NBA gears up for July to resume season

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NBA gears up for July to resume season

Fri, 06/26/2020 - 10:11
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With much of the country starting to reopen from the coronavirus pandemic, professional sports leagues are making their plans to return.

One league that will return soon is the NBA. Recently, players and NBA owners reached an agreement to continue the 2019-20 season. Play stopped play in March with about a month left in the regular season.

Starting July 31, games will be played at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. Teams are to be quarantined and games are to be played without fans, multiple media outlets reported.

The league is sending 22 teams – 13 from the Western Conference and nine from the Eastern Conference. The top eight teams from both conferences are invited, along with six teams who are within six games of the No. 8 playoff seed in their respective conferences.

The Western Conference teams are the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns.

The Eastern Conference will send the Milwaukee Bucks, defending champion Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets, Orlando Magic and Washington Wizards.

Each team will play eight regular-season games. If the ninth seed finishes within four games of the eighth seed, the teams will enter a play-in tournament consisting of a double-elimination format for the eighth seed and a single-elimination format for the ninth seed.