Even though the 2023-24 NBA season schedule isn’t officially released, we finally have more information on what teams will be playing on the most important dates of the regular season calendar. As Shams Charania of the Athletic reported, the Washington Wizards will not be playing on opening night on October 24th, 2023, or Christmas Day. This doesn’t come as a surprise as the Wizards haven’t played a game on Christmas since 2017, when they defeated the Boston Celtics.
The opening night games will include four Western Conference powerhouses. As per tradition, the reigning champions, the Denver Nuggets will have the prime-time matchup. They will go up against the Los Angeles Lakers in a Western Conference Finals rematch. The other matchup on opening night is between the Phoenix Suns and the Golden State Warriors. The NBA’s scheduling of Kevin Durant’s return to the Bay Area on opening night so that he couldn’t miss it for load management or injuries is brilliant.
No NBA fan can take issue with the opening night matchups. Those are two highly-anticipated games that include massively popular superstars.
The Christmas Day games also didn’t allow for any surprises. The usual suspects are playing once again.
NBA’s Christmas Day games for the 2023-24 season, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium:
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 11, 2023
🎄Bucks @ Knicks
🎄76ers @ Heat
🎄Celtics @ Lakers
🎄Mavericks @ Suns
🎄Warriors @ Nuggets
The New York Knicks got a matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks thanks to the allure of Madison Square Garden and the size of the market. The Lakers-Celtics, and Warriors-Nuggets games have a ton of promise to be juicy matchups.
Yet, one has to wonder if there could have been different and more interesting matchups this season. It is rather frustrating to watch the same teams play each other in different combinations. Including more young teams with up-and-coming stars like the Indiana Pacers, the OKC Thunder, or the Sacramento Kings could have made things more exciting. Alas, the Christmas Day games are always the most fun regular-season programming of the NBA and this year should be no different.
The rest of the 2023-24 regular season schedule will be released next week. We can’t wait to see who the Washington Wizards will be playing in the first game of the season.
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