The NBA officially announced the plans on Friday afternoon to continue the 2019-20 season, and then live on ESPN gave the remaining schedule on Friday night that will see 22 teams converging on Orlando, Florida to play eight more regular season games each for seeding to be followed by the playoffs.
The NBA and the union announced that games will be played without fans at three different complexes at the ESPN Wide World of Sports at DisneyWorld Resort. The games will begin July 30. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said, “We have worked together with the Players Association to establish a restart plan that prioritizes health and safety, preserves competitive fairness and provides a platform to address social justice issues. We are grateful to our longtime collaborator Disney for its role in playing host and making this return to play possible, and we also thank the public health officials and infectious disease specialists who helped guide the creation of comprehensive medical protocols and protections.” Silva does warn that any significant coronavirus cases could end the season. 16 of the 302 NBA players have already tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the restart.
The Boston Celtics currently sit in third place in the Eastern Conference at 43-21, 9.5 games behind the top seeded Milwaukee Bucks (53-12). The defending world champion Toronto Raptors are the only ones within striking distance of the Bucks for the one seed at 6.5 games behind with a record of 46-18. The remaining games for Boston will be on 7/31, 8/2, 8/4, 8/5, 8/7, 8/9, 8/11 and 8/13 against Milwaukee, Portland, Miami, Brooklyn, Toronto, Orlando, Memphis, and Washington respectively. The opening games on July 30 feature Utah against New Orleans, followed by two of the top three in the West in the LA Lakers and LA Clippers. The Lakers are the top seed from the West, 5.5 games up on their rival Clippers and 7 games up on the third place Denver Nuggets. The teams with the easiest strength of schedule remaining are Boston, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.
In other news from the league, Vince Carter officially retired in an announcement made on his own podcast Thursday ending a 22 year run in the NBA. Carter announced last year that 2019-20 would be his last season when he signed a one year contract to play for the Atlanta Hawks. Unfortunately for the Hawks the team had the fourth worst record in the league (20-47), and was not invited to Orlando as part of the league restart ending Carters career when play was suspended back on March 11. Carter, who played college basketball at North Carolina, ends at number 19 on the all-time scoring list in the league (16.7 points per game). He won Rookie of the Year in 1999, was an eight time All-Star, was named twice to the All-NBA team, and won the slam dunk contest on All-Star weekend back in 2000. He also made league history earlier this season when he became the only player to ever appear in at least one game in four different decades (1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020). He played for eight NBA teams, most notably the Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets.
