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Calls to change the system were renewed this week when LeBron James left Cleveland for the Los Angeles Lakers, which could create another strong Western Conference team, where both Houston and Golden State finished above .700. The only team in the Eastern Conference with a similar record was Toronto. Houston and Golden State met in a thrilling West final before the Warriors swept the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.

Commissioner Adam Silver has said ideally there would be a format allowing the two best teams to meet for the title, but he has repeatedly expressed concern about the additional travel that would be created if teams were seeded 1 to 16 in the postseason, instead of the current format in which it’s the top eight teams in each conference.

”I think, as I’ve said in the past, the obstacle is travel, and it’s not tradition in my mind, at least,” Silver said at the All-Star break. ”It’s that as we’ve added an extra week to the regular season, as we’ve tried to reduce the number of back-to-backs http://www.jaguarscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-jalen-ramsey-jersey , that we are concerned about teams crisscrossing the country in the first round, for example. We are just concerned about the overall travel that we would have in the top 16 teams.”

The league says it averages about 90,000 miles of total travel in the postseason and estimates that would increase to 130,000. It estimates, based on historical data, an average of 2 series per year matching teams separated by three time zones before the NBA Finals, with about a 90 percent chance of at least one per season.

The WNBA switched its playoff format to the top eight teams instead of by conference in 2016.

A 1-to-16 format would likely mean the league would have to balance the schedule so teams played the same amount of games in the regular season against East and West teams, instead of playing more against the teams on its side.

That would create about 150,000 additional miles of travel in the regular season, the league estimates, from the 1.4 million miles of total travel in 2017-18.

”It’s still my hope that we’re going to figure out ways Torey Krug Jersey ,” Silver said. ”Maybe ultimately you have to add even more days to the season to spread it out a little bit more to deal with the travel. Maybe air travel will get better. All things we’ll keep looking at.”

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This story has been corrected to show that Houston and Golden State had the top two records in the Western Conference, not the entire league.

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A game behind the Philadelphia 76ers in the race for the third seed in the NBA Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers long ago received a gift from the schedulers: home-and-home matchups against the woeful and wounded New York Knicks to end the regular season, starting Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

Whether the Cavaliers can catch the scorching 76ers remains to be seen. Philadelphia is the NBA’s hottest team with a 14-game winning streak — including a 132-130 victory over Cleveland on Friday — and with games at Atlanta and at home against Milwaukee still on the schedule.

But the Cavaliers have their eyes on that crucial prize, made even more crucial by No. 2-seed Boston’s injury problems. A third seed would ensure a second-round matchup with Boston or the No. 7 seed. A fourth seed could mean a meeting with the No. 1 seed Toronto Raptors.

“I always think you try to take the easy way out, it’s always going to come back and bite you,” Cleveland’s Kevin Love said after losing to Philadelphia. “Both teams played extremely hard tonight, we both wanted to get the higher seed no matter who we’re playing. Some matchups work in your favor, I guess, but I just think taking the easy way out in some cases is not the way to go.”

The Cavaliers’ loss to the 76ers revealed a glaring weakness that seemed to have been cured. Cleveland gave up 132 points.

The Cavs entered that matchup on a five-game winning streak and with wins in 10 of 11. The first five wins were scary — the Cavaliers allowed an average of 113 points per game — but in the six games before the loss to Philadelphia, Cleveland had allowed 102 points per game.

“We’re a prideful team Juuse Saros Jersey , and the only way to get back in was be scrappy, play a little bit more physical and hit more shots,” James said. “We were down 30, and for us to come all the way back shows what were capable of doing. But every offensive rebound here, every missed shot. … We turned the ball over, they made us pay, and they were flying.”

Luckily for the Cavs — at least for the next two games — the Knicks are one of the worst offensive teams in the NBA.

The Knicks have gone 4-16 in their last 20 games, averaging 105.5 points per game, and that includes 128-, 124-, and 122-point nights. Remove those and New York averaged 102.

Hurting the Knicks: Tim Hardaway Jr. (ankle) remains out.

Solution for New York: The emergence of rookie second-round pick Damyean Dotson Derick Brassard Jersey , a two-way player with the G-League’s Westchester Knicks. Dotson had 30 points and 11 rebounds in 36 minutes in the team’s surprising 122-98 win over the Miami Heat on Thursday.

“It’s amazing. Just trying to stay the course, keep believing, keep working hard,” Dotson told reporters after becoming the first Knicks rookie to put up a 30-10 game since Patrick Ewing in 1985-86. “Eventually something good will happen. It’s playing the right way, believing in myself, believing in the development, coming from the G-League, coming from back and forth, playing.”