The Myth of Scheduling Bias With Back-to-Back Games in the NBA

The National Basketball Association (NBA) league office determines the playing schedule for its member teams and in doing so assigns an unequal number of games played on consecutive nights (back-to-back games). Although NBA coaches privately complain of a bias in the scheduling of these types of games, a study of five seasons of data show that no bias exists. Although differences in the number of back-to-back games do result in a slight variation in competitive balance, one positive externality is that these type games reduce travel costs by millions of dollars per year.