NBA Schedule Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Knicks-Sixers, Bucks-Celtics Confirmed For Christmas Day

August 14th, 2022 at 6:27pm CST by JD Shaw

The Knicks will host the Sixers at Madison Square Garden on Christmas Day this year, as shared by Sixers superstar James Harden (Twitter link). Veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein confirmed the tweet with his own social media post.

In addition, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that the Celtics will host the Bucks. Boston beat Milwaukee in seven games during the second round of the playoffs last season.

New York hosting teams on Christmas has become a regular occurrence, but with the team missing the playoffs last year, it was fair to wonder if it would happen again in 2022. Philadelphia playing Miami also would’ve made sense, as the Sixers signed P.J. Tucker in free agency and the teams met in the postseason.

With these two games confirmed, the NBA’s planned Christmas Day schedule is now known, though the league has yet to confirm it. The other reported matchups are Grizzlies-Warriors, Lakers-Mavericks and Suns-Nuggets.

Warriors, Grizzlies To Meet On Christmas Day

August 13th, 2022 at 5:24pm CST by Arthur Hill

More details are emerging about the NBA schedule, including a Christmas Day contest with the Warriors hosting the Grizzlies, tweets league insider Marc Stein.

It will be a rematch of their hotly contested Western Conference semifinals series that Golden State won 4-2 on its way to the championship. That intense series is remembered for an ejection and a one-game suspension for Memphis’ Dillon Brooks for a hard foul that left Gary Payton II with a fractured elbow.

It will mark the first Christmas Day appearance for the Grizzlies in their 27-year history, dating back to their days in Vancouver. The team’s popularity has increased with last season’s playoff run and the emergence of Ja Morant as one of the league’s most exciting players. The Warriors are a perennial part of the Christmas schedule and defeated the Suns in Phoenix last December 25.

Stein reported earlier today that the Lakers will travel to Dallas for another Christmas Day matchup. The NBA typically schedules five games on the holiday, which is the first major national showcase of the new season.

League sources tell Stein that the full schedule for the 2022/23 season is expected to be released this week (Twitter link).

Warriors To Host Lakers On Opening Night

August 13th, 2022 at 1:46pm CST by JD Shaw

The Warriors will open their title defense season by hosting the Lakers on the first night of the 2022/23 campaign, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). As Charania notes, Golden State will also give championship rings to those who were with the team last season. The ring ceremony and game are scheduled to be televised by TNT.

The Warriors are coming off their fourth title victory in the past eight seasons. They finished with the third-best record in the Western Conference last season (53-29), trailing only the Grizzlies (56-26) and Suns (64-18). The team lost a handful of players, including Gary Payton II and Otto Porter Jr., in free agency, but still has its core group.

The Lakers had a disappointing campaign last season. The team dealt with several injuries to key players, preventing the star trio of Russell Westbrook, LeBron James and Anthony Davis – along with the supporting group – from developing chemistry. At 33-49, they finished 11th in the West.

The full NBA schedule is expected to be released in the near future. The only other schedule-related news also involves the Lakers, as veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein reported (via Twitter) they’re likely to visit the Mavericks on Christmas Day this year.

NBA Schedule Not Expected For At Least Another Week

August 6th, 2022 at 8:12pm CST by Arthur Hill

Everyone eagerly anticipating the release of the schedule for the 2022/23 season will have to wait a little longer, according to NBA insider Marc Stein (Twitter link). Sources tell Stein that the schedule isn’t expected to be revealed until after next week, which puts the date sometime in mid-August.

The league typically releases its schedule during the second week of August, although that has been affected over the past two years by shortened offseasons caused by the pandemic. Last year’s schedule was announced on August 20.

Possible trades involving Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Donovan Mitchell may be slowing the process this summer as the schedule makers wait to see if any of those situations get resolved before locking in prime TV dates.

A few things are known about the upcoming season, including league-wide media days on September 26, followed by the start of training camps a day later. The Pistons and Bulls will travel to France for the January 19 NBA Paris Game, according to the league’s website, and All-Star Weekend is set for February 17-19 in Salt Lake City.

The preseason schedule is virtually set and will begin with the defending champion Warriors facing the Wizards in Tokyo for a pair of games September 30 and October 2. The Raptors and Jazz will meet October 2 in Edmonton, the Bucks and Hawks will square off October 6 and 8 in Abu Dhabi, and the Raptors and Celtics will play Oct. 15 in Montreal.

Based on past schedules, the 2022/23 regular season will likely tip off on October 18.

And-Ones: Kerr, Schofield, Lopez, Harrell, Play-In, McClung, Harrison

April 10th, 2022 at 3:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Would less be more? When it comes to the NBA schedule, Warriors coach Steve Kerr believes so. He’d like to see the NBA cut its regular season from 82 games to 72, Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area writes. That would encourage coaches to play their regulars more often, instead of giving them nights off, particularly as the season winds down.

