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The NBA is finally coming back. According to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Board of Governors is holding a call at 9:30 a.m. PT on Thursday, with plans to approve the league’s return-to-play proposal.
The proposal features 22 teams and will be held in Orlando at the Walt Disney Resort.
The NBA's Board of Governors has a 12:30 PM ET call on Thursday with the intention of approving the league's plan for a 22-team return-to-play in Orlando, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/Sh7k6ylCdz
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 3, 2020
The plan is for each team to play eight regular-season games before jumping into the playoffs, with a play-in tournament for the eight seeds if the standings are tight enough.
So it’s official: The Los Angeles Lakers will have a chance to claim the 2020 title that they had been working so hard for. It’s just not clear who they’ll play in the first round.
The Lakers hold a 5.5 game lead over the L.A. Clippers for the top seed in the West, so they’ll almost surely emerge with the number one seed. Currently that has them in line to face the Memphis Grizzlies, but the NBA is inviting 13 teams from the West, so it could also be the Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, or Phoenix Suns.
Sources: Joining the 16 current playoff teams in Orlando: New Orleans, Portland, Phoenix, Sacramento and San Antonio in the West and Washington in the East. If the 9th seed is more than 4 games behind the 8th, No. 8 makes playoffs; Fewer than 4 games, a play-in tournament.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 3, 2020
Once the playoffs begin, they will resume as normal with seven-game series and 1-8 seeding in each conference. The only difference is that there won’t be any home court advantage, which hurts the Lakers a little bit.
The season will run through October 12 at the very latest.
Basketball is (almost) back. Watching LeBron James and Anthony Davis and all of the Lakers is (almost) back.