Do you like these back-to-back, home-and-home series? I hope someone does, because I don’t. Meant to inject a bit of drama and hostility, I guess, in the sometimes dull season, I find this conceit of the NBA’s mostly annoying.
I think they do what they’re supposed to do to an extent, because I find myself disliking the Detroit Pistons, a team about whom I otherwise have almost no feelings. Mostly though I think it presents odd advantages and disadvantages that I’m not sure “come out in the wash”.
For example, if your team gets a schedule with an opponent that typically crumbles due to injury by December on the home-and-home in November, then you’ve played at a disadvantage because your team faced a stacked schedule of that opponent at full strength, whereas other teams face a weaker version later on.