Maximizing player rest and minimizing travel requirements were once again part of the NBA’s formula for the upcoming regular season, the league said Thursday when announcing its 2023-24 schedule.
Teams have averaged 14 back-to-back games this season, slightly more than last year (13.3 per team). But back-to-backs related to travel have fallen to 9.0 on average; the rate from that previous season was 9.6 per team.
No team plays the day before or after high-profile nationally televised games, such as Christmas games and all ABC weekend games. There are also no In-Season Tournament games on the second night of a back-to-back.
Teams have provisionally been given a schedule of 80 games for the upcoming season. The other two games are based on how they do in the new tournament starting November 3rd.
Denver will commemorate its championship and receive a visit from Commissioner Adam Silver on opening night, Oct. 24, when it hosts the Los Angeles Lakers in the first of 1,230 regular season games.
Denver Nuggets center and NBA MVP Nikola Jokic take on LeBron James on October 24
The Warriors, including Steph Curry and Chris Paul, play against Phoenix, Paul’s former team
The second game of the opening night doubleheader is Phoenix at Golden State, meaning Chris Paul’s former team will play against his new team.
Assuming Paul appears in that game, it will be the 1,215th regular season game and the 1,364th game of his entire career – and he has never come off the bench. The last time Paul didn’t start a game that mattered was on 13 December 2004 when he was a little late for the team bus and sat on the bench for the first 4 minutes of Wake Forest’s match against Temple.
No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama’s debut comes on the second night of the season when San Antonio hosts Dallas on October 25.
Christmas in New York remains an NBA tradition.
Playing for their 56th time on December 25, the Knicks open the traditional quintuple bauble by playing host to the Milwaukee Bucks in the afternoon slot.
The rest of the Christmas games: Golden State at Denver (2:30 p.m. Eastern), Boston at the Los Angeles Lakers (5 p.m. Eastern), Philadelphia at Miami (8 p.m. Eastern), and Dallas at Phoenix (10:30 p.m. Eastern).
The Lakers’ LeBron James gets another chance to become the all-time Christmas leader among the players; he has played in 17 games and his teams have gone 10-7. The only other player with 10 wins over Christmas is newly enshrined Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, whose teams went 10-3 over the holiday.
Miami coach Erik Spoelstra puts his perfect record on the line; he is 8-0 as head coach on December 25. Only Jack Ramsay (11-3), Phil Jackson (11-7), Gene Shue (9-4) and Red Auerbach (9-6) have more Christmas wins than Spoelstra.
There are 11 games scheduled for January 15, the annual celebration of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. — including the traditional NBA games on that holiday in Atlanta and Memphis.
San Antonio visits the Hawks that day, while Golden State visits the Grizzlies.
San Antonio Spurs’ 19-year-old Victor Wembanyama will be seen on national TV for 11 games this season
Jimmy Butler and the Heat will be pressured to keep Erik Spoelstra’s Christmas record intact
The other games: Houston in Philadelphia, New Orleans in Dallas, Orlando in New York, Detroit in Washington, Chicago in Cleveland, Miami in Brooklyn, Boston in Toronto, Indiana in Utah and Oklahoma City in the Los Angeles Lakers.
NBA Rivals Week returns with 11 nationally televised games across four networks from January 23 through January 27.
Those match ups:
– January 23: New York in Brooklyn, LA Lakers in LA Clippers (TNT)
– January 24: Oklahoma City in San Antonio, Phoenix in Dallas (ESPN)
– January 25: Boston in Miami, Sacramento in Golden State (TNT)
– January 26: Dallas in Atlanta, Portland in San Antonio (NBA TV)
– January 27: Miami in New York, Philadelphia in Denver, LA Lakers in Golden State (ABC)
There are no games between February 16 and February 21 due to the All-Star break. This season’s All-Star Game is in Indianapolis. There are two games on February 15 and 12 games when play resumes on February 22.
For the first time on February 29, there will be an NBA Finals rematch of the previous season – from Miami to Denver to celebrate this season’s leap year.
The other leap year games: Milwaukee in Charlotte, Utah in Orlando, Atlanta in Brooklyn, Golden State in New York, Oklahoma City in San Antonio, Houston in Phoenix, and Washington in the Lakers.
It’s unclear if James Harden will be back in Philadelphia for the opening game vs. Milwaukee
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will test the in-season tournament for the first time in history
No NBA games will be played on Election Day for the second consecutive season. It falls on November 7 this year.
A few Sundays – December 3 and December 10 – are also expected to be days off given the schedule of the new season tournament.
Other days off: November 23 for Thanksgiving, December 24 for Christmas Eve, April 8 for the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship game, and April 13 – the penultimate day of the regular season.
As previously announced, Atlanta will play Orlando (a Magic home game) in Mexico City on November 9 and Brooklyn will play Cleveland (a Cavaliers home game) in Paris on January 11.
San Antonio will return to Austin, Texas, for two home games this season, just like last season. The Spurs will host Denver on March 15 and Brooklyn on March 17.
Not only will all 30 teams play at 1:00 PM or 3:30 PM Eastern on the last day of the season, April 14, but this season all 30 teams will also play on April 12.
The play-in tournament was scheduled to begin on April 16 and the 2024 NBA playoffs will begin on April 20.