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NBA set to use win percentage for standings: ESPN,

LOS ANGELES • The National Basketball Association (NBA) is continuing to fine-tune the structure and rules for the remainder of the season ahead of its proposed restart on July 31 at the Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

This includes tweaks to the standings and potential roster changes, ESPN reported on Saturday.

The league looks primed to use win percentage - rather than a measure of games relative to .500 - to set the order of the standings, a clarification that is necessary because teams have played a different number of games thus far.

Before the season was halted on March 11 owing to the coronavirus pandemic, NBA teams had played between 63 and 67 games out of a normal 82-game format. Sixteen teams occupied post-season spots that day, while the other six were within six games of a place.

The 22 returning teams will each play eight "regular season" games for seeding, maintaining the disparity in total games and thus making win percentage the first tiebreaker.

The Western Conference has the Portland Trail Blazers (29-37), New Orleans Pelicans (28-36) and Sacramento Kings (28-36) at 31/2 games behind the Memphis Grizzlies (32-33) for the eighth and final play-off spot. But the Blazers' win percentage (43.9%) gives them a narrow advantage over the Pelicans and the Kings (43.8%).

Similar situations could emerge for seeding in either conference.

The league's restart plan features 13 teams from the West and nine from the East, with the possibility of play-in series for the final play-off spot. Memphis and the Orlando Magic (eighth in the East) must finish at least four games ahead of the ninth-placed team in their conference to avoid a play-in series.

If ties exist, they will be broken by the NBA's standard tiebreakers, ESPN reported, starting with head-to-head record from the regular-season.

REUTERS