OKLAHOMA CITY, August 10, 2010 – The Thunder announced its 2010-11 regular season schedule today. The team will open the regular season against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, October 27th at the Ford Center.
The 2010-11 schedule is highlighted by two marquee holiday games that were announced by the NBA last week. The Thunder will host the Denver Nuggets at 7PM as part of the NBA’s Christmas Day Special, the first time Oklahoma City has hosted a Christmas Day game since the team moved to Oklahoma prior to the 2008-09 season. For the third consecutive season the Thunder will play on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This year the team will travel to Los Angeles to face the Lakers in the team’s first meeting since their 2010 playoff series.
The Thunder is scheduled to make 15 appearances on national television this year. TNT Sports will feature four Thunder games (at Portland 11/4, at Dallas 1/6, vs. Orlando 1/13 and on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at LA Lakers (1/17)). ABC will broadcast two Thunder games as a part of their Sunday NBA lineup. Oklahoma City’s game vs. Miami (1/30) and vs. LA Lakers (2/27) will be broadcast on ABC with special matinee start times. The Thunder will be featured on ESPN nine times this season (opening night vs. Chicago (10/27), vs. Portland (11/12), at Boston (11/19), vs. Denver on Christmas Day (12/25), at Golden State (2/13), at San Antonio (2/23), at Orlando (2/25), at Miami (3/16) and vs. Portland (3/27)).
The Thunder schedule is highlighted by 22 home games that will be played on Friday, Saturday or Sunday continuing the Thunder’s tradition of family friendly scheduling. Of the 22 weekend home games 11 games will be played on Sunday, with eight of them tipping off at 6:00PM.
There are several games that will interest Thunder fans and among those are the annual appearance of Eastern Conference foes Boston (11/7), Orlando (1/13), Miami (1/30) and Atlanta on New Year’s Eve (1/31). This will mark the third straight season that the Thunder will host a game on New Year’s Eve as a part of Oklahoma City’s Opening Night 2011 celebration downtown. Additionally, the Spurs (11/14) and Lakers (2/27) will make just one appearance at the Ford Center this season.
The Thunder schedule features four home stands of four or more games. The first is November 7th – 14th when the Thunder hosts Boston (11/7), Philadelphia (11/10), Portland (11/12) and San Antonio (11/14). The Thunder has two prolonged home stands in December starting with, the 12th – 19th the Thunder will face Cleveland (12/12), Houston (12/15), Sacramento (12/17) and Phoenix (12/19) and then after a brief two game trip the Thunder will return to the Ford Center to square-off versus Christmas night before hosting Dallas (12/27), New Jersey (12/29) and finishing with Atlanta (1/31). The Thunder’s longest home stand of the season comes March 18th – 29th when the team hosts six straight opponents at the Ford Center. The Thunder welcomes Charlotte (3/18), Toronto (3/20), Utah (3/23), Minnesota (3/25), Portland (3/27) and Golden State (3/29) during that stretch.
Fox Sports Oklahoma will air all of the Thunder’s regular season games (expect those televised on ABC and TNT). Play-by-play announcer Brian Davis, analyst Grant Long and newly named sideline reporter Kelly Crull will comprise this year’s broadcast team on Fox. Radio play-by play announcer Matt Pinto will bring every Thunder game to listeners on WWLS (98.1FM) and the Thunder Radio Network.
Fans interested in purchasing season tickets can call 405-208-HOOP (4667) or email thunder-tix@thunder-nba.com. Single game tickets will go on sale in early October.