NBA releases first half of regular season schedule

The NBA released the first half of its regular season schedule on Friday, as it continues to adjust to the new reality imposed on it by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Rather than what generally happens – with the NBA announcing its full 82-game schedule – the league has only revealed half of its 72-game regular season, a stretch from December 22, when the season begins with the visit. of the Golden State Warriors. with the Brooklyn Nets and LA Clippers taking on the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, until March 4, when the league will then have a six-day All-Star hiatus.

The NBA previously announced that the second half of the schedule will be announced shortly before the end of the first half, in a move to allow more flexibility to tackle the inevitable complications that will result from trying to lead a season apart. The League’s Bubble Safety played at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla., earlier this year.

Even though half of the schedule is still unknown, there are still plenty of landmark games to watch. Aside from the nationally televised matches on the program’s first three days (Dec. 22-25), some other flagship games include Durant and the Nets heading to Golden State, where Durant will play for the first time since leaving as as a free agent. , on February 13, as well as a pair of meetings between the Houston Rockets and the Washington Wizards, who traded All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook and John Wall last week. The Wizards will travel to Houston to play the Rockets on January 26; the Rockets will make the return trip on February 15.

Two days later, the Rockets will have another reunion, as they travel down Interstate 95 to face the Philadelphia 76ers and former president of basketball operations Daryl Morey.

Jrue Holiday will also make his first return to New Orleans when he and the Bucks travel there on January 29, after Milwaukee acquired Holiday in a successful deal last month.

Another major day on the schedule, Martin Luther King Day, features three big clashes: Paul and the Suns against rising star Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies; the Milwaukee Bucks heading to Brooklyn to play the Nets; and the Warriors facing the Lakers in Los Angeles.

Later in the same week, the Lakers will travel to Milwaukee to face the Bucks.

As it usually does, the NBA has also rescheduled its schedule with marquee games after the Super Bowl is due to be played on February 7. Over the next two weeks, in addition to the games listed above, the following clashes will take place:

Milwaukee to Denver February 8

• New Orleans in Dallas on February 12

• Lakers in Denver on February 14

• Brooklyn at the Lakers on February 18

• Miami to the Lakers in an NBA Finals rematch on February 20

In the first half of the season, the 30 NBA teams will play 37 or 38 games, including between 17 and 20 games at home. Out of a total of 1,080 games played during this regular season, 558 have been scheduled so far.

In another attempt to fight the virus, the league introduced the use of baseball-style playoff programming, with teams playing two consecutive games against each other in the same city. These clashes only feature teams playing in the same conference. Teams will play an average of four of those series over the first half of the calendar – two at home and two on the road.

Teams are also playing more consecutive road games against teams from the same general geographic area as in the past, and the league says there are about half as many cases of teams making road trips in the past. only one match.

However, the league will still have their usual 30 games for each team against opponents from the opposing conference (home and road against all 15 teams), which still has teams traveling 4-6 games to get their games in. as long as scheduled. Each team must also play several consecutive sets.

Because the calendar only comes out in halves, that means some of the dates fans were waiting to circle their calendar are still unknown. Two of them involve some of the biggest reunion games of the coming season: the Boston Celtics facing Gordon Hayward and the Charlotte Hornets, and Doc Rivers taking his new team, the 76ers, against his old team, the Clippers.