2022-23 NBA Schedule - Opening Night, Xmas Day, etc.

[Lemmie_live]

Knicks vs. Nets
Celtics vs.Bucks
76ers vs. Nuggets
Grizzlies vs. Warriors
Lakers vs. Mavericks

Would’ve been the perfect Christmas lineup as far as generating revenue & seeing some good matchups. Especially that MEM GS game.

[Wall_To_Clips]

Clippers are the most talented team. Could be the most exciting, or one of them. Yet Knicks, Nets, Lakers, Nuggets get a game over them? I can understand Mavs and Grizzlies. Both are exciting, fun and have must see young superstars.

Not to say any of these teams are bad, I’ve just never seen the team that is arguably the best in the league be left out.

[ky_23]

I cant see a better match for Lakers on christmas than The Clippers. They try to claim 'Luka is the next LeBron' narrative but it feels very forced. Since Davis joined the Lakers and Clippers shaped Kawhi-pg duo, this matchup has been the story of the western conference.
And even though the Knicks dont deserve that list and there are teams that would be a choice, a christmas game at msg is always fun to watch.

[GeorgeSears]

Knicks vs. Sixers is going to be a barn burner... for about two minutes and then the Sixers will exert their dominance.

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[eyeatoma]

Not having Jokic vs Embiid here is a major loss. I get the Knicks are included for financial reasons but it’s still kinda disappointing. You have the two best centers in the league, hopefully both with title level supporting casts (with Murray/MPJ coming back), you gotta promote that as one of your main matchups.

Agreed, they probably think the Jokic/Embiid game would outshine all the others. So when you got teams like the Suns, and Warriors and, lol, Lakers playing, the NBA can't have other games grabbing attention. Also, if that's the marquee game it might have to be at 7pm ET if it was in Philly, or 9 or 10 pm ET if in Denver. Might have issues with viewership, and Philly's arena is shared so there might be a Flyers game, or another event booked for the same day. This is what happened during the playoffs, where the Sixers played back to back to back to back games with only 1 day off during the 1st and 2nd round if I'm not mistaken, because another event was booked.

[JujitsuFlip]

Outside of the Knicks, some solid matchups.

But it's irrelevant because the NFL has a triple header that day of some pretty good games.

[dockingsched]

Clippers are the most talented team. Could be the most exciting, or one of them. Yet Knicks, Nets, Lakers, Nuggets get a game over them? I can understand Mavs and Grizzlies. Both are exciting, fun and have must see young superstars.

Not to say any of these teams are bad, I’ve just never seen the team that is arguably the best in the league be left out.

You can’t understand why Lebron and the Lakers would have more appeal to the league than the Clippers? You living under a rock?

[CharityStripe34]

Bucks/Celtics (an actual rivalry), Suns/Nuggets and Warriors/Grizzlies all would be compelling games to watch. Lakers/Mavs is not bad I suppose. Sixers/Knicks eh. It would be way more hilarious to have Sixers/Nets, that is if Durant is there playing and being a curmudgeon.

[sp6r=underrated]

Damn no Heat.

Thing is this is one of those honors players don't want to win. Almost all the players would rather play on a good team like Toronto that isn't selected for those games.

[WargamesX]

Not having Jokic vs Embiid here is a major loss. I get the Knicks are included for financial reasons but it’s still kinda disappointing. You have the two best centers in the league, hopefully both with title level supporting casts (with Murray/MPJ coming back), you gotta promote that as one of your main matchups.

Not a single one of the games is cross conference and I also from a business standpoint that is wasting the heat of that matchup when they could have those teams play whenever and fans will watch to see that matchup at Center.

[sp6r=underrated]

All about tradition. Knicks should always play on Christmas like the Lions should always play on Thanksgiving...

It's a bad tradition.

Although, admittedly, I would be more upset if the Knicks got 20+ nationally televised games again this year, instead of getting this one Christmas day game.

