15 Under-the-Radar Games to Watch During NBA Restart in Orlando
The NBA is officially back on the court after four-and-a-half months away. The path to the playoffs over the next 15 days features eight "seeding games" per team, all to be played on the bubble campus at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Participating in the restart are nine teams from the East and 13 from the West, with the top eight teams from each conference qualifying for the playoffs—which will play under their normal format. The condensed schedule to close out the regular season means games beginning in the afternoons and playing through the night
We know you're ready for showdowns like Lakers-Clippers and Bucks-Raptors—we don't need to point those out for you. Instead we've chosen to highlight the matchups floating under the radar, the hidden gems of the next two-plus weeks.
Many of the games listed below will be on NBA League Pass, and you can stream them live on B/R Live here. Others will broadcast on national television and are noted accordingly. To view the complete schedule for the NBA's restart in Orlando, go here. And these are the standings heading into the resumption of play.
Note: All tip-off times Eastern
Friday, July 31
Orlando Magic vs. Brooklyn Nets | 2:30 p.m. on NBA League Pass | Stream Here
The first afternoon game of the restart is instantly a crucial one in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Brooklyn has a half-game lead over Orlando for the No. 7 seed, which is some of the most-valuable real estate in the league with the introduction of the play-in series between teams that finish eighth and ninth.
This game will mark Jamal Crawford's 2020 debut, at long last, after the veteran signed with the Nets earlier this month after Brooklyn's roster was decimated by injuries, opt outs and positive coronavirus tests. These teams also play a bookend matchup on Aug. 11 that will likely carry similar playoff implications.
Saturday, Aug. 1
Utah Jazz vs. Oklahoma City Thunder | 3:30 p.m. on ESPN
Remember March 11, 2020? That seems like roughly six years ago. It was that night when the Jazz and Thunder players were on the court, mere minutes from tipoff, when the NBA and the sports world at large turned upside down.
Utah center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus, trainers sprinted on to the floor to alert officials, players stayed at the arena for hours to be tested, and the league suspended the season. Well, almost five months later, this game goes on.
Sunday, Aug. 2
San Antonio Spurs vs. Memphis Grizzlies | 4 p.m. on NBA League Pass | Stream Here
Memphis enters the bubble as the No. 8 seed and will have plenty of competition and work to do in order to hold on to that spot for two weeks.
San Antonio is four games back and has made the playoffs 22 seasons in a row—the longest active streak in North American sports—positioning the Spurs as the team with the most to play for in their eight seeding games. This game juxtaposes the veteran Spurs with the youthful Grizz. If Memphis holds at eight and San Antonio jumps to nine, it would provide a preview to a very intriguing play-in matchup.
Tuesday, Aug. 4
Dallas Mavericks vs. Sacramento Kings | 2:30 p.m. on NBA League Pass | Stream Here
Two young and absolutely joyous teams to watch. The lineup combinations and pace of play will provide high entertainment value. We could legitimately see the Mavs' Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis and Boban Marjanovic on the floor at the same time with the Kings' De'Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield and Bogdan Bogdanovic. Please sign us up.
As for the stakes, Dallas appears safe at the seventh seed and could move up a couple spots with strong performances in the seeding games, while Sacramento has all the motivation to move up from No. 11 to 8 or 9 and break the NBA's longest active playoff drought, currently at 13 seasons.
Thursday, Aug. 6
Portland Trail Blazers vs. Denver Nuggets | 8 p.m. on NBA League Pass | Stream Here
The Nuggets may well define "under the radar" in the NBA, always hanging out in the top half of the West while headlines go to LA or Houston or (until this season) Golden State.
Denver's challenge will be the transition from being one of the best home-court teams in the league to playing in empty gyms. If Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Paul Millsap can make that adjustment, the Nuggets have a chance to reach the second seed and could be a team no one wants to see. The same could be said about Portland and the always hungry Damian Lillard. The ninth-place Blazers will essentially be in playoff mode from their first game and will need Dame, CJ McCollum and Carmelo Anthony to get hot quickly and stay that way in order to reach the postseason.
Friday, Aug. 7
Boston Celtics vs. Toronto Raptors | 9 p.m. on TNT
A crucial game for the second seed in the East, which is valuable for this reason: That seed gets a likely first-round matchup with either Orlando or Brooklyn, instead of the 3 vs. 6 series against objectively stronger squads like Philadelphia or Indiana (remember the Sixers took the Raptors to seven games last season).
Toronto begins with the leg up—a three-game lead over Boston—and depending on how both teams play for the first week, the Raptors could use this game to clinch the No. 2 seed. On the other hand, the Celtics could close that gap, put pressure on Toronto and create a real race for that spot.
Saturday, Aug. 8
Phoenix Suns vs. Miami Heat | 7:30 p.m. on NBA League Pass | Stream Here
At about the halfway point of seeding games, Phoenix may already be eliminated, barely hanging on to playoff contention or actually very much in it, while Miami, regardless of how it plays, is pretty much set in the 4/5 range in the East, with not a whole lot of room for movement.
As such, this game has the makings of a Devin Booker explosion, along the lines of the 70 points in a game he scored three years ago. There would be nothing better than Booker finding a good scoring rhythm early, Jimmy Butler taking it personally to switch on to him defensively, and the two just going at it for the whole game.
LA Clippers vs. Portland Trail Blazers | 1 p.m. on TNT
We're framing this less as Blazers vs. Clippers and more as Damian Lillard vs. Paul George. OK, we're framing this completely as Dame vs. PG. What if LA eliminates Portland in this game? Will George return the favor? What does he have saved in his drafts? How petty will it get?
