Wizards Announce 2012-13 Schedule

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Washington Wizards announced their 2012-13 regular season schedule today, including their home opener on Saturday, Nov. 3, against the Boston Celtics. The Wizards tip off the season on the road when they visit the Cavaliers on Tuesday, Oct. 30, in Cleveland. Overall, the Wizards will play 23 of their 41 home games on the weekend (Friday-Sunday), with 21 of those coming on Friday (10 games) and Saturday (11 games).

"We have had a very productive offseason and we are looking forward to being back on the court at Verizon Center when we open our home schedule against Boston," said Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld. “We feel confident that the moves we have made will help us build on the positive momentum we saw at the end of last season and that our fans will be excited about the team that we’ll have on the floor."

Highlights of the 2012-13 schedule include visits from the 2012 NBA Champion Miami Heat on Dec. 4 and April 10, the lone visits of the Lakers (Dec. 14) and Clippers (Feb. 4) from Los Angeles, the NBA Western Conference Champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Jan. 7, the Verizon Center debut of the new-look Brooklyn Nets on Jan. 4 (with a return visit on Feb. 8) and two visits from the New York Knicks on Feb. 6 and March 1. The home finale will take place on April 12 when the Wizards host the Sixers prior to finishing the season with a two-game trip that will see them travel to Brooklyn and Chicago.

The Wizards will have eight three-game homestands during the season and will host three sets of back-to-back home games (Jan. 25/26 vs. Minnesota/Chicago, Feb. 22/23 vs. Denver/Houston and March 15/16 vs. New Orleans/Phoenix). The team’s longest road trip will take place from Jan. 16-23 when they head west to visit Sacramento, Denver, the L.A. Clippers, Portland and Utah. The Wizards will play a span of eight games in 12 days from Dec. 11-22, comprising their most condensed portion of the 2012-12 schedule.

Each team in the Eastern Conference will visit Verizon Center twice with the exception of Boston (Nov. 3) and Cleveland (Dec. 26), while the Wizards will visit Milwaukee (Feb. 11) and Philadelphia (Jan. 30) only once during the regular season.

All home games will tip off at 7:00 p.m., with the exception of Sunday games on January 1 vs. Dallas, March 3 vs. Philadelphia and March 31 vs. Toronto (6:00 p.m. tipoffs).