The rest that’s built into the NBA Finals can be a good thing, especially now

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Given the way Indiana guard Tyrese Haliburton was limping on his way out of the postgame news conference after Game 5 of the NBA Finals, it’s safe to assume he’s a fan of the schedule right about now.

Put simply, he could use a couple of days off – at least.

Haliburton has a lower leg injury – nobody’s saying exactly what it is, whether it’s ankle or calf or something else – and it seems to be the sort that if this were a back-to-back situation in December, he’d be missing at least one game. But these are the finals, this is June, there no back-to-backs in the playoffs and when the league gets to the last series two-day breaks between games aren’t uncommon.

Amen to that, the Pacers are probably saying right about now.

“The Finals, the NBA Finals, is one of the great stages in all of sports,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “And so, it shouldn’t happen quickly and abruptly. It should happen at the right pace and the right tempo, and the space in between games does help player health. That’s a very important aspect of it.”

There was a one-day gap between games in this year’s finals just once, separating Games 3 and 4 in Indianapolis. Everything else has seen a two-day gap, as will be the case going into Game 6 at Indy on Thursday night. And if the Pacers win to force a Game 7 back in Oklahoma City, that’ll be preceded by another two days off going into an ultimate game on Sunday night.

It should be noted that the Thunder don’t mind the schedule being drawn out, either.

“We recover,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. “The finals are great because you get extra time in between the games. I think that’s huge in terms of rest and recovery at this time of the year. I think it’s good for the product. I think it’s a good thing and by the time the ball goes up in the air, everybody is going to be ready to play and everybody is going to be excited.”

Even those who aren’t dealing with an injury seem to be welcoming the two-day gaps between finals games.

“It’s a lot of games. It’s tiring, for sure,” Thunder star and league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “But every game is tiring. When you’re giving your all, every possession, you’re going to be tired. I don’t think I’m the only one out there that is tired.”

It wasn’t always like this.

The first NBA Finals were in 1947, before the league was called the NBA (it was the Basketball Association of America then) and before the title round was called the finals (after being called the BAA Finals in the early years, it was called the NBA World Championship Series until the mid-1980s).

That first year, Philadelphia and Chicago played five games in seven days. It would be unthinkable to play at that pace now; the NBA, for much of the last decade, hasn’t even scheduled stretches like that in the regular season.

The finals between Minneapolis and New York did the same thing – five games, seven days – in 1953. Boston and the Los Angeles Lakers played a five-game series in an eight-day span in 1965. Golden State and Washington played four games in eight days in 1975, with two cross-country flights in there as well. And this was long before charter flights became the rule in the NBA, too.

“We’re fortunate in this series. Travel is pretty reasonable. Not a long distance,” Carlisle said, evidently aware that the finals has the shortest distance between the dueling cities – Oklahoma City and Indianapolis are separated by 688 miles by air – than any finals matchup since 1956. “Not a long flight. I do believe it’s a better circumstance for the overall integrity of the competition.”

The two extra days gives everybody – Haliburton, coaches, everyone – more time to get ready. Daigneault, the father of kids ages 3 and 2, said it gives him more time to be a dad between games.

“I do twice as much parenting,” he said, “not twice as much work.”

Carlisle said coaches get more time to study film, though at this point in the series it’s pretty clear that the Thunder and Pacers know each other about as well as they can. And Haliburton will get another 24 hours of whatever scheme the Pacers’ medical staff draws up to try to get his leg good to go in Game 6.

“All these guys playing in this series on both sides. I think it’s pretty clear now that we’re going into the sixth game, and all attention and the crowd noise in both arenas, everything, this is a lifetime opportunity,” Carlisle said. “Not many guys are going to sit, even if they are a little banged up.”