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NEW YORK (AP) — The NBA is adding additional days to its NBA Finals schedule, putting two days in between every game where travel is necessary.
Continuing one of Commissioner Adam Silver's goals of finding extra time off for players, the 2016 finals will begin June 2 and would end June 19 if a Game 7 is necessary.
A year after the finals returned to a 2-2-1-1-1 format after three decades of 2-3-2, the latest change moves Games 3 and 5 back a day. Last year, there was only one off day when teams changed cities, and they played again the night after arriving.
A seven-game finals would have gone 14 days under the 2-3-2 format and 15 days last season, when an additional day was added with the format change, so a Game 7 would have been played on Friday night instead of the usual Thursday.
Silver has made player rest and recovery a priority, and this season's NBA schedule features fewer stretches of games on back-to-back nights, and four games in five nights.
The 2016 NBA Finals schedule:
— Game 1, June 2.
— Game 2, June 5.
— Game 3, June 8.
— Game 4, June 10.
— Game 5, June 13, if necessary.
— Game 6, June 16, if necessary.
— Game 7, June 19, if necessary.
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