season, they bumped the start of the season up about ten days into mid-October to stretch out the length and allow for fewer back-to-backs. Per the article, this year the average team will play 12.4 back-to-backs, compared to an average of over 19 in the 2015-16 season. And they have completely eliminated the crazy four-games-in-five-days stretches that used to be pretty common for teams.