The NBA games started Thursday night at Walt Disney World, and here’s 10 things to know as the season enters its restart phase.
- The reigning NBA champions had won four consecutive games, the longest active streak in the NBA — one game ahead of the three in a row posted by Oklahoma City, Brooklyn and Orlando.
- If all the seeding games get played, then this NBA season would include 1,059 games — a drop of 171 from what was planned when the season began. That means 14% of the season will not be played.
- There is a chance that the NBA could see more teams with winning percentages of .600 or better than ever before. As of now, there are 12 teams at or above that threshold — six from each conference. Dallas would also get there if the Mavericks go 5-3 in their eight seeding games.
- Doc Rivers used to coach in Orlando. Billy Donovan had enormous success leading the Florida Gators. Maybe it makes sense that their teams do well in the Sunshine State.Over the past six seasons, no visiting team has done better in Florida than the Los Angeles Clippers — 6-0 in games at Orlando and 5-1 when visiting Miami.
- Houston’s James Harden is going to win the scoring title. He also has a chance at leading the league in total points in every quarter — which is somewhat rare. No NBA player has scored more first-quarter or second-quarter points than Harden this season
- Harden will be the scoring champion for the season, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers is going to win his first assist title and Andre Drummond is pretty much locked in to win the rebound title.
- Among those celebrating birthdays during the seeding-game portion of the season, when they’d ordinarily be on summer vacation someplace: Austin Rivers (Aug. 1), Kristaps Porzingis (Aug. 2), Kendrick Nunn (Aug. 3), DeMar DeRozan (Aug. 7), Danilo Gallinari (Aug. 8) and Ja Morant on Aug. 10. So technically, yes, that would be the second time Morant gets a birthday during his rookie year.
- New Orleans guard JJ Redick has played 13 previous NBA seasons, going to the playoffs in all of them. That came after four years of postseason basketball at Duke
- When LeBron James goes to the playoffs, his phones go off.But that won’t be the case in 2020. The Lakers’ star says checking out is not an option this year, for the obvious reason that he wants to remain in communication with his family whenever possible.
- The Lakers have a 5-1/2 game lead over the Clippers for the Pacific Division title — and, more importantly, the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.