Hurry up and wait

In Saturday's "It's Out of the Question" column, it was our beef that an Arena Football League playoff game Saturday and a WWE "Smackdown" event Sunday tied up the U.S. Airways Center this weekend. So after the Clippers won Game 6 at Staples Center on Thursday, 118-106, it was the Suns, who had played 11 playoff games in the last 22 days, going back to the seven-game Lakers series, who really benefitted from the extra days off.
Several newspapers have since reported that the NBA set this schedule up in late March, wanting a possible Game 7 for each semifinals series to be played on the same day so the winners would be on the same track.
Whether there's something hokey going here or not, reader Darryl Davis of Grapevine, Texas, emailed to remind us that, had the Suns decided to move the playoff game, there was a precident. In 1981, Veterans Memorial Coliseum had a circus booked all week, Davis remembers. "I went to see a Suns playoff game (1st round) over at Arizona State against the Kansas City Kings."
And for those who don't remember, the Kings beat the Suns, 95-88, to win Game 7 in Phoenix before losing to Houston in the Western Conference finals.