NBA: Schedule is friendlier

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-toback games for teams and a major change in the number of nationally televised games starting at 10:30 p.m. ET 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.

Meanwhile, for the fifth straight year, the NBA has found a way to lower the average number of times a team has to play on consecutive days. The league average is 12.4 back-to-backs this season, down from 13.3 last year and 36 percent down from the average of 19.3 five years ago.