“What makes the most sense is cutting back to maybe a 72-game schedule,” Kerr said. “Take 10 games off and get more time to rest in between games. I think you’ll get buy-in from the teams to play their guys more often.”

We have more tidbits from around the basketball world:

Magic forward Admiral Schofield was fined $20K, while Magic center Robin Lopez and Hornets center Montrezl Harrell were fined $15K for their roles in an on-court altercation on Thursday, the NBA announced (Twitter link). All three were ejected during the fourth-quarter scuffle (video link).
Commissioner Adam Silver likes the way the play-in tournament has encouraged teams on the playoff bubble to remain competitive but might tweak it in future years, Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic tweets. Executive VP of basketball strategy and analytics Evan Wasch suggested the league would consider a scenario where the ninth- and 10th-place finishers in each conference would have to win a certain number of games to qualify for the play-in.
Guard Mac McClung was named NBA G League Rookie of the Year after averaging 21.6 PPG and 7.6 APG for the South Bay Lakers, the league tweets. The Lakers rewarded McClung with a two-way contract on Saturday.
Free agent guard Shaquille Harrison has been named G League Defensive Player of the Year, according to a league press release. Harrison averaged 1.93 steals per game for the Delaware Blue Coats.

NBA Reschedules 11 Postponed Games

January 3rd, 2022 at 7:59pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The NBA has announced the rescheduling of the 11 games postponed in December due to COVID-19 issues, listing the changes in a press release.

Additionally, eight other scheduled games have been shifted to accommodate the postponements. A pair of others have been shifted to new starting times.

Most notably, Kyle Lowry‘s return to Toronto will take place two days earlier than anticipated, as Tim Bontemps of ESPN points out.

The Raptors will now host the Bulls on February 3 instead of the Heat. Lowry’s return will occur on Feb. 1 in Miami’s rescheduled visit. The game that Toronto was originally scheduled to play that day against the Hawks will now be played on January 31.

The first two makeups will occur next week — the Nets at the Trail Blazers on Monday, January 10 and the Pistons at the Bulls on Tues, Jan. 11.

“There’s no easy way to do this,” Nets coach Steve Nash said to Bontemps and other media members. “If we were expecting it to be a sweet little add to the schedule, and no blood drawn, that would be foolish.”

The other rescheduled dates are as follows:

New Orleans Pelicans at Philadelphia 76ers
- Previous: Dec. 19
- New: Jan. 25
Denver Nuggets at Brooklyn Nets
- Previous: Dec. 19
- New: Jan. 26
Toronto Raptors at Chicago Bulls
- Previous: Dec. 22
- New: Jan. 26
Chicago Bulls at Toronto Raptors
- Previous: Dec. 16
- New: Feb. 3
Miami Heat at San Antonio Spurs
- Previous: Dec. 29
- New: Feb. 3
Washington Wizards at Brooklyn Nets
- Previous: Dec. 21
- New: Feb. 17
Orlando Magic at Toronto Raptors
- Previous: Dec. 20
- New: March 4
Golden State Warriors at Denver Nuggets
- Previous: Dec. 30
- New: March 7
Cleveland Cavaliers at Atlanta Hawks
- Previous: Dec. 19
- New: March 31

And-Ones: 2023 World Cup, Offseason Grades, M. Miller

August 31st, 2021 at 12:21pm CST by Luke Adams

The draw for the 2023 FIBA World Cup qualifiers took place on Tuesday. According to a press release from FIBA, Team USA’s qualifying group in the Americas event will include Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Cuba.

The 2023 World Cup will take place in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia two years from now, while the first qualifying matches will take place in November 2021. During the qualifiers for the 2019 World Cup, Team USA fielded a team made up of G League standouts, since those events overlapped with the NBA season. That roster made up of NBAGL vets put up a 10-2 record in qualifying games, so I’d expect a similar approach this time around.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

In a pair of Insider-only stories for ESPN.com, Kevin Pelton handed out offseason grades for all the teams in both the Eastern Conference and Western Conference. The Hawks and Wizards were the two teams to earn an A, while the Cavaliers and Pelicans were the only two to receive a D.
Former Raptors forward Malcolm Miller has signed with Italian team Vanoli Cremona for the 2021/22 season, the club announced in a press release. Miller appeared in 53 total games across three seasons with Toronto from 2017-20 and was a member of the championship squad in 2019.
Although the NBA’s 2021/22 schedule will still include some MLB-style two-game sets between the same teams in the same arena, there will be just 23 of them this season, compared to 84 in 2020/21, writes Marc Stein (subscription required). As Stein explains, not playing in front of fans last season – along with a desire to reduce travel – made those sets a logical addition to the schedule, but the league was less motivated to include them this time around.

