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, Aug. 15, 2024, 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.
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.
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.
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. / AP