OKLAHOMA CITY, December 6, 2011 – The Thunder’s entire 66-game 2011-12 schedule was released earlier today by the NBA. Including the Thunder’s previously announced Christmas Night game versus Orlando followed by the Thunder’s road contest on December 26 at Minnesota, the Thunder with play 18 sets of back-to-backs in addition to one back-to-back-to-back in early January.
In a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Finals, Oklahoma City will take-on the Dallas Mavericks four times during the 2011-12 season with two of those meetings occurring in the first eight days of the regular season.
Once again, the Thunder will play a home affair on New Year’s Eve as the Phoenix Suns travel to the Chesapeake Energy Arena on the final day of 2011. The Thunder has played on New Year’s Eve every season since moving to Oklahoma City as a part of the city’s Opening Night celebration.
The 2011-12 regular season schedule is highlighted by 24 nationally televised appearances for the Thunder. Oklahoma City will play two games on ABC this season with the first coming on April 1st when the Thunder hosts Chicago and later when the Oklahoma City travels to play the L.A. Lakers (Apr. 22) in the final week of the regular season.
The Thunder will make nine appearances on this season ESPN commencing with the Christmas Night opener (Dec. 25) and followed by a pair of road match-ups against the Dallas Mavericks (Feb. 1) and the Utah Jazz (Feb. 10). The Thunder will later host the Denver Nuggets (Feb. 19), Boston Celtics (Feb. 22), San Antonio Spurs (Mar. 16), Portland Trail Blazers (Mar. 18) and the Miami Heat (Mar. 25) on ESPN. The Thunder will round-out their ESPN telecasts on the road with a meeting against the Heat in Miami (Apr. 4).
TNT Sports will feature six Thunder games during the 2011-12 season including the Thunder’s first-week match-up versus the Dallas Mavericks (Dec. 29). The Thunder will later appear on TNT for games against Boston (Jan. 16) and Sacramento (Feb. 9) before hosting the L.A. Lakers on February 23. TNT will lastly televise the Thunder’s road contests against Orlando (Mar. 1) and the L.A. Lakers (Mar. 29).
The Thunder is also scheduled to appear on NBATV seven times this season.
Thunder fans will be treated to a pair of five-game home stands during the 2011-12 season. The first of which will occur in late February when Oklahoma City plays host to Golden State (Feb. 17), before competing in two sets of home-and-home back-to-backs vs. Denver (Feb. 19) and New Orleans (Feb. 20) followed by games vs. Boston (Feb. 22) and the L.A. Lakers (Feb. 23) just prior to the NBA All-Star break. The second five-game home stand falls shortly thereafter in early March when Dallas (Mar. 5), Phoenix (Feb. 7), Cleveland (Mar. 9), Charlotte (Mar. 10) and Houston (Mar. 13) all make stops in Oklahoma City.
The Thunder continues its tradition of family friendly scheduling this season with 17 home games that will be played on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The 2011-12 regular season will conclude with a home-and-home back-to-back on April 24 and 25 with games played versus Sacramento and Denver, respectively.
Single game tickets for the first half of the regular season go on sale Monday, December 12 at 10 am online at thunder.nba.com. Tickets for the Thunder's preseason home game vs. Dallas will also be on sale at that time.
With very few national TV exceptions, FOX Sports Oklahoma will carry the Thunder's regular season games. A full broadcast schedule will be released later this week. The Thunder's TV schedule begins Tuesday, Dec. 20 with the preseason game vs. the Mavericks.
Play-by-play announcer Brian Davis, analyst Grant Long and sideline/web reporter Kelly Crull return as the Thunder broadcast team on FSO. Radio play-by play announcer Matt Pinto will bring every Thunder game to listeners on WWLS (98.1FM) and the Thunder Radio Network.