NBA relying on expanded protocol

LOS ANGELES • After successfully completing last season in an Orlando bubble, teams will be travelling again and players, coaches and staff testing positive for the coronavirus could be inevitable.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) season, which starts tomorrow, has already been reduced from 82 to 72 games because of the pandemic and the league will try to complete its 16-team play-offs between May 22 and July 22.

Three teams - Atlanta Hawks, Utah Jazz, and Memphis Grizzlies - have said they will allow a limited number of fans into their arenas but the real battle will be keeping the virus out.

Asked what would be the determining factor in a team's success this season, Dallas Mavericks All-Star guard Luka Doncic believes whoever can maintain a low rate of infection will have a greater advantage.

"Which team is not going to have (Covid-19) positive people," he added.

With no bubble to protect its participants, the NBA is counting on daily testing of players, coaches and team staff members, vigilant mask-wearing and social distancing, and an expanded book of health and safety guidelines to get through the winter.

All 30 teams will also have a league-assigned "protocol officer" with them on the road and on team planes, trying to ensure adherence to the many restrictions outlined within the league's nearly 160 pages of rules to govern the season.

But American public health experts project next month to be the most devastating month yet as the world's worst-hit country battles against the pandemic.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the United States' top infectious disease expert, recently predicted that access to a Covid-19 vaccine should be widespread nationally by late spring or early summer.

The months until then, however, could be grim - something the NBA has essentially acknowledged by releasing only the first half of its regular-season schedule, till March 4.

The league office wants to maintain calendar flexibility to deal with the sort of coronavirus-related disruptions that have upended other sports, such as the National Football League, which have not employed bubbles.

REGULAR SEASON: Dec 22- May 16

ALL-STAR BREAK: March 5-10 (The All-Star game has yet to be confirmed)

PLAY-IN TOURNEY: May 18-21

PLAY-OFFS: May 22-July 22

*Dates subject to scheduling changes

• Each team will play 72 regular season games, down from the usual 82. This includes 42 games against intra-conference opponents and 30 against inter-conference opponents.

• A play-in tournament will decide the final two seeds from each conference.

Teams ranked No. 7 to 10 in each conference (based on winning percentage) will take part after the regular season ends to decide the seventh and eighth seeds.

• In the play-in tournament, Team 7 first hosts Team 8, with the winner awarded the seventh seed in the play-offs. The loser plays the winner of the match between Team 9 and Team 10 to decide the final seed.

"We know there are going to be challenges and bumps, but so far things are good, and we're optimistic that we have a plan that we can work through those challenges and bumps," said David Weiss, the NBA's vice-president of player matters.

NYTIMES, REUTERS