NBA Schedule Released; Among Highlights: Celtics-Knicks on Ring Night, Durant Going Back to School

Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics and Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics sit with the MVP and Larry O'Brien trophies during the Boston Celtics Victory Event following their 2024 NBA Finals win at TD Garden in Boston, Mass., on June 21, 2024. Maddie Malhotra/Getty Images

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.

A look at the rest of the slate:

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.

It’ll be the first Christmas game for the Spurs since 2016 and the first for the Timberwolves since 2017. Milwaukee won’t play a Christmas game for the first time in seven seasons.

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.

The other dates when all teams are playing: Feb. 12, April 11 (the second-to-last day of the regular season), and April 13 (the last day of the regular season).

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

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.

Memphis, where King was assassinated in 1968, will host a game on the holiday for the 22nd time in the last 23 seasons.

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.

That schedule means Detroit won’t be going to San Antonio this season. The Pistons are 1–13 in their last 14 trips to the Spurs’ home arena.

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

James is 5–5 in birthday games.

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.

But there will be at least eight dates this season where the Clippers and Lakers are both playing at home, and all but one of them will feature simultaneous games: Jan. 11, Jan. 13, Jan. 15, Jan. 21, Feb. 6, Feb. 8, March 18, and April 4.

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.

Kickoff time for the Super Bowl is typically around 6:30 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.

This is the seventh consecutive season in which there won’t be an NBA Finals rematch on Christmas Day. There had been a Christmas rematch of the previous season’s finals in five of the seven seasons before that.

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

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 men’s Final Four this year is in San Antonio; the Spurs won’t be going. They’ll play host to Cleveland on April 4, the day before the national semifinals, then head out on a road trip.

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.

Every team will take on an opponent from its own conference, except Toronto and San Antonio. The Raptors will visit the Spurs.

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.

By Tim Reynolds