The Thunder will play in five back-to-back sets on the road next season, but two of those barely qualify.
Oklahoma City will take on the Clippers and Lakers at Staples Center on consecutive nights twice in the 2019-20 season, a luxury the Thunder didn’t have on any back-to-back last season.
That scheduling trick is part of the NBA’s effort to improve the schedule. This year, Monday’s schedule release revealed that the league had succeeded again, with an emphasis on limiting back-to-backs and late national broadcasts.
“One of the reasons that we were able to accomplish this was an issue of time,” Evan Wasch, NBA senior vice president of basketball strategy and analytics, told Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck on The Full 48 podcast.