Portland Trail Blazers Will Play Eight Games As NBA Returns

The Portland Trail Blazers will resume the 2019-20 season with a matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies on July 31, it was announced today by the NBA. The National Basketball Association and the National Basketball Players Association have finalized a comprehensive plan for a July 30 restart to the 2019-20 season, which includes stringent health and safety protocols, a single-site campus at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and the goal of taking collective action to combat systemic racism and promote social justice. Under the competitive format for the restart, the 22 participating teams will be the eight teams in each conference with the highest current winning percentages and the six teams that are currently within six games of the eighth seed in either conference. The restart will begin with each participating team playing eight “seeding games,” as selected from its remaining regular-season matchups. The schedule for the Trail Blazers eight seeding games is as follows: Date Opponent Time (PT) Venue July 31 vs. Memphis 1:00 PM Arena Aug. 2 at Boston 12:30 PM Arena Aug. 4 vs. Houston 6:00 PM Arena Aug. 6 at Denver 5:00 PM Visa Athletic Center Aug. 8 vs. LA Clippers 10:00 AM HP Field House Aug. 9 vs. Philadelphia 3:30 PM Visa Athletic Center Aug. 11 at Dallas 2:00 PM Arena Aug. 13 vs. Brooklyn TBD TBD All eight seeding games will be televised by NBC Sports Northwest (NBCSNW) or national carriers and aired on flagship station NBCSNW Rip City Radio AM-620 and the Deschutes Brewery Trail Blazers Radio Network. At the conclusion of the seeding games, the seven teams in each conference with the highest combined winning percentages across regular-season games and seeding games will be the first through seventh seeds for the NBA Playoffs for that conference. If the team with the eighth-best combined winning percentage (regular-season games and seeding games) in a conference is more than four games ahead of the team with the ninth-best combined winning percentage in the same conference, then the team with the eighth-best winning percentage would be the eighth playoff seed in that conference. If the team with the eighth-best combined winning percentage in a conference (Team 8) is four games or fewer ahead of the team with the ninth-best combined winning percentage in the same conference (Team 9), then those two teams would compete in a play-in tournament to determine the eighth playoff seed in the conference. The play-in tournament will be double elimination for Team 8 and single elimination for Team 9. Photo Credit: Portland Trail Blazers.