Maximizing player rest and limiting travel demands were again part of the NBA’s formula for the upcoming regular season, the league indicated Thursday when announcing the schedule for 2023-24.
Teams have an average of 14 instances of back-to-back games this season, up slightly from last year’s rate of 13.3 per team. But back-to-backs involving travel are down to 9.0 on average; the rate of those last season was 9.6 per team.
No team will play the day before or after high-profile national television games, such as Christmas matchups and all ABC weekend matchups. No In-Season Tournament games will be on the second night of a back-to-back, either.
Teams have gotten an 80-game schedule for the coming season for now. The other two games will be based on how they fare in the new tournament that starts Nov. 3.
Ring night
Denver will commemorate its championship and get a visit from Commissioner Adam Silver on opening night, Oct. 24, when it plays host to the Los Angeles Lakers in the first of 1,230 games this regular season.
The second game of the opening-night doubleheader is Phoenix at Golden State, meaning Chris Paul’s former team will play his new team.
Assuming Paul appears in that game, it’ll be the 1,215th regular-season game and 1,364th game overall of his career — and he’s never come off the bench. The last time Paul didn’t start a game that counted was Dec. 13, 2004, when he was slightly late for the team bus and benched for the first 4 minutes of Wake Forest’s game against Temple.
Wemby’s debut
The debut of No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama comes on the second night of the season, when San Antonio plays host to Dallas on Oct. 25.
Christmas Day
Christmas in New York remains an NBA tradition.
The Knicks will play on Dec. 25 for the 56th time, and they will open the traditional Christmas quintupleheader by playing host to the Milwaukee Bucks in the noon 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 will get another chance to become the Christmas all-time wins leader among players; he’s played in 17 games and his teams have gone 10-7. The only other player with 10 wins on Christmas is newly enshrined Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, whose teams went 10-3 on the holiday.
Miami coach Erik Spoelstra puts his perfect record on the line; he’s 8-0 as a head coach on Dec. 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.
MLK Day
There are 11 games set for Jan. 15, the annual celebration of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. — including the traditional NBA games on that holiday in Atlanta and Memphis.