2021/22 NBA Schedules By Team

August 20th, 2021 at 2:31pm CST by Luke Adams

The schedule for the 2021/22 NBA regular season was officially unveiled by the league on Friday. As expected, the regular season will begin on October 19 and conclude on April 10.

The NBA’s 75th Anniversary Season will feature 75 “Classic Matchups” over the course of the year.

For instance, the contest between the Knicks and Raptors on November 1 will mark the 75-year anniversary of the NBA’s first-ever regular season game between the Knicks and the Toronto Huskies on November 1, 1946. More of those Classic Matchups are highlighted within the NBA’s official press release.

The NBA also confirmed several previously-reported marquee matchups, including its five-game Christmas Day slate and an opening night doubleheader of Nets at Bucks and Warriors at Lakers.

Listed below are links to the full 2021/22 season schedules for each NBA team, organized by conference and division. The team-by-team schedules for ’21/22 can also be viewed in a single document right here.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic Division

Central Division

Southeast Division

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Northwest Division

Pacific Division

Southwest Division

And-Ones: Mudiay, Vonleh, Griggs, Schedule

August 15th, 2021 at 9:46am CST by Arthur Hill

Free agent guard Emmanuel Mudiay will likely sign with Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania if he doesn’t receive an NBA offer before training camps open, according to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews. Mudiay is currently playing for the Trail Blazers in the Las Vegas Summer League.

After five years in the NBA, the 25-year-old sat out all of last season. He received offers to play in the G League and in Europe, according to Urbonas, but turned them down in hopes of catching on with an NBA team.

Mudiay was taken by the Nuggets with the seventh pick in the 2015 draft and spent two and a half seasons in Denver before being traded to the Knicks. After a year and a half in New York, he signed with the Jazz as a free agent in 2019. Mudiay averaged 7.3 points and 2.1 assists per game as a backup during his lone season in Utah.

There’s more from around the basketball world:

Free agent big man Noah Vonleh is getting interest from some NBA teams, but is considering offers in Europe and China as well, according to Sportando (Twitter link). The 25-year-old spent two weeks with the Nets in February and appeared in four games before being waived.
Highly-recruited high school guard Bryce Griggs has signed with Overtime Elite, the league announced in a press release. The 17-year-old out of Missouri City, Texas, will join the new league when it begins play next month. “Bryce Griggs is a player that has been recognized as one the nation’s most promising playmaking guards and we are thrilled to welcome him to the OTE family,” said Brandon Williams, OTE’s executive vice president and head of basketball operations. “Bryce has had one of the best coaches and mentors in John Lucas, and has been attracted to the combination of an NBA caliber coaching staff, sports science, performance and nutrition focuses that will play a crucial role in his development into an NBA player.”
The NBA will release its schedule for the 2021/22 season in the 7-10 days, tweets Marc Stein of Substack. Celtics writer Steve Bulpett hears that Friday is the target date (Twitter link).

And-Ones: Ignite, Key Dates, Two-Way Rules, NBA Africa

July 28th, 2021 at 3:59pm CST by Luke Adams

With Brian Shaw poised to join the Clippers as an assistant coach on Tyronn Lue‘s staff, the G League Ignite have a head coaching vacancy. And according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the program has identified a candidate to fill that vacancy.

USC associate head coach Jason Hart will be the new head coach of the G League Ignite, sources tell Wojnarowski.

Hart has been a member of the Trojans’ staff since 2013 and has been the club’s associate head coach for the last four seasons, having worked in recent years with players like Onyeka Okongwu and De’Anthony Melton. Hart is a former NBA player himself, appearing in 341 regular season games between 2000-10 for a total of nine teams.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

As expected, the NBA is officially implementing new rules to reduce the use of non-basketball moves to draw fouls, as Shams Charania of The Athletic details in a series of tweets.
The NBA has announced a series of key dates for the 2021/22 league year, including a regular season that will run from October 19 through April 10. The 2022 NBA draft will be held on June 23, as the league’s annual calendar gets back to normal.
Although players on two-way contracts will have a 50-game limit for next season, teams carrying 14 (or fewer) players on their roster will be limited to 90 total games for their pair of two-way players, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link). The rule, outlined in a memo from the NBA, sounds aimed at reducing the ability of teams to save money (and cap space) by leaning heavily on their two-way players while not carrying a 15th man.
Former U.S. president Barack Obama has joined NBA Africa as a strategic partner and a minority stakeholder. Marc J. Spears of ESPN has the story.
The NBA G League announced on Tuesday that the Santa Cruz Warriors have been named Franchise of the Year for 2020/21, while Erie BayHawks president Matt Bresee earned Team Executive of the Year honors.