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NBA restart: LeBron James chasing fourth ring and a roaming Kawhi Leonard among 20 things to watch - CBS Sports

NBA restart: LeBron James chasing fourth ring and a roaming Kawhi Leonard among 20 things to watch - CBS Sports

NBA restart: LeBron James chasing fourth ring and a roaming Kawhi Leonard among 20 things to watch - CBS Sports
Jul 30, 2020 4 mins, 39 secs

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After an almost five-month hiatus, the 2019-20 NBA season is set to resume from the Disney World bubble on Thursday.

ET, followed by the Lakers and Clippers at 9 p.m.

There will be six more games on Friday, and with that, we'll (hopefully) be off and running.

A reminder: Each of the 22 teams in Orlando will play eight "seeding" games that will constitute the close of the regular season, at which point the top seven playoff seeds in each conference will be locked.

9 seed is within four games in the standings at the conclusion of the eight seeding games, there will be a playoff for the final spot, with the No.

It genuinely feels like anything could happen. 8

4 this season (asterisk or not), you can at least let yourself dream on a couple more titles if you're a Lakers fan.

Anthony Davis will likely sign long term, the Lakers will do whatever they can to make another power roster move, and honestly, does it seem like LeBron is slowing down.

For my money, the Lakers are the smartest bet to come out of this bubble with the Larry O'Brien trophy, but I say that with the understanding that anything could happen in this environment and under these conditions. .

If any of the following teams (outside of universally accepted favorites Milwaukee and the two L.A. teams) were to make the Finals, I would not be completely shocked: Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, and if I reach just a little bit, Miami and/or Houston. ?

Particularly in the West, this is going to be a wild run through the eight seeding games and potentially an 8-9 play-in series.

8 -- and as it happens, when play begins on Thursday, four teams (Portland, New Orleans, San Antonio and Sacramento) will be within that four-game window as they chase current No.

This was the biggest story when the NBA season began, and nothing (besides, you know, everything) has changed: The Lakers and Clippers, barring an upset, are on a conference finals collision course.

the Lakers this season?

That would make Leonard a three-time NBA champion with three different teams -- the ultimate hired gun, perhaps even more powerful than bringing LeBron to your team.

Leonard wanted to play with Paul George so he wouldn't have to do quite so much heavy lifting, and George is fully healthy and I suspect ready to play like a top-10 player in the league.

As mentioned above, he ate the Lakers alive this year.

Does Milwaukee have to win it all, or at least make the NBA Finals, to keep him.

Tatum emerged as Boston's go-to player -- to the extent that such a distinction exists in a pretty equal-opportunity offense -- around January, and he was off the charts for the six weeks prior to play being suspended, averaging 29 points on 47 percent 3-point shooting dating back to Feb.

There's no way to overstate how great Zion was over his 19 games this season; a man among boys, even though he's actually the boy at barely 20 years old.

Sticking with the Pelicans, when the 2019-20 campaign was suspended Ball was in the middle of the best shooting season of his young career at 39 percent from beyond the arc, per Cleaning the Glass.

We saw them play with, and cause problems for, some of the best teams in the league, and with P.J.

Tucker at center stretching defenses out as a corner 3-point shooter, the lane is wide open for Russell Westbrook, who was playing like an MVP candidate before the season was suspended?

Brett Brown announced early that he'd been playing Ben Simmons exclusively at power forward during practice, and Brown has gone on to say Simmons has had a "paradigm shift" in his approach to taking 3-pointers.

When play was suspended they were on track to be the greatest offense of all time.

Seth Curry is shooting 45 percent from beyond the arc for the season, and almost 58 percent since Feb?

combined to score almost 40 points per game in the six weeks leading up to the break in play.

When the season was suspended in early March, they had already passed that number with 46 wins (third-best record in the league) with the No.

When play resumes, they'll sit four games back in the loss column of No.

Lakers lineups

He'll try to balance it as much as he can and the Lakers, depending on matchups, can try to bludgeon teams with essentially two-center size with Davis alongside either JaVale McGee or Dwight Howard

But it's hard to imagine the Lakers not wanting to put three shooters around LeBron-Davis pick and rolls as much as possible, particularly to close games. 

With Domantas Sabonis out, the Pacers don't feel like a threat to do much in Orlando, but they won't be an easy out

They play tough defense and don't turn the ball over

Jimmy Butler is at once having an All-NBA season and, all things considered, the worst shooting season of his career

The Heat need those shots to start falling if they're going to make a real playoff run, even with Butler assisting and getting to the free throw line at career-high rates

They could, in theory, still have one of the best starting lineups in the league with Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley, Joe Ingles, Royce O'Neale and Rudy Gobert, but that depends on Mitchell playing like a superstar and Conley playing like the player he was supposed to be when Utah acquired him from Memphis

The Girzzlies, as of right now, are in the playoffs, but four teams are within four games

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