SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz will kick off the NBA’s 2019-20 season restart in Orlando against the New Orleans Pelicans on July 30 on TNT.
The opening game between the Jazz and Pelicans is set to start at 4:30 p.m. MT and be followed by the Los Angeles Lakers versus the LA Clippers at 7 p.m. MT.
The July 30 restart to the season will mark the first games played since the league suspended play on March 11 following Utah center Rudy Gobert’s positive coronavirus test.
Below is the the full schedule for the Jazz’s eight “seeding games,” which will serve as the remainder of the 2019-20 regular season and inform playoff seeding. Games will be played at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
Any games that are not scheduled for national broadcast will be shown on regional networks, and all Utah Jazz seeding games will be shown on AT&T SportsNet even when carried by a national broadcast.
The Jazz have already clinched a playoff berth and are not in danger of falling into the 8th seed and needing to take part in the play-in tournament for the final Western Conference playoff spot, which if needed will be held Aug. 15-16.
Through the Jazz’s seeding schedule they will play four games against teams with a sub-.500 record (Pelicans, Grizzlies, and Spurs twice). Though those games are certainly the most favorable on the Jazz schedule, those are the teams that will be fighting it out for a playoff spot and have nothing to lose.
The Jazz’s opening game against the Pelicans will be the first time the Jazz have faced the New Orleans squad in the regular season with 2019 No. 1 overall draft pick Zion Williamson on the floor.
On Aug. 1 the Jazz will play the game that never happened when they face off against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was just moments before tip-off between the two teams in OKC when Gobert’s COVID-19 test results came back, leading to the game being called off and shortly after the NBA announcing the suspension of the season.
The Jazz will be able to head to the NBA playoffs without having to face the Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets, or any of the top-seeded Eastern Conference teams. That’s not to say that the remaining schedule is easy, but it gives them a chance to move up in the standings if they’re able to make up the 1.5 games that separate them and the third-seeded Nuggets.
Denver’s final three games of the seeding schedule are against the Lakers, Clippers and Raptors, arguably the toughest final stretch of any team in Orlando.
Jockeying for position in the West, especially between the third and sixth seed, will be interesting as the games play out. The fifth-seed Thunder and sixth-seed Rockets have fairly favorable schedules and are right on the Jazz’s heels in the standings, both just a game behind Utah.
Full schedules for all teams heading to Orlando can be found at NBA.com/schedule.
Tipoff times for each team’s final seeding game will be scheduled at a later date “in order to provide the most compelling matchups to a national audience,” according to a statement from the NBA.
The NBA playoffs will begin Aug. 17, and the NBA Finals are set to begin Sept. 30 with a possible Game 7 on Oct. 13.