The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced on Thursday the complete game schedule for the upcoming 2023–24 season, which will kick off on Tuesday, October 24.
The organisers of the league, which is heading into its 78th regular season, released the dates and opponents to be faced by each team during the regular season, along with the dates for the end of the season, the NBA Play-In Tournament, the commencement of the 2024 NBA Playoffs and the 2024 NBA Finals.
The NBA revealed that the 2023–24 regular season will come to an end on Sunday, April 14, while the Play-In Tournament, which features the 8th–10th ranked teams in each conference, will begin from Tuesday, April 16 to Friday, April 19. The 2024 NBA Playoffs will commence on Saturday, April 20, while the first game of the NBA Finals has been slated for Thursday, June 6.
The Group Phase of the NBA In-Season Tournament will start on Friday, November 3, and end on Tuesday, November 28. The quarterfinals will be played on December 4 and 5, while the semifinal and championship games come up in Las Vegas on December 7 and 9, respectively. The All-Star weekend will run from Friday, February 16 to Sunday, February 18, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, in Indianapolis.
The NBA today released its complete game schedule for the 2023-24 regular season.
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— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) August 17, 2023
The NBA released defined dates and times that cover 80 of the 82 games each of the league’s 30 teams are to play, while the date and opposition for two games for each team are to be decided (TBD) based off the results of the Group games in the very much talked about NBA In-Season Tournament set to kick off in its inaugural season.
The season kicks off with two mouthwatering ties as a replay of last season’s Western Conference final between the reigning champion Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers at the Ball Arena sets the tone for the rest of the campaign. Likewise, a heavyweight clash will ensue as the Phoenix Suns visit Chase Center in San Francisco to take on seven-time champions, the Golden State Warriors, on the opening night.
The following day, Wednesday, October 25, will witness last season’s beaten finalists, the Miami Heat, go up against the Detroit Pistons at the Kaseya Center in Florida, while the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks will battle it out in what is expected to be a pulsating Eastern Conference affair. 2023 NBA Draft No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama, his Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich, and the rest of the San Antonio Spurs will welcome the Dallas Mavericks to the Frost Bank Center on the same day.
On Christmas Day, Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks will face the Knicks; the Warriors will play Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets; reigning league MVP Joel Embiid will lead the Philadelphia 76ers against Jimmy Butler and the Heat; former teammates Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant will be up against each other when the Suns and Mavericks faceoff; and it will be a battle between NBA royalty when the league’s most successful teams—the Lakers and the Celtics—lock horns at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
On Martin Luther King Day, January 15, the Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies will renew their Western Conference rivalry; the Lakers will take on the Oklahoma City Thunder; the Celtics will be up against the Toronto Raptors; and finally, the Heat will square off against the Brooklyn Nets.
As revealed during the off-season, the date for the NBA’s two Global Games during the regular season were also revealed. The Atlanta Hawks will meet the Orlando Magic in “NBA Mexico Game 2023” on Thursday, November 9, at the Arena CDMX in Mexico City. Then in the “NBA Paris Game 2024”, the Nets will take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday, January 11 at the Accor Arena in Paris.
The final day of the regular season will feature all 30 teams in the league, with seven games between Eastern Conference teams coming up first, followed by the remaining seven games between Western Conference teams, and the singular cross-conference game coming up right after.
