ASSOCIATED PRESS – The deals are closed. The NBA is coming back. The season continues on July 30 at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Florida.
Here are 10 things you should know about the new season:
1) THE RACE FOR 8
There are six teams in the race for number 8 at the Western Conference – Memphis, Portland, New Orleans, Sacramento, San Antonio and Phoenix. (Technically, Dallas is in this race too, although the Mavericks only need one win and one defeat in Memphis to not get worse than 7th.)
There are seven games in which these six teams compete against each other, including four with the pelicans, who play twice against Sacramento, once against Memphis and once against San Antonio. The other games: Sacramento v San Antonio, Memphis v San Antonio and Portland v Memphis.
Phoenix doesn’t play any of the other five teams in the race for eighth place.
The grizzlies begin with a 3 1/2 lead over Portland, New Orleans and Sacramento and a four game lead over San Antonio. If the grizzlies don’t make room in all four of these clubs, there’s likely to be a best-of-two play-in series for last place in the west playoffs and a likely first-round matchup with LeBron James and that Los Angeles Lakers.
The Einspielspiel take place when the ninth placed team in one of the two conferences is within four eighth games at the end of the seeding round.
It’s a bit easier in the east. No. 7 Brooklyn is six games ahead of Washington and No. 8 Orlando is 5-1 / 2 games ahead of the wizards to secure a spot and avoid a box-office run. Neither team can exceed seventh place in the East bracket.
2) MAGICAL NUMBERS
Milwaukee needs a combination of two wins or losses in Toronto to reach number 1 in the east. The Lakers need a combination of three Los Angeles Clippers victories or losses to reach first place in the West.
Denver also has a mathematical chance of number 1 in the West – but would have to go 8-0 and the Lakers would have to go 0-8 for this to happen.
Most Disney races will be for sowing. Milwaukee cannot finish second in the east, and Toronto only needs one win to secure a top four starting position. The West can still see some shocks, with four games separating second place from sixth place and only 2 1/2 games separating fourth place from seventh place.
3) HEAT TEST
Miami still had eight top division games against the eight teams that had not qualified to restart Disney.
Now the heat will have a struggle on their hands just to hold on to number 4 in the east.
Miami plays twice against Boston, Denver, Indiana, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Toronto and Phoenix in the seeding games. This schedule is more difficult than that of Indiana or Philadelphia – the Pacers and 76ers will both go to Disney two games behind the Heat in the East standings.
In Orlando and the Lakers, seven games were canceled against Disney’s eight non-qualifiers, who ranked second in the league behind Miami. Memphis had lost the fewest games of its kind with just one – a matchup against New York.
4) AT HOME ON THE ROAD
All 22 teams will stay on the Disney campus for the rest of their season. Yes, that includes the Orlando Magic, whose home arena is about 20 miles from Disney World.
The magic simply sees it as their contribution to the restart.
“We appreciate the leadership of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, our long-time partner Disney, and our local leaders in this unprecedented time,” said Alex Martins, CEO of Orlando Magic. “We look forward to providing support as needed to restart the NBA season in Orlando while using our collective platform to have significant social impact.”
5) TALKING THE ROAD
With 29-2, Philadelphia was the best home team of the NBA this season – the second best home record of a season in franchise history. The Syracuse Nationals from 1949-50 were better and went 36-2 to the State Fair Coliseum in the franchise’s opening season.
The problem is that the 76ers will only play in Philly again next season.
Philadelphia was only on the road 10-24 in the regular season, the second worst street brand of the 22 teams that will play at Disney. Only Washington (8-24) was worse.
If the 76s want to dig deep into these playoffs, they need to figure out how to win without the rough advantage of the Wells Fargo Center.
6) YOU WILL BE MISSED
Milwaukee has the best record of the NBA, and one of the reasons the Bucks currently hold this brand is how well they were against the eight teams (Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, New York, Minnesota and Golden State) didn’t qualify for the Disney restart.
The Bucks were 22-0 against these eight teams – one of three NBA teams that remained undefeated against this group. Oklahoma City was 15-0 and the Lakers were 12-0. Toronto and Boston were both 19-1 and Utah was 15-1.
Only one remaining team lost to these eight clubs: San Antonio went 7-8.
7) LAKER BREAK
The schedule means that the Lakers won’t play in a row.
The Lakers would have played home games against Golden State, Chicago and the Clippers on April 7th, 8th and 9th – the last to come because a game to be played shortly after Kobe Bryant’s death was postponed until later in the season has been.
8) Hello, again
Disney will look familiar to 26 players on the roster of the 22 teams. They played there in college.
The Disney Invitational is hosting the Orlando Invitational on Thanksgiving, and some alumni of the event are now on their way to NBA competitions. Among them: Heat teammates Jimmy Butler (Marquette, 2009) and Kelly Olynyk (Gonzaga, 2012), Portland’s Zach Collins (Gonzaga, 2016), Washington’s Rui Hachimura (Gonzaga, 2016), Milwaukees Khris Middleton (Texas A & M, 2010 ), Indiana Edmond Sumner (Xavier, 2015), Kelly Oubre Jr. (Kansas, 2014) from Phoenix and Marcus Smart from Boston (Oklahoma State, 2013).
And to make sure we don’t forget, the Lopez brothers – Milwaukee team-mates Brook Lopez and Robin Lopez – are big Disney fans and have made their affinity for this place very well known in the past few weeks.
9) NO 3’S RECORD
For the first time in eight seasons, the league record for a total of 3 pointers made is not broken.
It was pace to be smashed.
The NBA teams scored 23,560 3-point points this season, which is the fourth most of all seasons in the league’s history. The league was at pace with 29,844 3-pointers, 1,889 more than last season’s record of 27,955.
10) STATE BASKETBALL
Florida – the Sunshine State – will be the epicenter of basketball this summer.
While the NBA is going to Disney, the WNBA season is slated to begin next month and be headquartered in Bradenton, Florida. That’s about 100 miles from where the NBA will play.
The WNBA plan provides for its players to be accommodated in the IMG Academy and the games to be played in the nearby field entertainment center.
