The NBA will return on July 30 for eight final regular season games at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Walt Disney World. The playoffs will start on August 17.
The Jazz and Pelicans will play the first game in Orlando on July 30 at 6:30 PM ET, followed by the Clippers and Lakers at 9:00 PM ET.
A total of 22 NBA teams are in Orlando and all of them can make the playoffs. Only the Hornets, Bulls, Knicks, Pistons, Hawks, Cavaliers, Timberwolves and Warriors didn’t travel there.
NBA players can decline playing at Walt Disney World. So far Bradley Beal, Trevor Ariza, Avery Bradley, Davis Bertans and Willie Cauley-Stein opted out.
Roland Lazenby, author of ‘Michael Jordan: The Life,’ told Eduardo Solano of SBR Picks and AccuScore that he sees the Bucks and Lakers as the teams to beat for the playoffs.
“So much has happened since I last saw people play, it seems like a year ago. I’m going to say Milwaukee and the Lakers,” Lazenby said.
The Pelicans are just 3.5 games behind the Grizzlies for eighth place in the Western Conference. They made major leaps in the 19 games that Zion Williamson started before the season was suspended and they have an intriguing core with Williamson, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Jrue Holiday.
This is clearly a different team when Williamson is on the court. The Jazz will be without Bojan Bogdanovic (20.2 points per game), who recently had wrist surgery and they didn’t make any moves to replace him on offense.
The relationship between Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert is better but still broken. Mitchell didn’t appreciate how Gobert was careless before the pandemic, which led to both contracting COVID-19. This bad blood won’t help the Jazz and the first game against the Pelicans will be tough.
The Clippers have an edge in the game against the Lakers. A neutral court will prevent them from feeling like a road team in their own arena. Also, the Lakers will be without a capable defender like Avery Bradley (plus-0.5 Defensive Box Plus/Minus) and Rajon Rondo (7.1 points and 5.0 assists), who fractured his right thumb.
