition. Also, according to the collective salary agreement, teams can't play on the day when they fly across two time zones. The agreement also stipulates the time when games can be played during holidays, and no games can be played for 48 hours in the NBA All-Star Game.
The start time of each game is also stipulated by the NBA. For example, in some cities, the game starts at 7: 00 on weekends, while in other cities, the game starts at 7: 30.
Special arrangements for special days
For some special days, the NBA arranges teams artificially.
On New Year's Day and Halloween, the tricks that fans can play are also selected by computers. Halloween 1 65438+1October1,Beijing time. For many years, this day is the opening day of the new NBA season, but the NBA will not specially arrange which teams and players will play against each other. It's all extracted by computer.
For all-stars, playoffs and finals, these events have been separated from the regular NBA events, and the schedules of these games must be arranged artificially.
Only the Christmas War was specially arranged by the NBA. Because NBA needs some hype and feud between special teams and players to win the attention of fans and achieve the purpose of enhancing NBA popularity.
Throughout the history of the Christmas War, whether it's Bulls VS Knicks (1992) or Bulls VS Heat (1997) in the 1990s, Lakers VS Kings (2002) and Lakers VS Rockets (2003) in this century, O 'Neill VS Kobe Bryant's classic Christmas War in previous years, or Lakers vs Celtics in 2008,
The playoff schedule will be adjusted.
NBA President david stern said that the playoff schedule will be adjusted appropriately. He said: "The playoffs are a bit long now, and we will make some adjustments next season to make the schedule more compact."
His idea is to compress each round for three days, and there won't be too long waiting time between rounds.
Another schedule problem is the time of the game. Some playoff games are too late, which affects the ticket revenue. Stern said that he would also consider this issue and try to arrange the game time reasonably. According to Stern's personal experience, the game in the West End ended too late for the fans in the East End. Like some games, it's already two in the morning.
Stern said that he has no problem with this, but it is very unfair to fans. He said: "Everything you do should focus on who was watching the game at that time, and the best evaluation standard is ratings."