If there's any team that should have to earn their way to nationally televised games, it's the Knicks.

christmas in nyc is always going to have an appeal not even just with sports but in general. theres really no way around it

Unless you're a kid, I don't know why you get worked up about this. Christmas Games are all about putting on the most popular teams. And NYC teams are extremely popular. Now that the NBA plays 5 on christmas there is almost always going to be a NY playing.

[WargamesX]

Knicks vs. Sixers is going to be a barn burner... for about two minutes and then the Sixers will exert their dominance.

Read on Twitter

You realize they split the series last year

[Wall_To_Clips]

Clippers are the most talented team. Could be the most exciting, or one of them. Yet Knicks, Nets, Lakers, Nuggets get a game over them? I can understand Mavs and Grizzlies. Both are exciting, fun and have must see young superstars.

Not to say any of these teams are bad, I’ve just never seen the team that is arguably the best in the league be left out.

You can’t understand why Lebron and the Lakers would have more appeal to the league than the Clippers? You living under a rock?

Popular and bad. It shouldn’t be purely about max viewing for every slate. Fans deserve good matchups, even ones that are less popular. Clippers may be the best team this year. They aren’t Lakers popular, but they also aren’t particularly unpopular relative to the league. It’s odd to leave them out.

[eyeatoma]

Knicks vs. Sixers is going to be a barn burner... for about two minutes and then the Sixers will exert their dominance.

Read on Twitter

You realize they split the series last year

Before Harden right?

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[3toheadmelo]

I wonder if the league is gauging some Mitchell to Knicks whispers.

But a New York game draws a lot of fan interest if the team is even moderately competitive.

I understand that there is growing interest in other up and coming teams and it's good for the league and fans that this is happening.

But Christmas in New York is iconic basketball aside. Including the Knicks feels like a tradition that anchors the new rivalries brewing.

Plus of course including all the teams that are the big earners on Christmas is huge exposure and good business for the league and all the other teams that benefit from the windfall.

Finally an outsider with a good post about the Knicks on Christmas. Respect to you.

[dhsilv2]

1. Lebron is the most popular and recognizable player in the world.
2. Lakers is the most prestigious brand in the NBA.
3. Los Angeles is a massive market.

Hardcore fans know this lakers team isn't good. Casuals don't. And casuals drive tv ratings.

Agree on 1 and 2. 3 is technically true, but in terms of the nba....the warriors have way too much cross over with it, which kinda makes this dumb. I'd rather see Giannis (marketable player) or 76ers (good sized eastern conference market with two mega stars) or better, the normal champs vs runners up....boston vs warriors? That's the best idea.

Is there only 1 game on that night? I'd assume there would be 2 with this as the West Coast game.

Not sure, but you want east vs west for the opening games in general.

[RoyceDa59]

Besides LeBron, AD & Westbrook, who is even on the Lakers?

Lakers get to start another season with a loss.

[Impuniti]

Another 0-1 Lakers start.

Eh maybe not. Are warriors better than LeBron driven team? Absolutely. But this is also the first game of the season and Westbrook has always been solid defender of Curry capable of shutting him down. Neither of these team showed last season any kind of stable success but they were very much up and down. Combine with the fact that Lakers have a new coach they might come out guns firing on the first game even if they end up being yet again another mediocre LeBron Lakers team. Oh and almost forgot Day to Davis. He should be healthy which won't be the case rest of the season after first few weeks..

Edit. As someone mentioned warriors also have ring night so their minds are somewhere else.

Warriors started 18-2 and finished 3rd in the NBA, how did they not show any kind of stable success?

[jfs1000d]

Why are the Lakers involved in this man. No one wants to watch their scrubby team play that day lol.

And on top of that, they're on the road so the spread probably won't even be single digits lol.

It's kind of ridiculous. There is so much Laker talk on national media and no one cares.

[PhilBlackson]

Yay let’s waste the season opener on the Warriors playing a lottery team!