Citing sources, Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald tweeted on Sunday that the NBA’s competition committee has “voted unanimously to return NBA Finals to 2-2-1-1-1 format. Owners’ approval to come.”
If the owners approve this change, it’s not yet known if the 2-2-1-1-1 format would begin with the 2014 NBA Finals or the year after.
The current 2-3-2 setup, which the NBA has used since 1985, has been criticized for a number of reasons.
When “underdog” teams steal one of the first two games on the road, it creates a situation where they travel home for three games with a chance to win the title in five games or take a 3-2 lead into Game 6. This puts a lot of pressure on the team with home-court advantage to win both home games at the beginning of the series.
Another knock on the 2-3-2 format is that it gives the crucial Game 5 to the team that didn’t earn home-court advantage, which isn’t fair. In the 10 NBA Finals series that have been tied 2-2 since 1985, the winner of Game 5 has captured the Larry O’Brien Trophy seven times.
While there would be more travel involved with the 2-2-1-1-1 setup, thanks to charter flights and modern technology, teams are coping with the cross-country flights a lot better today than they did when the 2-3-2 format was adopted 28 years ago.