New NBA season tips off amid raging pandemic

THE NBA takes a leap into the unknown on Wednesday when the 2020-21 season tips off after the shortest off-season in history against the backdrop of a raging COVID-19 crisis across the United States.

Little more than two months after LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers brought the curtain down on a pandemicinterrupted season with victory in the NBA Finals in the Orlando quarantine bubble, a shortened 72-game campaign gets underway with games in New York and Los Angeles.

The Golden State Warriors face a road trip to take on the Brooklyn Nets before the Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers clash at Staples Center.

The new season marks the first time league action has taken place at home arenas since the 2019-20 season was dramatically suspended in March as the coronavirus pandemic erupted across the US.

When the NBA resumed in July, teams were based at a single location at Disney World in Florida and kept in a tightly controlled bubble for three months to guard against COVID-19.

Yet the upcoming season will take place in 30 locations across the US at a time when the country continues to set new records for coronavirus cases and fatalities.

The NBA has put in place a range of measures designed to mitigate the COVID-19 threat, including strict safety protocols and a tweaked schedule that cuts down on travel.

The new-look schedule – reduced from the standard 82 games – will see teams play each other on consecutive nights more frequently to reduce the amount of time spent on the road and fans will also be largely absent from arenas.