2023-24 NBA schedule release: In-season tournament slate unveiled, plus opening night and more dates to know
The full 2023-24 NBA schedule is set to be released this week, and pieces of the full slate are starting to come together. The NBA unveiled the schedule for its inaugural in-season tournament on Tuesday. The in-season tournament starts on Nov. 3 and every team will play four regular-season games that count as in-season tournament games. You can view the full in-season tournament schedule here.
We also already know the opening night and Christmas Day slates. On Oct. 24, the season will begin with the defending champion Denver Nuggets hosting the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors hosting the Phoenix Suns, according to Shams Charania. The NBA’s Dec. 25 showcase will feature five games, per The Athletic: New York Knicks vs. Milwaukee Bucks, Heat vs. Philadelphia 76ers, Lakers vs. Celtics, Suns vs. Dallas Mavericks, Nuggets vs. Warriors.
More early notes on the schedule:
Opening night
- The champs will get their rings before a rematch of the 2023 Western Conference finals, in which Denver swept the Lakers and left James and Anthony Davis agreeing that the Nuggets were probably the best team they had played against in their four years together.
- As well as being Chris Paul’s first meeting with Phoenix since it traded him to Golden State, the Suns-Warriors game will be Durant’s first at Chase Center with fans in attendance. The arena opened after Durant left Golden State, and he has been injured for all of his visits since, except for a game on Feb. 13, 2021, in which no tickets were sold because of pandemic restrictions.
Christmas Day
- This will be the first time since 2008 that the Lakers and Celtics face off on Christmas. This will also be the Warriors’ 11th consecutive year playing on Christmas and James’ 17th consecutive year playing on Christmas. Last year, James became the first player in NBA history to appear in 17 total Christmas games.
- Denver vs. Golden State is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET on ABC, followed by Los Angeles vs. Boston at 5 p.m. on ABC and Miami vs. Philadelphia at 8 p.m. on ESPN, according to the Miami Herald. This likely means that New York vs. Milwaukee will begin at noon and Phoenix vs. Dallas will begin at 10:30 p.m.
In-season tournament
- The first in-season tournament will begin on Nov. 3 with the first of seven tournament nights. The group stage will continue on Nov. 10, Nov. 14, Nov. 17, Nov. 21, Nov. 24, and Nov. 28 (i.e. every Tuesday and Friday that month, with the exception of Nov. 7, which is Election Day.)
- Six group winners and two wild cards will advance to the knockout stage — the quarterfinals will be played on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5, with the higher seed having home-court advantage, and the four winners will advance to Las Vegas, where the semifinals will be played on Dec. 7 and the championship game will be played on Dec. 9.
