Despite numerous ongoing concerns, the NBA is moving forward with its plans on resuming and finishing the season at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The league will bring back 22 teams in order to finish out the season before going into a full playoffs to crown a champion.
So far all that has been released are approximate dates, with nothing set in stone. While some dates such as the beginning of training camps and when players will report to Orlando are known, the actual schedule of games and who teams will play remains unknown.
That looks poised to change, however. According to Dave DuFour of The Athletic, the NBA’s schedule release is now set for Friday and will be broadcasted live on ESPN:
Schedule release is now scheduled for Friday night broadcast on ESPN, per sources
— Dave DuFour (@DaveDuFourNBA) June 24, 2020
It will be interesting to see how the NBA works out its schedule for this comeback. Each team will only be playing eight games, and with 22 participating, obviously each team will not play the other in this return.
More importantly, it will be worth watching exactly who the Los Angeles Lakers will be scheduled against before the playoffs start. The expectation is the NBA will generally aim to have teams simply resume with their original schedules.
The Lakers own a 5.5-game lead over the L.A. Clippers for the top seed in the Western Conference so it would take a massive collapse for them to fall out of that spot in only eight games.
As such, the schedule will be more about getting the chemistry of the team together and making sure the team is in great shape going into what they hope will be a lengthy playoff run. With the news of Avery Bradley deciding to play when the season resumes, games become even more important.
The Lakers will now have to change their rotation and figure out their best lineup combinations to win a championship. With a possible play-in tournament for the eighth seed taking place should a team be within four games of the eighth seed, the Lakers could also find themselves with a bit of a break before the playoffs start.
That could add to the difficultly of developing chemistry they will need to accomplish their ultimate goal.
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