2020 NBA Season Returns: What To Expect And NBA Playoff Predictions

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Sorry about the photo, but the NBA will resume without its fans in attendance for the first time in NBA history.

The 2020 NBA season returns on July 31, 2020, after owners have approved the plan to restart the season in Orlando. With a vote of 29-1 among team owners, the NBA will resume its season to determine who will be crowned as the 2020 NBA champions.

2019-2020 NBA Season Returns

The season will resume with 22 NBA teams playing 8 regular season games to determine seeding. There will be 13 teams coming from the Western Conference (Sorry Warriors and Suns fans) and 9 Eastern Conference teams that will compete when the NBA season resumes.

What To Expect When NBA Season Returns

Each NBA team will play eight seeding games. Once the final games have been played, the top seven teams from each conference will qualify for the NBA playoffs.

The remaining eight seeds for each conference will be determined by the following rules:

If the team with the eighth-best combined record in its conference is more than four games ahead of the team with the ninth-best combined record in the same conference, then the team with the eighth-best record would earn the last remaining playoff seed for that conference.

If the team with the eighth-best combined record in its conference is four games or fewer ahead of the team with the ninth-best combined record in the same conference, then two teams would compete in a play-in tournament to determine the eighth playoff seed. To earn the eighth playoff seed, Team A would need to defeat Team B once and Team B would need to defeat Team A twice.

Source: 2020 NBA Season Returns With New Format

According to a reliable source, the plan is to play in two different arenas in Orlando Disneyland with multiple games held per day. Similar to the NBA Summer League format.

Who are expected to be in the NBA playoffs?

Our team expects the two Los Angeles teams (Lakers and Clippers) to lead the Western Conference pack, while the Milwaukee Bucks and the reigning NBA champion, Toronto Raptors lead the East.

Getting the other home-court advantage top spots for the NBA playoffs are the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder for the West, and the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat for the East.

Rounding up the other four teams on each conference will be the Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, and Portland Trailblazers for the Western Conference, and the Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets, and Orlando Magic for the Eastern Conference.

Western Conference
SeedTeam
1stLakers
2ndClippers
3rdNuggets
4thThunder
5thRockets
6thJazz
7thMavericks
8thGrizzlies
9thBlazers

We predict that the Blazers will defeat the Grizzlies if a play-in scenario occurs. DameTime in Disneyland.

Eastern Conference
SeedTeam
1stBucks
2ndRaptors
3rdCeltics
4thHeat
5th76ers
6thPacers
7thNets
8thMagic

We don’t expect the Washington Wizards to make a run for the last playoff spot even if John Wall plays.

2020 NBA Playoffs

The NBA postseason will follow the same best-of-seven-format, and the NBA Finals is set to occur early or mid-October 2020.

The playoffs will be similar to past NBA playoffs when it comes to its schedules, where four games will be played on the weekends during the first-round series.

Who’s the favorite to win the NBA Finals?

According to the latest odds in OddsShark.com, the Los Angeles Lakers are still considered the favorite to take home the championship trophy by the end of the 2020 NBA playoffs at +200 odds. Next to them is the Milwaukee Bucks at +275 odds, and their favorite co-tenant, the Los Angeles Clippers at +300 odds.

Our team likes how these odds are currently set, so if you want to bet on NBA future bets, this might be the best time before the NBA games resume.

Backing the Brooklyn Nets at +5000 odds could be a good-value bet if Durant and Irving are cleared to play during the NBA playoffs. No one knows for sure if they’ll play during the NBA playoffs or if they’ll be 100% when they come back, but that’s a risk that you may consider knowing how good they can be offensively.

If you’re looking for a dark-horse Western Conference contender, look no further than the Denver Nuggets. They have a great young team that can hang with the best of them. But will losing their homecourt advantage in Denver have a negative effect on their winning chances? Or Nikola Jokic being “beach-ready propel them over those Los Angeles teams.

Playoff Scenarios

We expect the top four seeds in both conferences to defeat their first-round opponents, except for the Raptors. Well, this is assuming Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant play during the playoffs. Raptors are gone be fine. Kevin Durant just ruled himself out for the season. And Kyrie won’t be able to come back too. Nets won’t last that long in the NBA playoffs.

Early Predictions For The 2020 NBA Playoffs

The most interesting first-round matchup will be the one between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder. We don’t know for sure if this will happen. But that’s something we’re looking forward to seeing. Hopefully, these teams will grant our wishes and face off during the first or second round of the NBA playoffs.

Seeing Westbrook and Harden face off against CP3 and his solid supporting cast should be a fun matchup to watch. We’ll be rooting for CP3 to eliminate Harden and Russ when these two teams match up.

For the second round, we expect the two Los Angeles teams to advance to the Western Conference Finals. While the Bucks and 76ers should face off in the East Finals.

Either a Milwaukee Bucks vs Los Angeles Lakers will be the Finals matchup or Bucks vs Clippers. We don’t see Joel Embiid and his 76ers defeating the great Greek Freak in the Eastern Conference Finals.

This should be one of the best NBA playoffs in NBA history despite the tragedies and other unfortunate events that happened this year.

Upcoming 2021 NBA Season

Due to the global pandemic, the 2021 NBA season schedule is not yet finalized. But we’ve gathered some details that might give you a glimpse about the upcoming NBA season once a new NBA champion is crowned.

When is the NBA Draft?

The NBA draft has been moved to October 15, 2020. The draft positions for the NBA draft will be determined on August 25.

Golden State Warriors are the favorites to land the top pick, but they’re not keen on taking LaMelo and add drama to their locker room by selecting a Ball family member with one of the draft’s top picks.

When will the next NBA season start?

Since the NBA seasons has been delayed already by the global pandemic, the next NBA season will be pushed to start early or mid-December 2020. NBA free agency is expected to begin mid-October and the NBA training camps will begin early to mid-November.

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