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Tim good morningESPN
The NBA released the program for the second half of the regular season live on ESPN’s The Jump on Wednesday afternoon, outlining how the 30 teams are expected to play 72 games despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The NBA released only its first-half schedule in early December, which allowed it to adjust its flexibility, as the pandemic inevitably wreaked havoc on its attempts to play games outside the safe limits of a bubble like the one that finished the league last season. to make things as fair as possible, each team was scheduled to play 37 or 38 games during the 73 days the first half program was scheduled to run.
However, due to the pandemic and ongoing problems that have caused some teams, there is no equity in the second half schedule. It’s no coincidence, for example, that the four teams playing the first night back: the Washington Wizards, who will be in Memphis to face the Grizzlies, and the San Antonio Spurs, will travel to Dallas to play for the Mavericks. – All have been significantly impacted by COVID-19 during the first half of the season.
The Spurs and Grizzlies have the most games to play, and each must focus on 40 games in a stretch of the 68-day calendar. At the other end of the spectrum are the LA Clippers, who will only have 34 games in a 67-day period.
While the NBA’s goal is for all teams to play their 72 scheduled games, sources said the league is aware that all 30 teams may not be able to reach that number. There is limited flexibility within the calendar to add games or to add dates to the calendar, as the NBA wants to get the playoffs to end in time before the scheduled start of the Olympics in late July.
As a result, the second half schedule will end on Sunday, May 16, establishing a play-in tournament from May 18 to 21, which will include teams finishing seventh to 10th in the Eastern and Western conferences playing the last two playoff spots on either side of the support.
In the first games of the tournament, the seventh leader of the series will host the eighth leader of each conference, and the winner of the match of each conference will get a playoff spot. The losers of these first games will then host the ninth or tenth seed in their respective conference (depending on which of the lower seeds wins the games played between these two teams) for second place in the playoffs.
The NBA playoffs will then begin on Saturday, May 22nd.
There will be five ABC games during the second half of the calendar, all with marquee clashes of the best teams in the league. These are:
* The Clippers welcomed their Staples Center co-tenants, the Los Angeles Lakers, on April 4th.
* The Lakers who will travel to Brooklyn to face the Nets on April 10th.
* Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors traveling to Boston to play for the Celtics on April 17th.
* The Lakers playing Luka Doncic and the Mavericks in Dallas on April 24th.
* And the Nets who will go to Milwaukee to face Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks on May 2nd.
As with the first-half schedule, the NBA has resumed baseball programming in the second half, with teams playing two games in a city against the same opponent in order to minimize travel when possible. A notable example of this is the league-leading Utah Jazz, who play in Los Angeles against the Lakers on Saturday, April 17 and Monday, April 19, with both games on ESPN.
After the opening night of two games starring the Wizards-Grizzlies and Spurs-Mavericks (the latter on NBA television), TNT opens the second half of the season on Thursday, March 11, with the Celtics playing the Nets in Brooklyn and the United States. Clippers hosting the Warriors.
The first ESPN broadcast of the second half schedule causes the Clippers to travel to New Orleans to face newly-branded All-Star Zion Williamson and the Pelicans on Sunday, March 14, followed by the amazing New York Knicks who they will go to Brooklyn and play the Nets. and the Lakers traveling to San Francisco to play the Warriors the following night.