The Los Angeles Lakers entered the 2019-20 NBA hiatus in March as the top-seeded team in the Western Conference with a 49-14 record. However, heading into the season restart in Orlando, the will not get, as of now, any home-court advantage or benefits that come with being the conference's best team come playoffs.
According to ClutchPoints' Ryan Ward, Rob Pelinka told the press that no “home-court advantage protocols” were discussed for teams like the Lakers other than lodging arrangement.
Rob Pelinka hasn't been informed by the #NBA of anything else other than certain hotels being assigned to top-seeded teams, so no home-court advantage protocols have been put into place other than lodging for teams like the #Lakers.
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) June 30, 2020
The Purple and Gold franchise will be staying at the Gran Destino resort (along with Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, and Miami Heat), which is one of the newest destination resorts at Walt Disney World as it just opened last year.
The Lakers, along with the other teams mentioned, are the top-seeded squads in each conference and seemingly received the best accommodations in terms of lodging.
Besides resort space though, the Lakers will surely miss the home-court advantage that comes with earning the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs throughout the first three rounds of the postseason. The team will instead be playing on neutral ground against other franchises to finish their regular season before proceeding to the playoffs, all taking place in Orlando starting July 30.
The Lakers have eight remaining regular-season matchups. They kick off the Orlando restart by playing Staples Center rival Clippers on July 30. They will also compete against the Raptors, Jazz and Nuggets.
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