NBA Schedule 2015-16: TV Info, Live Stream and Predictions for Opening Week
Twenty-four more hours. After staring into months of a basketball-less abyss, regular-season NBA returns Tuesday night.
And might I say: Thank all the heavenly powers that it is. There are many greater problems in this world than an NBA offseason, but going months on end without basketball is not what one would call ideal.
When LeBron James last dunked in a game that counted, Donald Trump was more of a national laughing stock than legitimate presidential candidate. Stephen Curry's last off-the-dribble three happened before Amy Schumer was a Trainwreck, before a movie about Ant-Man made nearly a half-billion dollars, before Adele came back and took her rightful place as the Michael Jordan of the breakup ballad.
Now, Schumer's a household name. They're making a sequel to Ant-Man. And Adele is out here topping the charts with "Hello."
So it's only appropriate that we get the NBA season kicked off the right way by previewing the first week of action.
NBA Opening Week Predictions
Anthony Davis vs. Warriors Steals the Show
The nightcap of opening night sees Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans head to Golden State to play the defending champs. It's a perfect matchup on paper. Davis is a burgeoning superstar, the player around whom an overwhelming majority of NBA executives would like to build their team. The two sides also played a largely competitive first-round series last year, albeit one that ended in a Golden State sweep.
Sounds like a lot of fun, right? Well, the matchup was so nice, the NBA decided to do it twice. The Warriors and Pelicans play twice in the season's first five days, with Golden State returning the favor by visiting New Orleans on Saturday. It's kind of strange to see two marquee teams playing twice within the season's first week, especially with both coming on national television.
It's also the type of scheduling fun that could create a budding rivalry.
Davis and the Pelicans no longer see themselves as happy-go-lucky upstarts. They're almost in a similar spot to where Golden State was three years ago. They have a foundational superstar and a budding supporting cast that intermingles similarly aged players and win-now veterans. The Pelicans have one of the NBA's best starting fives on paper; injuries and some skill set overlap have simply prevented them from reaching their potential.
New coach Alvin Gentry is recognized as one of the NBA's foremost offensive innovators. Speeding up the tempo will unlock Davis as an open-court monster and perhaps bring Tyreke Evans back to rookie-year form once he returns from knee surgery. Evans is joined by Omer Asik, Alexis Ajinca, Norris Cole, Luke Babbitt and Quincy Pondexter on the injury report.
“It’s tough,” Davis told Michael Wallace of ESPN.com. “Now with Tyreke going down, we won’t have our complete team until January sometime...It’s tough because you’re coming in with high expectations, thinking everybody is healthy. And then, stuff happens.”
Those setbacks only put more of an onus on Davis to carry the franchise. Heading into his fourth season, Davis put up averages of 24.4 points, 10.9 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game in 2014-15. Those numbers came despite New Orleans playing at the NBA's fourth-slowest pace.
The idea of these two teams flying up and down the court with the ball whirling around is exciting to anyone with a pulse. Davis and the Pelicans have a real chance to make their mark by taking one of these two games. If they're going to be taken seriously as a mid-tier Western Conference team, this is where they make their start.
Someone Really Good At Basketball Gets Hurt
Yeah, I'm going to Debbie Downer Town. We've gotten through the entire preseason without any major injuries to stars. Derrick Rose is the biggest lingering injury, but he'll be back sometime early in the season; we're not looking at a Kevin Durant situation, where he'll be missing an extended period of time due to the injury.
On the other hand, someone super dope probably will get cut down. It's become a running theme. Every NBA season, someone gets hurt, and we bemoan the upcoming losses of superstars we all know are coming. Durant got things going a little sooner than expected last season, but it wasn't long before Julius Randle and a litany of others joined the fray.
The NBA has done a commendable job trying to make things less grueling on players. There are fewer back-to-backs and stretches of four games in five nights than ever. But injuries are a reality of NBA life. We'll all cross our fingers and hope for the best, then watch in horror as someone goes crashing to the hardwood, tweet out our instinctive "oh nos" and hold our breath until the next time it happens.
Let's all hope I'm wrong and we can get through the first week without incident.
Cavaliers Start Slow
OK, back to the fun stuff. The best part of the NBA returning (besides, like, basketball) is the overreactions that will come from a minuscule sample of games. One week into the 2014-15 regular season, the Sacramento Kings looked playoff-bound. The Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks looked semi-competent. Even the mighty Los Angeles Lakers seemed destined for a bottom-of-the-conference finish.
Oh. Right. OK, sometimes early-season trends continue.
But for the most part, basketball is basketball. It's by far the most predictable of our four major professional sports. The variance is less because the individual players matter more. Injuries and unforeseen circumstances happen, sure, but most aware fans can guess playoff teams at a 75 percent rate and probably even get seeding generally correct.
All of which makes the insanity of the early panic more exciting. The Cavaliers were the source of constant handwringing last season, as David Blatt's job hung in the balance as they entered the new year barely hanging in playoff contention. A trade for Timofey Mozgov, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert helped balance the scales, but Cleveland was never in real trouble; it was always going to be a top-three East team once LeBron James got his body right.
While a far more complete team than it was in the Finals, this Cavs roster is in need of some body-righting. James is dealing with a lingering back injury, Kevin Love only played in two preseason games as he returns from shoulder surgery, Kyrie Irving's not ready to come back from his Finals knee injury and Tristan Thompson just showed up to camp like...eight minutes ago.
This is not a team ready to battle early in the regular season. Too bad the NBA put the Cavs on the national stage against a renewed Bulls team opening night and put them in a back-to-back against Memphis the next evening. They'll play four games in the season's opening week, and while the finale is against Philadelphia, the third contest is a visit from Miami—an intriguing matchup on more than one level.
Don't expect the banged-up Cavs to look in midseason form here. Don't even be shocked if they walk into the Philly game 0-3. We'll probably be a month or two into the regular season before this team takes its shape.
Let the Technicals Fly in Mavericks vs. Clippers
It won't be as fun as the first time DeAndre Jordan plays in Dallas—that's happening Nov. 11—but whatever happens in Staples Center on Thursday will set the tone for one of the most animosity-filled games of 2015-16.
We all know the story by now. Jordan, feeling frustrated by constant disrespect from Chris Paul and unappreciated as the third star for the Clippers, agreed to a four-year max deal with Dallas early in free agency. Known around the league as being the impressionable sort, Jordan began having doubts as the moratorium period ended. He called Doc Rivers, Clippers players flew to his home and hashed out the differences, and the Mavericks were left in the cold.
Instead of an All-NBA center, Dallas now has a rotation of Samuel Dalembert, Zaza Pachulia and JaVale McGee roaming the middle. Instead of being a lock for the postseason, Dallas is now among the most likely teams to fall out from last year's April crew. Instead of having a clear vision for the future, Dallas now seems destined to kick the can down the road on another middling season as Dirk Nowitzki's twilight wastes away.
The Mavericks can say they've moved on. Fans can pretend bygones are bygones. That doesn't make it true. Mavericks fans and likely some players feel rightful animosity toward Jordan and the Clippers. While totally fair game under NBA rules, the Clippers broke unwritten code by going after a player who had already verbally agreed with another team. Jordan walled himself off from potential teammates he'd been so seemingly close to in previous days.
The bad blood here is inevitable. It's also going to be captivating television. The first hard foul anywhere near Jordan is going to lead to a pushing-and-shoving scrum, probably with a few technicals thrown in. This probably won't be a good basketball game; the Clippers are a significantly better team. It'll have enough hatred to keep it going regardless.
NBA Opening Week Schedule
| Cleveland | Chicago | 8 p.m. | TNT | |
| Detroit | Atlanta | 8 p.m. | ||
| New Orleans | Golden St. | 10:30 p.m. | TNT | |
| Washington | Orlando | 7 p.m. | ||
| Philadelphia | Boston | 7:30 p.m. | ||
| Utah | Detroit | 7:30 p.m. | ||
| Indiana | Toronto | 7:30 p.m. | ||
| Charlotte | Miami | 7:30 p.m. | ||
| Chicago | Brooklyn | 7:30 p.m. | ||
| Cleveland | Memphis | 8 p.m. | ||
| New York | Milwaukee | 8 p.m. | ||
| San Antonio | Oklahoma City | 8 p.m. | ESPN | |
| Denver | Houston | 8 p.m. | ||
| New Orleans | Portland | 10 p.m. | ||
| L.A. Clippers | Sacramento | 10 p.m. | ||
| Dallas | Phoenix | 10 p.m. | ||
| Minnesota | L.A. Lakers | 10:30 p.m. | ESPN | |
| Memphis | Indiana | 7 p.m. | ||
| Atlanta | New York | 8 p.m. | TNT | |
| Dallas | L.A. Clippers | 10:30 p.m. | TNT | |
| Oklahoma City | Orlando | 7 p.m. | ||
| Miami | Cleveland | 7 p.m. | ESPN | |
| Utah | Philadelphia | 7 p.m. | ||
| Chicago | Detroit | 7:30 p.m. | ||
| Toronto | Boston | 7:30 p.m. | ||
| Charlotte | Atlanta | 8 p.m. | ||
| Washington | Milwaukee | 8 p.m. | ||
| Brooklyn | San Antonio | 8:30 p.m. | ||
| Minnesota | Denver | 9 p.m. | ||
| Golden St. | Houston | 9:30 p.m. | ESPN | |
| L.A. Lakers | Sacramento | 10 p.m. | ||
| Portland | Phoenix | 10:30 p.m. | ||
| New York | Washington | 7 p.m. | ||
| Utah | Indiana | 7 p.m. | ||
| Golden St. | New Orleans | 7:30 p.m. | NBATV | |
| Brooklyn | Memphis | 8 p.m. | ||
| Phoenix | Portland | 10 p.m. | ||
| Sacramento | L.A. Clippers | 10:30 p.m. | NBATV | |
| Atlanta | Charlotte | 2 p.m. | ||
| San Antonio | Boston | 3:30 p.m. | ||
| Milwaukee | Toronto | 6 p.m. | NBATV | |
| Houston | Miami | 6 p.m. | ||
| Orlando | Chicago | 7 p.m. | ||
| Denver | Oklahoma City | 7 p.m. | ||
| Dallas | L.A. Lakers | 9:30 p.m. | ||
| Cleveland | Philadelphia | 7 p.m. | ||
| Milwaukee | Brooklyn | 7:30 pm | ||
| San Antonio | New York | 7:30 p.m. | ||
| Portland | Minnesota | 8 p.m. | ||
| Oklahoma City | Houston | 8 p.m. | ||
| Phoenix | L.A. Clippers | 10:30 p.m. | ||
| Memphis | Golden St. | 10:30 p.m. |
Games can be streamed on NBA League Pass Broadband
