The Detroit Pistons lost their second in a row to the Bucks last night, playing them twice on the road in Milwaukee.
These two-game series are a part of the new NBA scheduling plan that is aimed at reducing travel, which in itself is a great idea.
This is something Major League Baseball has done forever and should reduce the number of times that teams have to criss cross the United States over the course of a season. Detroit has already done it twice this season, playing the Atlanta Hawks at home in consecutive games and now doing the same in Milwaukee.
It may be a good idea to reduce travel, but there are also some cons to this for fans and for young teams like the Detroit Pistons.
Detroit Pistons schedule: Less travel but…
While these two-games series do reduce travel time, some fans have already been complaining that this format is boring.
Playing the same team two games in a row often leads to the second game being low scoring as we saw last night with the Bucks.
This is especially disadvantageous to young teams like the Pistons, who aren’t going to be as good at making adjustments as veteran teams with more experience.
The results have been predictable for the Pistons so far, as they hung tight in both of the first games against Atlanta and Milwaukee, then got blown out in the second.
So far the second games in these series have not been nearly as entertaining, which is a trend I think we’ll see all season, especially with younger teams. A young team like the Pistons may be able to surprise a top team in one game, but it probably won’t happen twice.
Another problem with this format is that it can really bury teams when they are playing badly. Normally, Detroit would just have one game against the undefeated Bucks and then they’d be off to play someone else. Under this format, they have to play the Bucks twice while they are red-hot and the Pistons are injured and playing poorly.
Things could be very different later in the season, so this is going to hurt young teams early in the season and really help the veteran teams that don’t need as much time to gel.
The benefit for young teams is that they get to simulate a playoff atmosphere where you are playing the same team several times in a week. The Detroit Pistons saw last night how tough that is, as the veteran Bucks made adjustments that pretty much stifled Cade Cunningham in the mid-range.
He started to figure it out late in the game, but this was very much like a playoff atmosphere where teams made adjustments from game to game, making it tougher every night.
Overall, I think the format is good even though it doesn’t always help the young teams. It does reduce travel time and gives bad teams a taste of what it might be like in the playoffs.