The NBA season is almost upon us again and it is set to resume! LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, and Zion Williamson play a doubleheader to open the restart in Orlando, Florida.
The NBA finally released its schedule for games in Orlando on Friday. The season resumes on July 30.
Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans will tip off the NBA restart against the Utah Jazz and Rudy Gobert.
Ironically, Gobert’s positive test for COVID-19 helped lead to the suspension of the season on March 11.
In addition, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers will resume their title chase by facing Kawhi Leonard and the LA Clippers.
This epic clash is between the top two teams in the Western Conference. The Lakers (49-14) lead the Clippers (44-20) in the West by 5½ games.
Never in the history of the NBA has the sport had to restart a season after a four-plus-month hiatus.
With 22 teams each crammed into an eight-game seeding portion of the schedule between July 30 and Aug. 14, there will be three instances during the restart schedule in which seven games will be played during one day.
Each team also will play one back-to-back set.
The Schedule
On July 31, there will be six games, something that will take place seven times in the seeding-game schedule.
The Memphis Grizzlies and Portland Trail Blazers will square off in a key game in the chase for the eighth spot in the West on that second night. The Grizzlies (32-33) lead Portland, New Orleans and Sacramento by 3½ games and San Antonio by four games.
Friday, July 31, also will feature a marquee doubleheader with the Boston Celtics facing off against the Milwaukee Bucks. Then the Houston Rockets take on the Dallas Mavericks.
Into the weekend, the Miami Heat face the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, Aug. 1. The Trail Blazers take on the Celtics and Bucks vs. Rockets air Sunday, Aug. 2.
On Aug. 9, one of the days in which there are seven games scheduled, the Washington Wizards and Oklahoma City Thunder tip-off at 12:30 p.m. ET, the earliest tip time of all games. That day ends with the Brooklyn Nets and Clippers tipping off at 9 p.m. ET.
If a team is within four games of the eighth seed in a conference at the end of the seeding games, there will be a play-in tournament to determine the eighth playoff seed.
