NBA season to tip off with Celtics hosting 76ers

NEW YORK • Defending champions Golden State will host the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston will entertain Philadelphia when the 2022-23 National Basketball Association (NBA) season opens on Oct 18 as per a league schedule announced on Wednesday.

Each team will play a total of 82 regular-season games until April 9, before the April 11-14 play-in tournament that will decide the final teams involved in the play-offs, which start a day later.

The NBA Finals will commence on June 1.

The schedule sees the resumption of international regular-season contests with the Miami Heat playing the San Antonio Spurs on Dec 17 in Mexico City and the Chicago Bulls meeting the Detroit Pistons in Paris on Jan 19.

There will be five games played on Christmas Day for the 15th consecutive year, tipping off with Philadelphia at New York, followed by the Lakers at Dallas, Milwaukee at Boston and Memphis making a Dec 25 debut at Golden State before the holiday slate concludes with Phoenix at Denver.

In a move to encourage fans to vote, no NBA games will be played on US Election Day, Nov 8, while all 30 teams will play on Nov 7 as well as April 9 to end the campaign.

On opening night, the 76ers will visit Boston, the reigning Eastern Conference champions, before the NBA champions Warriors receive their championship rings ahead of hosting superstar LeBron James and the Lakers.

On Oct 19, New York will visit Memphis and Dallas go to Phoenix in a rematch of a Western Conference semi-final series from last season. The next night, Milwaukee travel to Philadelphia while Los Angeles rivals the Lakers and Clippers meet.

Oct 21 will feature Boston at Miami and Denver at Golden State.

There will be two re-matches of last season's NBA Finals when the Warriors host Boston on Dec 10 and visit the Celtics on Jan 19.

The week of Jan 23 will be NBA Rivals Week, a series of games featuring various league rivalries.

A trio of Jan 28 contests comprises the Lakers at Boston, New York at Brooklyn and NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic leading Denver against Philadelphia and MVP runner-up and 2021-22 scoring leader Joel Embiid.

The estimated average miles travelled for NBA clubs in the 2022-23 regular season has been reduced to 41,000 miles (66,000km) per team, a record low in the era with 30 teams and 82 games each.

The new figure is a drop of nearly 2,000 miles per team from last season's all-time low of 43,000 miles travelled per club.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS