2010-11 NBA Schedule: Cleveland Cavaliers Announce Full Slate
After an ever-so-small portion of opening week highlights and Christmas/MLK Jr. Day games were announced last Tuesday, the NBA released the full 82-game schedule for each team earlier this afternoon.
As announced last week, the Cavs will open the season at home on Wednesday, Oct. 27 against the Boston Celtics for the third consecutive season. Also as expected, the Cavs will face Toronto, Sacramento, and Atlanta in their first four games.
Fans will get their first looks at the No. 1 and No. 2 picks in this year's draft early—Cleveland travels to face Evan Turner and Philadelphia on Nov. 5 and then takes on John Wall and the Wizards in Washington on Nov. 6.
Games against Miami will be played on Dec. 2 (home), Dec. 15 (away), Jan. 31 (away), and Mar. 29 (home). The Cavs will get their cracks against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers on Jan. 11 (away) and Feb. 16 (home).
The Cavs will have eight road trips of three games or more while having just four homestands of three-plus games. The longest road trip, as usual, is in January, with a five-game Western conference journey to Golden State, Phoenix, L.A. (Lakers), Utah, and Denver. They also have a four-game trip in December that will take them to Houston, Oklahoma City, Miami, and Indiana.
The most pivotal stretch of the season might come in February, as the Cavs will have eight straight games in the Q and not have to leave Cleveland for over four weeks. They host Detroit, L.A. (Clippers), Washington, L.A. (Lakers), Houston, New York, Philadelphia, and San Antonio.
Several of those games are winnable, and if the Cavs are fighting for a playoff spot they'll have to defend home court.
The Cavs also have a five-game stretch at the Q from March 21-29, hosting Orlando, New Jersey, Detroit, Atlanta, and Miami. Nineteen of the team's final 30 games will be at home.
Only two of the Cavs' final nine opponents (Chicago and Milwaukee) made the playoffs in 2009-10. Last year, Miami used a weak schedule down the stretch to catapult into the fifth seed. Similarly, the Cavs could use a competitive stretch in April to make one final playoff push should they be in the running for one of the final spots.
There will be 22 back-to-back nights this year—six will be of the home-road variety, eight are road-home affairs, and eight more are road-road contests. The toughest back-to-back is undoubtedly at the end of January, when the Cavs play at Orlando on the 30th and at Miami on the 31st.
As of now, the Cavs are only scheduled to play on national TV three times: the first game against Miami on Dec. 2 (TNT), at Phoenix on Jan. 9 (NBATV), and vs. New Orleans on Mar. 6 (ESPN).
Other highlights include: a road-home back-to-back with New Jersey on Nov. 9 and Nov. 10, a New Year's Day game against Derrick Rose and the Bulls in Chicago (7:00 ET), visits from Dwight Howard and the Magic on Dec. 28 (7:00 ET) and Mar. 21 (7:00 ET), and the lone visit from Kevin Durant and Oklahoma City on Sunday, Mar. 13 at 1:00.
