Short answers, pulled from the story.
The 2020-21 NBA season was reduced to 72 games per team because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The schedule was condensed so that the NBA Finals could conclude by July 22, allowing players to compete at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, which had been postponed to 2021.
The Toronto Raptors played their 2020-21 home games at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The Canadian government denied them permission to host games in Toronto due to COVID-19 cross-border travel restrictions.
Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets won the 2020-21 NBA Most Valuable Player award. He was the first center to win the honor since Shaquille O'Neal in 2000, and the first Nuggets player, first Serbian-born player, and lowest-drafted player ever to receive it.
Russell Westbrook broke Oscar Robertson's career triple-double record on the 10th of May 2021, recording his 182nd career triple-double with the Washington Wizards. He had tied Robertson's mark of 181 two days earlier, on the 8th of May.
The 2020-21 season introduced the first NBA play-in tournament, held from May 18 to 21. Teams ranked seventh through tenth in each conference competed for the final two playoff seeds per conference, with the winners advancing to the standard 16-team playoff bracket.
The 2020-21 season began just 72 days after the conclusion of the 2020 NBA Finals, the shortest off-season in league history. The previous season had been extended into the fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed training camp for the new season back to the 10th of November 2020.