San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
NBA’s restart focuses on safety, setting up postseason seeding
The deals are done. The NBA is coming back. The season is set to resume July 30 at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Florida.
The league announced its “seeding games” — the eight regularseason games to determine playoffs seeding — on Friday.
Here are some things to know about the season’s restart:
Living with the coronavirus threat: Sixteen NBA players have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The league conducted 302 tests this past week with 5.298% positive. The league has not released test results for coaches or support staff members who were also tested at the start of the week.
Still, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts and NBPA president Chris Paul expressed varying levels of optimism Friday about the planned season reboot.
Silver said the NBA wouldn’t halt games if a star player like LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard or Giannis Antetokounmpo were to contract the virus before a key game or series.
“We haven’t worked through every scenario, but the notion would be that if we had a single player test positive, frankly, whether that player was an AllStar or a journeyman, that player would then go into quarantine,” Silver said. “That team would be down a man, and we would treat that positive test as we would an injury during the season, so we would not delay the continuation of the playoffs.
“Of course, if we were to have significant spread of coronavirus through our community, that ultimately might lead us to stopping.”
According to the NBA health and safety protocols, players who test positive inside the Orlando campus, the socalled “NBA bubble,” must immediately enter isolation housing. Assuming the positive test is confirmed, the player will remain in isolation until he is asymptomatic, has passed two consecutive tests more than 24 hours apart and received medical clearance. Before returning to play, players must also undergo a cardiac screening.
The race for eighth: There are six teams in the race for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference — Memphis, Portland, New Orleans, Sacramento, San Antonio and Phoenix. (Technically, Dallas is also in that race, though the Mavericks need only one win and one Memphis loss to clinch no worse than the No. 7 spot.)
There are seven games where those six teams will go headtohead, including four featuring the Pelicans — who play Sacramento twice, Memphis once and San Antonio once. The other games: Sacramento vs. San Antonio, Memphis vs. San Antonio and Portland vs. Memphis.
Phoenix doesn’t play any of the other five teams in the race for eighth.
The Grizzlies start with a 31⁄2game lead over Portland, New Orleans and Sacramento, along with a fourgame edge on
San Antonio. Unless the Grizzlies open up space on all four of those clubs, it seems likely that there will be a bestoftwo playin series — the eighthplace team would advance with one win, with the No. 9 team needing to win twice — for the final spot in the West playoffs and a probable firstround matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The playin games will take place if the ninthplace team in either conference is within four games of eighth when the seeding round ends.
In the East, it’s a bit simpler. No. 7 Brooklyn is six games ahead of Washington and No. 8 Orlando is 51⁄2 games clear of the Wizards in the race to clinch a berth and avoid a playin series. None of those teams can move past the No. 7 spot on the East bracket.
Magic numbers: Milwaukee needs a combination of two wins or Toronto losses to clinch the No. 1 seed in the East. The Lakers need a combination of three wins or Los Angeles Clippers losses to clinch the No. 1 spot in the West.
Warriors, others will be missed: Milwaukee has the NBA’s best record, and one of the reasons the Bucks hold that mark is because of how good they were against the eight teams (Golden State, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, New York and Minnesota) that didn’t qualify for the Disney restart.
The Bucks were 220 against those eight teams — one of three NBA teams to go unbeaten against that group. Oklahoma City was 150 and the Lakers were 120. Toronto and Boston both were 191 and Utah was 151.
Only one remaining team had a losing record against those eight clubs: San Antonio went 78.
Miami had a leaguehigh eight games remaining against the eight teams that didn’t qualify for the Disney restart. Now the Heat will have a fight on their hands just to hang onto the No. 4 spot in the East.
Miami plays Boston, Denver, Indiana twice, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Toronto and Phoenix in the seeding games. That schedule ranks harder than Indiana’s or Philadelphia’s — the Pacers and 76ers both will head to Disney two games behind the Heat in the East standings.
No 3’s record: For the first time in eight seasons, the league record for total 3pointers made won’t get broken.
It was on pace to be smashed. NBA teams have combined for 23,560 3pointers this season, which is already the fourth most of any season in league history. The league was on pace for 29,844 3pointers, which is 1,889 more than the record of 27,955 set last season.
Social justice: In addition to fighting the coronavirus, the NBA and its players will try to continue the fight against social injustice and racial inequality. The NBA and the union have agreed in principle to use their platforms “to find tangible and sustainable ways to address racial inequality across the country. Leaders from the NBA and the NBPA have also discussed strategies to increase Black representation across the NBA and its teams, ensure greater inclusion of Blackowned and operated businesses across NBA business activities, and form an NBA foundation to expand educational and economic development opportunities across the Black community,” the NBA said in a statement Friday.
The NBA has maintained that they’ve wanted to return to action for the social good, though with league revenues paused at zero for months, the ability to deliver 88 “seeding games” and a full playoff schedule will satisfy the league’s broadcast partners.
Still, Silver again said the NBA’s aim is greater.
“Ultimately, whether it’s fighting racism or a pandemic, we’re coming back because sports matter in our society,” Silver said. “They bring people together when we need it the most, and they can show how we can balance public health and economic necessity, plus a desire for shared experiences and something to cheer for through the months ahead.”