WTF? That's an all-star break. I think now that computers do the scheduling, the schedules make less human sense (e.g., 1-game roadtrips, or geographic back and forths on roadtrips). That's what I'd chalk the five straight off-days to. There'll have to be more back-to-backs gamenights to compensate, which is detrimental re: injuries. Of course, these criteria could probably be added to the algorithms that generate the schedules, but the schedules look wonkier the last few years than they have in years prior; MLB baseball too. It'd be interesting to see what the criteria are, besides the obvious (e.g., 82 games, arena availability) to evaluate whether the NBA is displacing some common-sense criteria for league-friendly criteria, such as positioning projected marquee matchups to try to maximize TV ratings, etc.