NBA seeding round schedule for Monday, August 3rd

The NBA regular season has returned with the seeding round beginning on July 30th in the NBA bubble in Orlando, Florida. The NBA teams in the bubble will play eight games each to decide seeding for the NBA playoffs, with games running from July 30th to August 14th. A play-in tournament may then be required to decide to final playoff spots. We’ll be adding notable updates throughout the day, including final scores and news.

Here is a list of game for Monday, August 3rd:

Toronto Raptors vs. Miami Heat, 1:30 p.m. ET (NBA TV)
Denver Nuggets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder, 4:00 p.m. ET (NBA TV)
Indiana Pacers vs. Washington Wizards, 4:00 p.m. ET
Memphis Grizzlies vs. New Orleans Pelicans, 6:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)
San Antonio Spurs vs. Philadelphia 76ers, 8:00 p.m. ET
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Utah Jazz, 9:00 p.m. ET (ESPN)

What to watch for

TOR-MIA — The Heat excused Jimmy Butler from the team for reasons unknown on Sunday, per the Sun-Sentinel. It’s unclear if Butler is dealing with an injury, has tested positive for Covid-19 or just needed a day off. We’ll get an update for sure before tip-off.

DEN-OKC — Jamal Murray, Will Barton and Gary Harris are all unlikely to play again vs. the Thunder. The Nuggets lack depth at guard with all three sidelined, so this could be a strong spot to target OKC’s back court.

IND-WAS — We don’t know the status of both Malcolm Brogdon and Victor Oladipo for this game. That didn’t matter much because T.J. Warren went beast mode against the 76ers over the weekend, scoring 53 points on 20-29 shooting. Can Warren lift the Pacers again if Dipo and Brogdon are out?

MEM-WAS — The Grizzlies dropped a second game in a row, falling to the Spurs on Sunday. Memphis is slowly losing a grip on the No. 8 seed and with San Antonio playing well, we could see a play-in tournament.

SAS-PHI — The Sixers had no answer for Warren and the Pacers in their first game. It was big for the standings with Philly behind Indy for the No. 5 seed in the East. Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons looked fine though, so an easier matchup should bode well for the Sixers. Plus, the Spurs are on the second of a back-to-back in the bubble.

LAL-UTA — The Lakers desperately need secondary scoring. They had no offense in a bad 107-92 loss to the defending champion Raptors on Saturday. Anthony Davis was ineffective against a tough front court for Toronto. LeBron James can’t carry scoring like he used to, especially against an above-average defensive team. Will that continue or will Kyle Kuzma, Dion Waiters and Danny Green step up?