The NBA may need to make some changes to its playoff format to speed up the schedule depending on how soon it can play games.
According to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, the NBA has considered the possibility of shortening early-round playoff series to a best-of-three to finish the postseason faster. There is also the possibility of teams playing back-to-back in the playoffs.
This may be necessary depending on how late the season can restart. The league is willing to push back the start of the 2020-21 season pretty far if it needs to in order to accommodate the postseason, but we don’t know when the playoffs will be able to start. There’s a limit to how far things could be pushed back, especially since offseason business would still need to be conducted.
Shorter playoff series could make things more ripe for an early round upset. It would certainly have some impact on how things play out, for better or worse.
