NBA schedule opens with tripleheader, including Spurs
Defending NBA champion San Antonio will open the regular season at home against No. 1 pick Greg Oden and Portland on Oct. 30, the league announced Thursday in releasing its 2007-08 schedules.
The Blazers-Spurs game will be one of three played on opening night. Later, Houston plays the Los Angeles Lakers and Utah is at Golden State.
Cleveland, which lost to the Spurs in the NBA Finals, must wait until Oct. 31 to open its season at home against Dallas (8 p.m. ET, ESPN). . .
Cleveland visits San Antonio in an NBA finals rematch on Jan. 17. The Spurs go to Cleveland, where they wrapped up last season’s title, on Feb. 13.
The schedule includes a tripleheader of games on Christmas Day, featuring Miami and Cleveland (2:30 p.m. ET, ABC and ESPN Radio) and Phoenix at the Lakers (5 p.m. ET, ABC and ESPN Radio), followed by the first meeting between Oden and No. 2 pick Kevin Durant when Seattle visits Portland (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Kevin Garnett makes his Celtics debut on Nov. 2 when Boston hosts Washington. The Celtics have the first three nights of the season off. Garnett returns to Minnesota for the first time on Feb. 8 (ESPN).
Phoenix and San Antonio, which met in an epic Western Conference semifinal, meet for the first time on Monday, Dec. 17 at San Antonio.
Allen Iverson hasn’t played in Philadelphia since he was traded by the 76ers to Denver a mid-season a year ago. He’ll get his chance on March 19. The two teams meet before that on Jan. 6 in Denver.
The schedule concludes on Wednesday, April 16, with the playoffs set to begin on Saturday, April 19.
Information from The Associated Press and NBA.com is included in this report