The 2020-21 NBA season is scheduled to start on Dec. 22, 2020, giving the league its highest-profile day on the calendar with its traditional Christmas Day slate. The season will, obviously, look much different than usual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with largely empty stadiums and a packed slate to wrap things up prior to next summer’s Olympics.
Before things begin, the league will put forth an eight day-long preseason to get teams ready to go on the heels of either a truncated offseason or a remarkably long one, depending on whether or not the squads participated in the Orlando Bubble. Here’s the entire slate, which runs from Dec. 11 until Dec. 19.
Full NBA Preseason schedule: pic.twitter.com/QIpc6lWdO9
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 27, 2020
Obviously the big, grand preseason tours that some squads will go on to places like China won’t occur this year, but the league is still putting a handful of intriguing matchups in this period. Things start off in a big way with five games on the opening evening of the preseason, with one of the tilts — Clippers vs. Lakers — seeming ripe for a rematch 14 days later on Christmas. There are a few other games that look like potential Dec. 25 matchups, like both of Boston’s, who play Philly on the 15th and Brooklyn on the 18th.
There is no word on exactly when the NBA will release its full regular season schedule, but Andrew Lopez of ESPN has reported that the league will split things into halves, and it’s believed the first half schedule will come out close to Dec. 1.