The 2020-21 NBA season, which begins a few days before Christmas on December 22, may very well end up being a rousing success, but if nothing else, it will be abnormal.
First, it’s a 72-game season, rather than the standard 82-game season, though this isn’t the first time circumstances have resulted in a truncated schedule. There won’t be fans in the arena, at least not to start the season, which is going to be odd even after watching fan-less play in the Orlando Bubble. Most teams will broadcast road games remotely, in-person media access might not exist in any fashion and events that brings players and fans together will probably be shelved until there’s a vaccine.
Basically, everything will be more regimented with the goal of keeping the number of COVID-10 infections to a minimum. Players and staff will be tested constantly and some will will end up in quarantine, but invariably, mistakes will certainly be made along the way. So the league is trying to preserve some flexibility in the event that things go sideways, and the first way they’re doing that is by releasing the 2020-21 regular season schedule in two parts.
The NBA released the first half of schedule for all 30 teams Friday afternoon, including the first 37 games of the Portland Trail Blazers’ 51st season. Behold, 37 games over the course of 72 days...
As you can see, the Trail Blazers start the season off by hosting the Utah Jazz at the Moda Center on December 23. They gets Christmas Eve and Christmas off before hosting the new-look Rockets on the 26th and then leaving the next day for a four-game road trip (we almost always seem to be out of town for New Years) with stops in Los Angeles and San Francisco. With their first five games all coming against top Western Conference teams, there will be little-to-no time to get off to a slow start.
At first glance, the first half of the 2020-21 schedule looks about the same as a typical NBA schedule, but look a little closer and you’ll notice some stark differences.
The first obvious diversion comes on the first road trip, with the team facing both the Lakers and Clippers in Los Angeles in consecutive games followed up by playing both of their road games versus the Warriors for the season over the course of three days. While the team has had extended stays in Los Angeles to play both the Lakers and Clippers in one trip, those usually take place in the preseason, rather than the regular season.
It’s also true that “rubber matches” happen from time to time in the NBA, but they’re never held at the same location, so playing the Warriors at the Chase Center on New Year’s Day and then again after a day off is certainly a first (as far as I know at least). That situation arises again at the end of January with the Trail Blazers hosting the Memphis Grizzlies in consecutive games (something I don’t ever recall happening in my 12+ seasons with the team).
Another change is the increased frequency of all-home back-to-backs. Of the Trail Blazers’ seven back-to-backs in the first half of the season -- they were scheduled to have 11 all of last season -- three are of the “home/home” variety. Usually teams average about one of those per season -- they’re generally bad for ticket sales, so teams try to avoid them when possible -- but they’ve been fairly uncommon over the years in Portland, perhaps due to the relatively long distance from the next-closest team. But with a condensed schedule, such decisions are unavoidable (and since it’s unlikely fans will be able to watch live and in person, concerns about ticket sales fall by the wayside anyway).
Here are some of the other notable oddities from the first half of the 2020-21 schedule...
• Portland’s first 18 games will be held entirely in Oregon and California. The January 21 game versus the Rockets in Houston, which comes more than a month into the season, will be the first time the Blazers play away from the west coast.
• By the end of the first half of the schedule, the Blazers will have already completed their season series with seven teams (Golden State, Chicago, Sacramento, New York Knicks, Philadelphia and Charlotte). They play every team except for the Nets, Heat, Celtics and Pistons at least once in the first half (and I imagine those teams will be a road trip unto themselves in the second half).
• Not sure why they’re sliding in a home game versus the Raptors in between two road games versus the Kings in Sacramento. Sure, it’s a short flight, but why not just knock that out in one trip, a la the Golden State trip?
• Between playing 10 of 14 games on the road and having four of their seven back-to-backs, February easily qualifies as the toughest month of the season (thus far) for the Blazers. But that's probably worth the price to start the first month of the season at home or not far from it.
• The away/away back-to-back at the start of February versus the Knicks and Hornets, with both games tipping off at 10 am Portland time, is certainly a way to spend a weekend.
• The Trail Blazers will play every other day, on average, and never have more than two days off in between games -- and even that only happens five times.
And some of the pertinent stats...
GAMES BY MONTHDecember: 4 games (2 home, 2 away)January: 16 games (10 home, 6 away)February: 14 games (4 home, 10 away)March: 3 games (so far) (3 home, 0 away)
BACK-T0-BACKS: 7 (3 home/home, 3 away/away, 1 away/home)
NATIONAL TV GAMES: 5 (3 TNT, 2 ESPN)