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Indiana Pacers | 6 p.m. on TNT
How good are the Pacers, genuinely? Asking for everybody around the NBA. All season we've been impressed with Indiana just rolling steady and collecting wins, even without Victor Oladipo, while at the same time perhaps writing them off as not being able to reach that next tier of teams in his absence.
Well, now he's back, and this game, against the best team in the West and MVP-candidate LeBron James, will be the stick by which to measure the Pacers. The result won't make or break them, but how they play will demonstrate whether a deep run in the East playoffs is achievable.
Indiana did take a big hit when forward Domantas Sabonis was forced to leave the bubble with a left foot injury that could keep him out for the season.
Sunday, Aug. 9
Memphis Grizzlies vs. Toronto Raptors | 2 p.m. on NBA League Pass | Stream Here
A great test for Rookie-of-the-Year front-runner Ja Morant and Memphis against the defending champs. With just a couple games left, it will be crunch time at this point for the playoff-hopeful Grizzlies, so there should be a significant sense of urgency, even if the Raptors have already clinched the second seed.
To focus on a game within the game, Morant's matchup with either or both of Kyle Lowry and Fred Van Vleet will be fun to watch, given that the pair are two of the strongest and most-physical defensive guards in the NBA. They'll give the rookie a taste of the playoff intensity he can expect if Memphis gets there.
Thursday, Aug. 13
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Orlando Magic | TBD p.m. on NBA League Pass | Stream Here
This game brings some of the highest stakes of any interconference matchup during the seeding games. It'll be the final game for both teams, which will be battling for seeds No. 7, 8 and 9 in their respective conferences, and the Pelicans will be competing among five other teams in the crowded West for those spots.
And all of that may still fall to the back burner because this game will feature Zion Williamson and Aaron Gordon on the court at the same time. Think of the dunks. Oh my, the dunks. If both teams are still in contention and those two stars have reached solid game shape, this game could turn into a show.
San Antonio Spurs vs. Utah Jazz | TBD p.m. on NBA League Pass | Stream Here
With every game in the bubble on a neutral court, the importance of playoff seeding shifts from home-court advantage to better matchups. We bring that up here because Utah, currently in the fourth spot, isn't playing solely to hold on to that higher first-round seed; if the Jazz fall to fifth, effectively nothing changes.
So the question at this stage, the second-to-last day of seeding games, will be twofold: How much upward movement opportunity does Utah have left, and how much desire will it have to win in order to move up or simply avoid falling down, based on what each result would determine as the Jazz's first-round opponent?
This is basically a long-winded way of asking: At this point, what is their level of motivation and how long are the starters playing against a Spurs team that will likely need every single win to reach the playoffs and keep its aforementioned streak alive?
Portland Trail Blazers vs. Brooklyn Nets | TBD p.m. on NBA League Pass | Stream Here
Similar to the Booker premise mentioned earlier, this matchup has the potential for a dominant individual performance. Depending on what these teams have or have not clinched, and maybe even more so if they need a win to stay alive, there are multiple candidates to take over and turn this game into their own mixtape.
Given it'll be the last seeding game for both teams, players will have been able to find some good rhythm and be closer to game shape. Lillard could get hot from 3-point range and start launching from anywhere inside half court, while Anthony could go into "Hoodie Melo" mode and, perhaps for no other reason than to prove he still can, pour in a vintage onslaught of buckets. Speaking of something to prove, Crawford, who scored 50 in his final game of the 2019 season, remember, might feel inclined to do so again.
Friday, Aug. 14
Philadelphia 76ers vs. Houston Rockets | TBD p.m. on NBA League Pass | Stream Here
This pair of teams will hope to have a series of questions answered by its last game before the playoffs. For the 76ers: Are they playing like a legit title contender? As the best home team and worst road team (aside from the Wizards) in the bubble, how have they adjusted to the neutral, quiet games? Ben Simmons says his back feels great—is he playing like it? Is Joel Embiid dominating games, why or why not?
For the Rockets: Russell Westbrook traveled to Orlando late after a positive coronavirus test and did not have the same amount of practice time as his teammates—what has his progression on the court looked like? How well are Westbrook and James Harden playing together and complementing each other? Which player(s) is closing out games, how is he doing it and what's his level of success? Does their small 1-5 lineup appear like it will work in the playoffs? Deep runs in the playoffs for both teams hinge on the answers to these questions.
OKC Thunder vs. LA Clippers | TBD p.m. on NBA League Pass | Stream Here
Chris Paul and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander face their old Clippers teammates while Paul George faces his former Thunder squad, more than one year after the blockbuster trade that has somewhat surprisingly benefitted both teams pretty quickly, with LA one of the title favorites and thought-to-be-rebuilding OKC firmly in the playoff picture.
Seedingwise, the Clippers have much more to lose than they can gain before the postseason (they're 5.5 games behind the Lakers, only 1.5 ahead of Denver and 4 ahead of OKC), and you know CP3 would relish the chance to bump them down a spot to make their path to the finals a tad more difficult.
And while an obvious thing to watch for is how George and Kawhi Leonard look together game by game, keep your focus on LA's enormous advantage in the bubble: its depth. As coaches manage minutes while players get back into shape, bench rotations and second units are going to be critical. Enter reigning Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams and runner-up Montrezl Harrell, both of whom left the bubble for family reasons and had to adhere to quarantine procedures upon their return—most notably with Williams set to miss LA's first two games.
But by this end point of the "regular season," both players should be back in the rotation, and their production off the bench could be what sets the Clippers apart from the rest of the top title contenders in the league.
