Complex sentence: The collapse of the San Diego team, combined with the failures of the Baltimore and Utah franchises, reduced the ABA to seven franchises and effectively signed the league's death warrant, though the NBA absorbed four of the surviving squads in the summer of 1976.
Split into simpler sentences: The collapse of the San Diego team, combined with the failures of the Baltimore and Utah franchises, reduced the ABA to seven franchises, and effectively signed the league's death warrant. Despite this, the NBA absorbed four of the surviving teams in the summer of 1976.