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The 2020-21 NBA season will end with a double in the lead on December 22, featuring the Brooklyn Nets and Golden State Warriors in Game 1 and the Los Angeles Lakers champion and Crosstown rival Los Angeles Clippers continuing their rivalry to close out opening night.
From there the Wednesday evening slate will feature two potential previews of the playoffs. The Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics kick off the night, followed by Chris Paul making his Phoenix Suns debut in a battle with the Dallas Mavericks.
The league released their Christmas schedule too. The day will begin with the Miami Heat welcoming Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans. The battle of the two-time MVP follows, with Stephen Curry and his Golden State Warriors battling Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. Kyrie Irving will then play his first game in Boston as a member of the Brooklyn Nets, and the headliner will be a duel between LeBron James and Luka Doncic, as the defending Lakers champion will host the rising Mavericks. The night ends with a second-round rematch between the Clippers and the Denver Nuggets.
The league plans to release the schedule in portions, to allow flexibility for catch-up games if needed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the league ended the 2019-20 season safely in a bubble environment in Orlando, the NBA is choosing to play the coming season in each team’s domestic market.
While the turnaround between the end of last season and the start date of this new season is the fastest in league history, the NBA wanted to return as much as possible to its traditional schedule and wanted to wrap up the season before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in summer. To accomplish this, the league reduced the number of regular season games from 82 to 72 and postponed the All-Star weekend in Indianapolis to 2024.
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