The LA Clippers and the rest of the NBA are slated to return pending an official vote on Thursday.
The NBA is back! Well, almost. Pending an official vote on Thursday by the league’s Board of Governors. The LA Clippers will still have a shot to win their first-ever NBA championship.
With the COVID-19 outbreak and the postponement of the season, fans began to doubt whether or not we would ever get a conclusion to the 2019-20 season. Now, while we will not get the same type of playoffs we are used to, we at least get that ending.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the league will adopt a 22 team return to play. The current sixteen top-seeded teams will be joined by six others (five teams from the West and one from the East) as they play eight regular-season games before advancing to playoffs.
The seeding for the eighth seed in each conference is a little convoluted, so check out Woj’s tweet on how the final seed will be decided.
Sources: Joining the 16 current playoff teams in Orlando: New Orleans, Portland, Phoenix, Sacramento and San Antonio in the West and Washington in the East. If the 9th seed is more than 4 games behind the 8th, No. 8 makes playoffs; Fewer than 4 games, a play-in tournament.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 3, 2020
With eight regular-season games still scheduled, the Clippers will have to be prepared. They currently sit as the second seed but the Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Houston Rockets could realistically still catch them.
The LA Clippers need to be ready and hang on to the two seed through the eight remaining regular-season games.
Seeing as how the league is sticking with an Eastern and Western Conference playoff format, it would be ideal for the Clippers to stay as the two seed. If standings do stay the same, they would face off against the Dallas Mavericks in the first round. Matching up against the Mavs would be one of the more ideal outcomes for the first round.
Honestly, though, it doesn’t really matter who the team gets in the first round or any other for that matter. We know the organization has been doing everything in their power to keep the team ready to compete.
All that matters is that the NBA is back on July 31. Buckle up, Clipper Nation.