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It's kind of like how the sausage is made. Most people don't want to know the details.

But that doesn't stop the Celtics' Assistant Executive Director Mike Zarren, who explains the process in detail on the team website. For instance:

... in March of each year, each team is required to submit a list of 50-75 nights on which its arena may be used for NBA games. In the Celtics' case, we play in an arena that is owned by the owners of the Bruins, who use the arena along with the Celtics and numerous other concerts and events (such as the Beanpot hockey tournament and Ringling Bros. Circus, etc.). Some of these events happen at the same time each year, which is why, for example, the Celtics always have a West Coast road trip the week after the All-Star game, when Disney on Ice is typically in town. As many longtime fans know, our agreement with the Bruins generally puts Celtics home games on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and Bruins home games on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The teams share Sundays, when you often see high-speed video on local TV of the Bull Gang quickly putting down the floor on top of the ice. In our lease, the specific days selected for Celtics games are subject to several conditions, the most important of which is that as many of the dates as possible are Fridays. In February of each year, and as required by the lease, the Bruins provide us with a list of approximately 60 dates on which the Celtics can play home games. However, since there are only 24 Fridays during the time period for this year's regular season, most of the dates fall on other days of the week. Several of the 60 dates are eliminated due to team or city scheduling concerns, and the remainder are submitted to the league, which uses the list to select the dates for our team's 41 regular-season home games. (The individual teams, and not the league, schedule dates and locations for preseason games, except for certain overseas trips.)

After each team goes through this process, the rest of the work is up to Matt Winick. He has to deal with a limited number of available dates for each team, many of which play in stadiums with more restrictions than the Garden: for example, during this NBA regular season the Staples Center in LA hosts the LA Lakers, the LA Clippers, the LA Kings hockey team, and many other events including the World Figure Skating Championships. He also must take into account several travel rules. Teams cannot play back-to-back home games on consecutive nights, nor can they play three games on three consecutive nights. Also, under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, teams must not play a game on a day during which they've been on a flight that crossed two time zones. The Agreement also regulates when games can be played on holidays, and states that no games may be played within 48 hours of the NBA All-Star game. Start times for each game are also determined by the league, with input from each team about particular days of the week and appropriate start times. (For instance, in some cities weeknight home games start at 7:00p.m., and in others at 7:30p.m..)

There is plenty more interesting stuff.

But all I can think about is: Teams aren't allowed to play games at home on consecutive nights?

Why not?

I promise to find out. My initial guess: It hurts ticket sales in some markets.

But we'll see what the real reason is.

It also occurs to me that you could probably set up a schedule that burns less fossil fuel if you allowed back-to-backs at home. 

UPDATE from Mike Zarren: "Turns out I was wrong on this -- it was my understanding that the league attempted to avoid back-to-back home games. I do not remember the Celtics having any of these anytime recently, but it turns out that other teams do, even if only rarely."