The 2020 NBA season is scheduled to officially resume on July 30, when the 22 teams that traveled to the league’s bubble at the ESPN World of Sports in Walt Disney World, Florida will begin playing in their first of eight “seeding” games that will ultimately crystallize the 2020 NBA Playoffs picture. The NBA’s 2019-20 Restart plan has been criticized by some— including a number of players employed by organizations getting set to return to play—for not doing enough to protect participants from potential coronavirus-related issues, but the league believes it will be able to resume the campaign on time and get through a full postseason without any major issues.

Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, but fans are eager for the return of professional basketball and are looking forward to play resuming this week when teams begin participating in a series of exhibition scrimmages. Sportsbooks are also anticipating the season restart, as it will mark the first time in four months that they will be able to offer odds on NBA action. While nearly every book will be offering the standard betting lines for each contest and futures bets on the winner of the 2020 NBA Finals and other outcomes, some have gone a step further and released a handful of props related to the bubble, a successful start and finish to 2020 NBA season restart and more.

You can find more about these intriguing odds at the end of this article, but first check out the latest news from the Orlando bubble and the complete NBA exhibition schedule for the upcoming week below. You can also find key dates for the 2019-20 NBA Restart, including information on when the 2020 NBA Playoffs will begin, when the 2020 NBA Draft will be held and much more.

2020 NBA Season Restart – Exhibition Schedule

The new landscape will get a test run when exhibition play begins on Wednesday, with the first of 32 total scrimmages on the schedule taking place. These inter-squad matchups will run until Tuesday, July 28 and take place at three separate venues, giving organizers a chance to fine tune the process before meaningful contests resume at the end of the month. One notable change to some of these exhibition contests is that they will utilize shortened quarters, clocking in at 10 minutes each instead of the traditional 12. Each team is slated to participate in three scrimmages, with the first of these using the abbreviated format before moving back to standard 12-minute quarters for the final two games. The league believes that shortened quarters will help players ease back into full speed contests after going over four months without them due to the NBA shutdown.

Having a 40-minute game to start the exhibition schedule is something Denver head coach Mike Malone supports, noting that his top priority is having a healthy, fresh roster in time for the seeding games. The coach told ESPN the following:

“The No. 1 thing for me is can we get through these three scrimmages healthy and not getting guys put in a position where they’re overworked, playing too many minutes and getting hurt. I think the vast majority of the 22 teams will approach it the same way.”

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Here’s the full exhibition schedule for all 22 teams ahead of the 2020 NBA season restart:

Wednesday, July 22

• Orlando vs. L.A. Clippers, 3 p.m.
• Washington vs. Denver, 3:30.m.
• New Orleans vs. Brooklyn, 7 p.m.
• Sacramento vs. Miami, 8 p.m.

Thursday, July 23

• San Antonio vs. Milwaukee, 3 p.m.
• Portland vs. Indiana, 3:30 p.m.
• Dallas vs. L.A. Lakers, 7 p.m.
• Phoenix vs. Utah, 8 p.m.

Friday, July 24

• Memphis vs. Philadelphia, 3:30 p.m.
• Oklahoma City vs. Boston, 5 p.m.
• Houston vs. Toronto, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, July 25

• L.A. Lakers vs. Orlando, noon
• Milwaukee vs. Sacramento, 12:30 p.m.
• Miami vs. Utah, 4 p.m.
• Brooklyn vs. San Antonio, 4:30 p.m.
• L.A. Clippers vs. Washington, 8 p.m.
• Denver vs. New Orleans, 8:30 p.m.

Sunday, July 26

• Philadelphia vs. Oklahoma City, noon.
• Phoenix vs. Boston, 1:30 p.m.
• Indiana vs. Dallas, 4 p.m.
• Portland vs. Toronto, 6 p.m.
• Houston vs. Memphis, 8 p.m.

Monday, July 27

• Washington vs. L.A. Lakers, 3 p.m.
• Sacramento vs. L.A. Clippers, 4 p.m.
• Utah vs. Brooklyn, 5:30 p.m.
• Orlando vs. Denver, 7 p.m.
• New Orleans vs. Milwaukee, 8 p.m.

Tuesday, July 28

• Memphis vs. Miami, 2 p.m.
• Toronto vs. Phoenix, 3 p.m.
• San Antonio vs. Indiana, 4 p.m.
• Oklahoma City vs. Portland, 6 p.m.
• Boston vs. Houston, 8 p.m.
• Dallas vs. Philadelphia, 8:30 p.m. 

  

Key Dates For 2020 NBA Return To Play Plan

Once exhibition play is finished, teams will have just a couple days before the seeding games begin. Each squad will participate in a total of eight contests that will finalize the 2020 NBA Playoff bracket, with a chance of a small play-in tournament to determine the No. 8 seed in each conference. This will only be triggered if the team with the eighth-best record finishes within four games of the No. 9 team. If that scenario occurs, those two clubs will compete in a best-of-two battle in which the No. 8 team would need to win just once to earn the final spot on the bracket in its conference, while the No. 9 team would have a chance to usurp by winning both matchups.

Here is a look at when the seeding games will take place, when the play-in tournaments would occur if triggered, the 2020 NBA Playoff dates and more:

• July 30-Aug. 14 — 2019-20 season resumes with seeding games
• Aug. 15-16 — Play-in tournaments take place
• Aug. 17 — Playoffs begin
• Aug. 25 — NBA Draft Lottery
• Aug. 31-Sept. 13 — Conference semifinals
• Sept. 15-Sept. 28 —Conference Finals
• Sept. 30 — NBA Finals begin
• Oct. 13 — Last possible date for Game 7 of NBA Finals
• Oct. 16 — 2020 NBA draft
• Oct. 18 — Free agency begins at 6 p.m. ET
• Dec. 1 — Opening night for 2020-21 season