NBA will restart in Orlando - Schedule, Participants, Playoff Odds

The NBA season will restart in Orlando on the 31st July. The matches will take place within Disney World, in Orlando, Florida.

Pro basketball in the USA is officially on its way back. This season will be no summer camps, but summer champs.

It was announced that operations will resume and lead to a conclusion of the 2019-2020 NBA season.

The NBA season was shut down in mid-March with the rest of the sporting world due to the coronavirus pandemic. But recently, the league’s owners and players association approved a plan to continue.

The participants

22 of 30 teams —the 16 current playoff teams and the 6 teams within six games of their conference’s No. 8 seed— return to action for a brief, eight-game finish to the regular season, plus a potential play-in tournament to determine the last seed in each conference.

Where will the NBA playoffs take place?

All the games are scheduled to be played at the ESPN World Wide of Sports Complex, located within Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Training camps will start about a month earlier and the NBA season will officially return on July 31.

NBA restart

Complete schedule

Let’s take a look at the full overview announcede for the restart of the 2019-2020 NBA season, which includes the complete schedule, participants, draft lottery information and more.

June 22: Coronavirus testing begins
June 30: Training camp begins in home markets
July 7: All teams travel to Orlando
July 31: NBA season resumes
August 25: NBA Draft Lottery 2020
October 15: NBA Draft 2020
October 18: Free agency begins
November 10: Training camps for 2020-21 campaign begin
December 1: 2020-21 NBA season starts

The restart of the 2020 NBA regular season will be a 16-day affair beginning on July 31, with 5-6 games played per day during that span and each team playing one back-to-back.

There is a potential of a play-in tournament for the No. 8 seed in each conference as well, which would be triggered by the No. 9 team finishing within four games of the No. 8 seed. Those teams would match up in a series where the stronger record side would need just one win to secure their position in the 2020 NBA Playoffs, while the lower team would have to win two games in a row to usurp the spot.

NBA Restart 2020 Participants And Regular Season Schedule

Each of the 22 teams involved in the NBA’s abbreviated return will play eight seeding games to help finalize the 2020 NBA Playoff bracket.

Each team is scheduled to play the opponents that it would have faced prior to the shutdown, although because eight franchises weren’t invited to Orlando, teams that had a matchup with one of the eliminated squads on the docket will instead move on to the next in line.

Four teams—the Trail Blazers, Heat, Magic and Lakers—will not be able to reach eight games this way, so it is presumed that they will match up with one another to reach that number. Although it has not been officially announced, here is how the 2020 NBA season schedule should look for the seeding games based on the league’s plan:

BOSTON CELTICS vs. Bucks, Wizards, Raptors, Nets, Wizards, Blazers, Grizzlies, Heat
BROOKLYN NETS vs. Clippers, Kings, Wizards, Celtics, Magic, Clippers, Magic, Blazers
DALLAS MAVERICKS vs. Suns, Clippers, Kings, Blazers, Suns, Rockets, Jazz, Bucks
DENVER NUGGETS vs. Spurs, Lakers, Clippers, Thunder, Raptors, Heat, Spurs, Thunder
HOUSTON ROCKETS vs. Lakers, Blazers, Kings, Bucks, Mavericks, Pacers, 76ers, Raptors
INDIANA PACERS vs. 76ers, Heat, Suns, Magic, Rockets, Kings, Clippers, Lakers
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS vs. Nets, Pelicans, Mavericks, Nuggets, Suns, Nets, Pacers, Thunder
LOS ANGELES LAKERS vs. Rockets, Nuggets, Jazz, Jazz, Raptors, Pacers, Trail Blazers,* Heat or Magic*
MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES vs. Blazers, Jazz, Spurs, Thunder, Bucks, Pelicans, Pelicans, Celtics
MIAMI HEAT vs. Bucks, Pacers, Thunder, Nuggets, Suns, Celtics, Raptors, *Lakers or Trail Blazers*
MILWAUKEE BUCKS vs. Celtics, Heat, Grizzlies, Wizards, Rockets, Wizards, Mavericks, Raptors
NEW ORLEANS PELICANS vs. Kings, Jazz, Clippers, Spurs, Grizzlies, Kings, Grizzlies, Magic
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER vs. Jazz, Wizards, Grizzlies, Nuggets, Heat, Nuggets, Suns, Clippers
ORLANDO MAGIC vs. Pacers, Kings, Nets, Nets, Pelicans, 76ers, Raptors, Lakers or Trail Blazers*
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS vs. Pacers, Wizards, Raptors, Blazers, Suns, Rockets, Magic, Spurs
PHOENIX SUNS vs. Mavericks, Pacers, Clippers, Mavericks, 76ers, Wizards, Heat, Thunder
PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS vs. Grizzlies, Rockets, Mavericks, 76ers, Celtics, Nets, Lakers,* Heat or Magic*
SACRAMENTO KINGS vs. Pelicans, Nets, Mavericks, Rockets, Magic, Pelicans, Pacers, Spurs
SAN ANTONIO SPURS vs. Nuggets, Grizzlies, Pelicans, Jazz, Jazz, Nuggets, Kings, 76ers
TORONTO RAPTORS vs. 76ers, Celtics, Nuggets, Lakers, Bucks, Rockets, Heat, Magic
UTAH JAZZ vs. Thunder, Pelicans, Grizzlies, Lakers, Lakers, Spurs, Spurs, Mavericks
WASHINGTON WIZARDS vs. Celtics, Thunder, 76ers, Nets, Bucks, Celtics, Suns, Bucks

Play-offs and NBA Finals 2020

All series will still be best-of-sevens, but the league plans to condense the postseason as much as possible by moving up start dates for each round based on when the previous one ends.

The Finals will also be shortened down to games every other day, which means it will take less than two weeks—Game 7 would take place no later than October 12—to determine a champion after the conference finals wrap up.