The NBA schedule is a little bit easier on players.
Fans might be catching a break — and some more sleep — as well.
The league announced its 2019-20 schedule on Monday, featuring another dip in back-to-back games for teams and a major change in the number of nationally televised games starting at 10:30 p.m. on the East coast. Golden State and the Los Angeles Lakers will start several games a half-hour earlier than usual, while broadcasters ESPN and Turner are going to earlier start times on many of their midweek doubleheader nights.
Such a change has been on NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s mind for some time, especially since roughly half of the nation’s television homes are in the East time zone — but now, a number of the league’s biggest stars play on the West coast. It wasn’t uncommon for nationally televised midweek games to end around 1 a.m. or even later last season, and that was not good for ratings.
“It’s something that I think we have to address,” Silver said in May.
ESPN’s Wednesday doubleheaders — mostly at 8 and 10:30 p.m. last season — will begin at either 7 or 7:30 p.m., followed by a second game at either 9:30 p.m. or 10 p.m. in the East. TNT had nine Tuesday doubleheaders last season with the second game starting at 10:30; this season that number is down to two, with the second game now mostly starting at 9:30 or 10 p.m.
In all, there were 57 games on national television starting at 10:30 p.m. last season. That number falls to 33 this season, a dip of 42 percent.