MASERU-After seven months off, basketball officially returns to action this weekend with the start of the National Basketball League (NBL) playoffs at the National University of Lesotho (NUL) courts.
The play-offs will crown the champions of the Covid-19 affected 2019/20 NBL season and they are expected to go on until February next year.
The NBL play-offs are hosted after every regular season to crown the championship winners and eight teams in both the men’s and women’s league will once again compete to for the grand prize after the Lesotho Basketball Association (LBA) decided to conclude the regular season.
The leaders in both the men and female categories will be recognised as the winners of the regular season meaning Shooting Rifles and Bokamoso Dolphins (BKMN) are the league winners in the male and female categories respectively.
However, the main prize comes at the end of the play-offs.
Like other sporting codes, basketball has been on a break and is one of the contact sports coming back to action after football.
Their teams will have to adhere to the National Covid-19 Secretariat’s (NACOSEC) conditions and they have already advised their clubs to have sanitisers, masks and warm-up balls amongst other things.
Eight teams are set to take part in the play-offs from the men’s side while the women’s section will only have five teams.
Three teams – Bokamoso Dolphins, Lerotholi Polytechnic and Tornado 98ers – have been given first round byes in the women’s playoffs and the winner between NUL and Bokamoso Sharks (BKMS) will join them in the second round. Shooting Rifles, Bokamoso Alumni, Bokamoso Rebels, Lerotholi Polytechnic, Khubestate, Tornado 98ers, KTA Allstars, and NUL form the men’s Top 8.
The first and second rounds will be best-of-three series while the NBL finals will be played as a best-of-five finale to determine a championship.
In the playoffs is where the action gets tastier. The winner of the regular season can be beaten in the playoffs and it has happened quite a lot in the past. However, with all the teams starting on the same footing this year, it remains to be seen which team will come out on top.
Fixtures for this weekend (NUL)
LADIES
NUL vs. BKMS (09:00)
MEN
Lerotholi Polytechnic vs. Khubestate (10:30)
BKMA vs. KTA (12:30)
BKMS vs. T98ers (14:30)
Shooting Rifles vs. NUL (16:30)
Tlalane Phahla