-
Tim BontempsESPN
The NBA unveiled its schedule for the second half of the regular season live on ESPN’s Jump on Wednesday afternoon and outlined how it plans to have all 30 teams play 72 games, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The NBA only launched its first half in early December, which has the flexibility to adapt, as the pandemic inevitably wreaked havoc in its efforts to play games outside the safe confines of a bubble, such as those in which the league past season finished. To try and make things as fair as possible, each team would play 37 or 38 games during the 73 days that the first half would be scheduled.
Due to the pandemic and the ongoing problems caused by some teams, there is no such equity in the second half. It is no coincidence, for example, that the four teams that play back the first night – the Washington Wizards, who will be in Memphis to tackle the Grizzlies, and the San Antonio Spurs, who will travel to Dallas to play the Mavericks. – everyone was significantly affected by COVID-19 in the first half of the season.
The Spurs and Grizzlies have the most games to play, and each has to pack 40 games in a series of 68 days off the calendar. At the other end of the spectrum is the LA Clippers, who will play just 34 games in a 67-day period.
Although the NBA’s goal is to get each team to play its 72 games, sources said the league is very aware that all thirty teams may not make it. There is limited flexibility within the schedule to add games, or to add dates on the calendar, as the NBA wants to have the playoffs completed in time before the scheduled start of the Olympics at the end of July.
As a result, the second half will conclude on Sunday 16 May and a play-off tournament will be set up from 18 to 21 May, featuring the teams finishing from seventh to tenth place in the Eastern and Western conferences. last two playoff spots on either side of the bracket.
In the first matches of the tournament, the seventh seed will host the eighth seed in each conference, with the winner of each game’s match one playoff spot. The losers of the first matches will then host the ninth or tenth seeded in their respective conferences – depending on which of the lowest matches the matches between the two teams are won – for the second place.
The NBA playoffs then begin on Saturday, May 22nd.
There will be five ABC games during the second half of the schedule, all of which will play games for the league’s top teams. That is:
* The Clippers will host their rookies, the Los Angeles Lakers, on April 4th.
* The Lakers travel to Brooklyn on April 10 to take on the Nets.
* Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors travel to Boston on April 17 to play the Celtics.
* The Lakers play Luka Doncic and the Mavericks on April 24 in Dallas.
* And the Nets go to Milwaukee on May 2 to face Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks.
Just like in the first half, the NBA resumed in the second half with baseball scheduling, and teams play two games in one city against the same opponent to limit travel as little as possible. One prominent example of this is the leading Utah Jazz that will be played against the Lakers in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 17 and Monday, April 19, with both appearances on ESPN.
After the opening night of two games with the Wizards-Grizzlies and Spurs-Mavericks – the latter on NBA TV – TNT opens the second half of the season on Thursday, March 11, with the Celtics playing the Nets in Brooklyn and the Clippers. host for the Warriors.
The first ESPN broadcast of the second half of the schedule lets the Clippers travel to New Orleans on Sunday, March 14 to face the newcomer All-Star Zion Williamson and the Pelicans – followed by the surprising New York Knicks heading to Brooklyn and the Nets play. and the Lakers who travel to San Francisco the next night to play the Warriors.