Philadelphia 76ers 2012 Schedule: Breaking Down the Entire 2011-12 NBA Season

Christmas came early for basketball fans, as the NBA released the complete 2011-12 schedule on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, due to the 149-day lockout that threatened the entire season, each team will only play 66 games this year, down from the typical 82-game schedule. That said, most fans will agree that a 66-game regular season is far better than no season at all.

After finishing 2010-11 with a 41-41 record—along with a valiant effort against the Miami Heat this past spring—the Philadelphia 76ers are eager to build off of the success of last season. But if the first few games are any indication of what to expect this year, it won't be easy.

As expected, the 76ers will begin the season on a five-game road trip, kicking off the 2011-12 campaign in Portland on December 26. Spending the first 10 days of the season on the road is less than ideal, but the team actually made out with the new, revised schedule. In the 82-game version, the Sixers were set to play nine consecutive games away from home between December 18 and January 4.

Intentionally or not, the NBA's schedule makers appeared to take that opening stretch into account when building out the rest of the Sixers' calendar. After their season-opening road swing, the 76ers will play 18 of their next 22 games at Wells Fargo Center.

For nearly two full weeks, the 76ers won't even have to get on a plane in order to play a game. In a nine-game stretch between January 6 and January 18, the 76ers only have two road contests, and those are against the New York Knicks and the Washington Wizards.

The schedule gets a lot more difficult in early February, however. From February 1 to February 8, Philadelphia will face Chicago, Miami, the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio in an eight-day span. Fortunately for the 76ers, all of those games are at home. Even still, it will be a challenging gauntlet of four talented, playoff-caliber squads—a nice midseason test for a young team eager to take the next step.

The 76ers will end the season just like they started it: another five-game road trip, finishing the year on April 26 against Detroit.

Of course, there are a few scheduling quirks that come with a compressed slate. The 76ers will play on three consecutive nights twice this season: January 9-11 (Indiana, Sacramento, at New York) and April 16-18 (at Orlando, Indiana, at Cleveland). Each NBA team is scheduled to play at least one set of back-to-back-to-back games this season, and no team will play more than three.

Another strange twist: After their trip to San Antonio on March 25, Philadelphia doesn't play another Western Conference team for the rest of the season.

The people most excited about the recently released 76ers' schedule? The team's ticket office. Not only do Miami, Chicago and Orlando each make multiple appearances at the Wells Fargo Center, but many of the marquee teams in the Western Conference (including the Lakers, Clippers, Thunder, Spurs and Mavericks) will each come to Philadelphia this season—matchups that weren't guaranteed since the schedule has 16 fewer games than usual.

Because of the unbalanced schedule, six Western Conference teams won't come to the Wells Fargo Center this season: Houston, Memphis, Minnesota, New Orleans, Phoenix and Portland. In addition, the 76ers won't face the Lakers, Clippers, Thunder, Mavericks, Kings or the Nuggets on the road during the 2011-12 campaign.

Without knowing the final composition of the 76ers roster (or any other team's roster, for that matter), it doesn't make sense to project wins and losses at this point. That said, with a favorable early season schedule, there's no reason why the 76ers can't finish with their first winning season since 2004-05.

The Sixers will be itching to get out to a fast start after beginning last season with a 3-13 mark. Philadelphia wound up going 38-28 over the final 66 games last year; if they could replicate that record by the end of this season, it will be a definite sign that the team is headed in the right direction.