Schedule released; Cavs play LeBron and Lakers on Dec. 31 | News, Sports, Jobs

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) makes a layup under pressure from Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (31) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, April 6, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)

Boston will receive its championship rings on October 22, and its rival, the New York Knicks, will be there for the celebration.

The NBA schedule for next season was released Thursday and the first scheduled game will be the Celtics versus the Knicks on opening night, where the NBA champions will receive their rings and reveal their 18th championship.

Game 2 of opening night will see Minnesota visit the Los Angeles Lakers, a reunion of Olympic gold medalists with the Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards taking on the Lakers’ LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

The league released 1,200 of the 1,230 scheduled games on Thursday; the other 30 will be played in December, depending on how teams fare during the NBA Cup. The schedule for those tournament games was released Tuesday, and among the matchups is the return of Klay Thompson to Golden State as a member of the Dallas Mavericks.

Some regular-season games have been previously announced, including Miami-Washington in Mexico City on Nov. 2 and San Antonio-Indiana Pacers in Paris (with Spurs star and French native Victor Wembanyama as the main attraction) on Jan. 23 and 25.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Victor Wembanyama and San Antonio travel to New York to begin the Christmas Day quintupleheader, followed by Minnesota at Dallas, Philadelphia at Boston, the Lakers at Golden State and Denver at Phoenix.

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

THE 30 TEAMS PLAYING

There are four nights this season when all 30 teams will be in action, beginning on November 4, when a new game will begin every 15 minutes from 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. EST.

The other dates on which all teams will play are: February 12, April 11 (the penultimate day of the regular season) and April 13 (the last day of the regular season).

ELECTION DAY

For the third consecutive year, there will be no NBA games on Election Day (Nov. 5 this year), and the league has said 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 after All-Star weekend, which begins Feb. 14) and April 12. There will likely be another dark day in December, depending on how schedules are set up for those teams that don’t make the NBA Cup semifinals.

Martin Luther King Day

Seven games will be played on Jan. 20 as part of the league’s annual celebration honoring 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 past 23 seasons.

KD BACK TO COLLEGE

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 only college season at Texas. He scored 30 points in his final home game as a member of the Longhorns on February 28, 2007.

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

LEBRON’S 40TH BIRTHDAY

This season will be LeBron James’ 22nd in the NBA, tying Vince Carter for the league longevity record.

And he has his 40th birthday free.

The Los Angeles Lakers will not play on Dec. 30. They will play at home on Dec. 28 against Sacramento (his first NBA opponent, when he was just 18 years old) and then rest until a home game on Dec. 31 against Cleveland (his first NBA team).

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, will be on October 23 when they face the Phoenix Suns.

The Clippers have shared an arena with the Los Angeles Lakers since the 1999-2000 season. It was not uncommon for the Clippers and Lakers to play home games on the same day: one would play in the afternoon and the other at night, after the court was changed and the building was quickly cleaned.

But there will be at least eight dates this season when the Clippers and Lakers will play 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

Once again, the NBA will be done for the day long before the start of the Super Bowl.

On February 9, the day of the NFL title game, there will be three games: Charlotte at Detroit at 1:00 p.m., Toronto at Houston at 2:00 p.m. and Philadelphia at Milwaukee at 2:00 p.m.

The Super Bowl start time is usually around 6:30 p.m.

FINAL REMATCHES

Boston will visit Dallas on January 25 in this season’s first rematch of last season’s NBA Finals. Dallas will visit Boston on February 6.

This is the seventh consecutive season that there will not be a Christmas Day rematch of the NBA Finals. A Christmas Day rematch of the previous season’s Finals had been held in five of the previous seven seasons.

No. 1 FACES No. 1

The two games between the teams with the most recent No. 1 picks in the draft (San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama and Atlanta’s Zaccharie Risacher) will be nationally televised. The games will be played Dec. 19 in San Antonio on TNT and Feb. 5 in Atlanta on ESPN.

Both players are natives of France.

NCAA Title Game Day

It’s an unofficial tradition that the day of the NCAA men’s basketball championship is an off day in the NBA. That won’t be the case this year, as Sacramento will play at Detroit and Philadelphia at Miami on April 7.

This year, the men’s Final Four will be played in San Antonio; the Spurs will not be attending. They will host Cleveland on April 4, the day before the national semifinals, and then travel on the road.

The last day

All 30 teams will play on the final day of the season, April 13, with each game beginning at either 1:00 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. EDT.

Each team will face an opponent from its own conference, except for Toronto and San Antonio. The Raptors will visit the Spurs.

What’s coming up for the NBA Finals

The first game of the NBA Finals will be on June 5.

That means if the schedule sets up as it has in recent years, Game 2 would likely be June 8, Game 3 would be June 11, Game 4 would be June 13, Game 5 would be June 16, Game 6 would be June 19 and Game 7, if necessary, would be June 22.

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NBA AP: https://apnews.com/NBA