Boston will get its championship rings on Oct. 22, and the rival New York Knicks will be there for the celebration.
The NBA schedule was released Thursday for the coming season, and Game 1 on the slate is the Celtics hosting the Knicks on opening night—the one where the NBA champions will get their rings and reveal their 18th championship banner.
The second game on opening night has Minnesota visiting the Los Angeles Lakers, a reunion of Olympic gold medalists with the Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards facing off with the Lakers’ LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The league released 1,200 of the 1,230 games on the schedule Thursday; the other 30 will be slotted in December, depending on how teams fare during the NBA Cup. The schedule for those tournament games was released Tuesday, with Klay Thompson’s return to Golden State as a member of the Dallas Mavericks among the matchups.
Some regular-season contests were previously announced, such as Miami and Washington playing in Mexico City on Nov. 2 and the San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers playing a home-and-home in Paris—with Spurs star and France native Victor Wembanyama as the main attraction—on Jan. 23 and Jan. 25.
Christmas Day Games
Victor Wembanyama and San Antonio go to New York to start the Christmas Day quintuple-header, followed by Minnesota at Dallas, Philadelphia at Boston, the Lakers at Golden State and Denver at Phoenix.All 30 Teams Playing
There are four nights this season where all 30 teams will be in action, starting with Nov. 4—when a new game will start every 15 minutes from 7 p.m. through 10:30 p.m. EST.Election Day among the Off Days
For the third consecutive year, Election Day—Nov. 5 this year—will not have any NBA games, with the league saying it wants to “continue to encourage fans and the broader NBA community to make a plan to vote and participate in the civic process. As part of this initiative, the NBA will share important resources from voting organizations and highlight the civic engagement work of teams in their markets.”Other off days for the NBA this season: Nov. 28 (Thanksgiving), Dec. 24 (Christmas Eve), Feb. 17–19 (the break following All-Star weekend, which starts Feb. 14), and April 12. There will likely be one other dark day in December, depending on how the schedules are set for those teams that do not make the NBA Cup semifinals.
![Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis (centre L) defends against Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (centre R) during a Christmas Day National Basketball Association (NBA) match-up between the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif., on Dec. 25, 2019. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F08%2F16%2Fid5706862-GettyImages-1190486761-600x414.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Slate
There are seven games on Jan. 20 as part of the league’s annual celebration of the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: Dallas at Charlotte, Detroit at Houston, Minnesota at Memphis, Atlanta at New York, Phoenix at Cleveland, Boston at Golden State, and Utah at New Orleans.Durant Going Back to College, for One Night
Kevin Durant could play at least one more game at his college home.The Spurs will play two games in Austin, Texas, again this season—Feb. 20 against Durant and Phoenix, then Feb. 21 against Detroit.
Durant played his one college season at Texas. He had 30 points in his home finale as a member of the Longhorns on Feb. 28, 2007.
LeBron’s 40th Birthday
This season will be the 22nd in the NBA for LeBron James, tying Vince Carter for the league’s longevity record.And he gets his 40th birthday off.
The Los Angeles Lakers don’t play on Dec. 30. They’re at home on Dec. 28 against Sacramento (his first NBA opponent, when he was just 18) and then off until a home game on Dec. 31 against Cleveland (his first NBA team).
![USA's (6) LeBron James dunks the ball in the men's gold medal basketball match between France and USA during the Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena in Paris on Aug. 10, 2024. (Mark Terrill/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F08%2F11%2Fid5703679-GettyImages-2165730559-2-600x400.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
Intuit Dome Opener
The first official game inside the Intuit Dome, the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, is Oct. 23 when they take on the Phoenix Suns.The Clippers have shared an arena with the Los Angeles Lakers since the 1999–2000 season. It wasn’t terribly uncommon for the Clippers and Lakers to play home games on the same day—one would play in the afternoon, then the other at night after the court was swapped out and the building quickly cleaned.
Super Bowl Sunday Schedule
Once again, the NBA will be done for the day long before the kickoff of the Super Bowl.There are three games on Feb. 9, the day of the NFL’s title game: Charlotte at Detroit at 1 p.m., Toronto at Houston at 2 p.m., and Philadelphia at Milwaukee at 2 p.m.
Finals Rematches
Boston goes to Dallas on Jan. 25 in the first rematch this season of last season’s NBA Finals. Dallas goes to Boston on Feb. 6.No. 1 Faces No. 1
The two games between the teams with the most recent No. 1 draft picks—Victor Wembanyama from San Antonio and Zaccharie Risacher from Atlanta—will be nationally televised. The games will be on Dec. 19 in San Antonio on TNT, and then Feb. 5 in Atlanta on ESPN.Both players are natives of France.
![Adam Silver, Commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA), shakes hands with French basketball player Zaccharie Risacher (R) during Round One of the 78th edition of the NBA's annual draft at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, on June 26, 2024. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F06%2F27%2Fid5676382-GettyImages-2158834267-600x404.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
NCAA Title Game Day
It’s been an unofficial tradition that the day of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game is an off day in the NBA. That won’t be the case this year, with Sacramento playing at Detroit and Philadelphia at Miami on April 7.The Last Day
All 30 teams will play on the final day of the season, April 13—with every game set to start at either 1 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. EDT.NBA Finals Lookahead
Game 1 of the NBA Finals will be June 5.That means—if the schedule is shaped as it has been in recent years—Game 2 is likely on June 8, Game 3 would be June 11, Game 4 on June 13, Game 5 on June 16, Game 6 on June 19, and Game 7, if necessary, on June 22.