After a 2020 interrupted by the pandemic and last season’s shortened 72-game schedule, the NBA on Friday took a new step toward normalcy by doing something that was previously completely ordinary: airing the league’s standard schedule of 82. matches.
The 2021-22 season begins on October 19 with Brooklyn in Milwaukee and Golden State with the Lakers. For the Clippers, who are coming off an appearance in the franchise’s first conference finals but still don’t know when their injured star Kawhi Leonard will return after knee surgery, the season begins Oct. 21 at Golden State, in TNT.
That’s one of the Clippers’ 27 games to air on national television and the first of their nine games on TNT, including Feb. 3 and March 3 against the Lakers. Six of their matchups will be broadcast on ESPN, including the other two games against the Lakers on December 3 and February 25.
Forty-two Lakers games will be broadcast nationally, including a maximum of 13 appearances on Turner Sports broadcasts, one more than Golden State and two more than Brooklyn. One of the two games between the Lakers and Nets, widely regarded as the betting favorites to win their respective conferences, will take place over Christmas. The NBA didn’t schedule the Clippers for a Christmas matchup for the first time since 2018.
The Lakers play Phoenix on Oct. 22 at home for the first time since they were eliminated in the first round of the postseason. Milwaukee, which beat Phoenix to its first NBA championship in 50 years, faces the Lakers on November 17 in Milwaukee before visiting Los Angeles on February 8. The Lakers will meet current MVP Nikola Jokic of Denver for the first time on January 15.
The Lakers’ longest road trip lasts six games, in January, although they also have a five-game road trip in October and play an eight-game stretch seven times to end March.
Dates for the Clippers’ encounters against other key opponents include seeing Phoenix – who eliminated the Clippers in six conference championship games last season – on December 13 and April 6 at the Staples Center, the January 6 and February 15 on tour. Milwaukee will visit Los Angeles on February 6 to play the Clippers, who will return the favor.
Sixteen of the Clippers’ first 22 games are at home. The road includes a pair of six-game home games, the longest of the season. It is followed by nine games on the road, including a tour of Boston, Toronto and Brooklyn, between December 3 and January 1. His longest road trip begins on January 19 in Denver and ends on January 31 in Indiana – eight games in 13 nights against playoff teams from last season, including the Nuggets, Philadelphia, New York, Washington and Miami.
The Clippers will play 20 of their 32 games during December and January away from home. They play 14 back-to-back series of games, and the Lakers are scheduled for 12 back-to-back series.
The Lakers after playing Utah on February 16 will take an eight-day All-Star break. The Clippers will meet Houston a day later before taking their break.
The Lakers and Wizards, whose trade from Russell Westbrook to Los Angeles for Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell and DC’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, remains one of the highest-profile deals of the offseason, face off on the 11th. March in Los Angeles, and again eight days later.
Reunions between former Clippers bench teammates begin early. Kenny Atkinson, assistant coach Tyronn Lue last season, will see his old team on opening night now as a member of the Warriors. Chauncey Billups, another assistant now in his first job as head coach in Portland, will face his close friend Lue in Game 3 of the season on Oct. 25 at Staples Center, and again four days later in Portland. Just days later, former guard Patrick Beverley, transferred to Memphis earlier this week before being relocated to Minnesota, will face the Clippers in two games in Minneapolis.
Atlanta player Lou Williams, traded by the Clippers at last year’s deadline, will see his former team for the first time on January 9 in Los Angeles, where he is likely to receive a tribute after being twice named the best reserve in the NBA with the franchise.
The Clippers are expected to begin training camp on September 27 and play a five-game preseason schedule that includes home dates on October 4 against Denver and October 6 against Sacramento.
One of the schedule adjustments adopted in response to limited travel during the pandemic last season has been maintained despite the 82-game return to the schedule. The Clippers have three road series with multiple games played in one city over multiple days: The Nov. 3-5 games in Minnesota; on February 10-12 in Dallas, last season’s first-round playoff rival; and on February 27 and March 1 in Houston. The Lakers have one: October 31 and November 2 against Houston.
Those series helped the NBA reduce the average distance traveled to what it said was a record 43,000 per team. There are also no stages of four games in five nights, although teams will play streaks of five games in seven nights.
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