HERE ARE SOME OF WHAT TO KNOW GOING INTO THE 2021 NBA PANDEMIC SEASON
The NBA’s new season starts on Tuesday (Wednesday, Manila time) with a pair of games; that saw Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets welcoming and trashing Durant’s former team in Golden State, 125-99. On the other opening game, the Los Angeles Clippers opened with a win against the Los Angeles Lakers, 116-109 in the renewal of rivals who share a homecourt building.
For the first time since March, all 30 NBA teams are playing this week. When the season resumed in July, only 22 teams went to the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. So, for eight teams — Golden State, Minnesota, Atlanta, Charlotte, New York, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland — games will be played for the first time since March.
For others, it’s the first time since August. Others, the first time since September. And for the Lakers and Miami Heat, who met in last season’s NBA Finals, the offseason only started in mid-October.
The league has had 30 teams since 2004, and on Monday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver suggested that it might be time to consider expansion once again. Extra teams would figure to mean extra revenue, and while nothing is imminent — really, it’s years away if it happens — Silver did say that it is something under advisement.
For now and for the foreseeable future, though, the NBA is 30 teams. The first half of the season goes through March 4, the second half starts March 11 and runs through May 16, the play-in tournament goes from May 18 through May 21, the playoffs start May 22 and the last possible date for the NBA Finals is July 22.
All that is pandemic-permitting, of course. Everything is subject to change.
Sometime in the coming days — possibly as early as Wednesday, more likely during the Christmas games Friday — someone will make the 500,000th 3-pointer in NBA history, including regular-season and playoff games.
There have been 499,549 made 3’s in NBA history. At last season’s pace of made 3’s, with teams combining for almost 25 per game, the 500,000th would come during the matchup between the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas night.
So far, 2,337 NBA players have made at least one 3-pointer; that’s 72.9% of the players who have appeared in the league since the league added the shot in the 1979-80 season. Of the 530 players who appeared in at least one game last season, 463 — or 87.4% — made at least one 3-pointer.
Miami’s Udonis Haslem — he’s 40, turning 41 in June — is the oldest player in the NBA to start the season, now that Vince Carter is retired.
Jamal Crawford played one game last season; like Carter, he’s older than Haslem but isn’t currently under contract.
The youngest player in the league right now is Oklahoma City’s Aleksej Pokusevski. If he plays in the Thunder opener on Wednesday at Houston, he’ll be able to say he debuted in the NBA at 18 — the Serbian rookie doesn’t turn 19 until Saturday.