Cavaliers Announce First Half of 2020-21 NBA Regular Season Schedule Presented by SeatGeek

Season Tips-Off Dec. 23 Versus Charlotte at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse

Cavs.com

CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Cavaliers have announced the First Half of the 2020-21 NBA regular season schedule presented by SeatGeek, the official ticketing partner. The season tips off on Wednesday, Dec. 23 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse against the Charlotte Hornets at 7:00 p.m. ET. This marks the first time Cleveland will tip off the season at home since 2017-18 and 13th time in the past 17 seasons. The Cavaliers are slated to play 38 games in the First Half schedule, including 19 home contests. Cleveland will also host six weekend dates at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse comprised of three Friday games (Jan. 15 vs. New York, Jan. 22 vs. Brooklyn and Feb. 5 vs. Milwaukee), one Saturday game (Feb. 6 vs. Milwaukee) and two Sunday games (Dec. 27 vs. Philadelphia and Feb. 21 vs. Oklahoma City).

Highlights of the home schedule in the First Half of the season include a visit from the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 25 and a matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 3. Cleveland will host the Brooklyn Nets (Jan. 20 and Jan. 22) in consecutive games at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, as well as back-to-back home meetings against the Milwaukee Bucks (Feb. 5 and Feb. 6). During the 19-game road schedule of the First Half, the Cavaliers will play several outings during the holidays with matchups against Indiana Pacers on Dec. 31 (New Year’s Eve), Washington Wizards on Jan. 18 (MLK Day) and Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day).

Details regarding fan access, capacity and health and safety protocols will be released separately today.

Other ‘stats’ on the First Half of the 2020-21 schedule include:

Nine sets of back-to-back games, including three road-home sets (Dec. 26-27, Jan. 24-25 and Jan. 31-Feb. 1), three home-home sets (Jan. 11-12, Feb. 5-6 and Feb. 23-24) and three road-road sets (Jan. 6-7, Jan. 17-18 and Feb. 14-15).

Four consecutive home games on two occasions (Feb. 1-6 and Feb. 17-24), three straight home contests once (Jan. 11-15) and three two-game homestands (Dec. 27-29, Jan. 20-22 and Jan. 25-27).

Cleveland’s longest road trip spans six games over 11 days from Dec. 31-Jan. 9; the team also has a five-game road trip from Feb. 8-15.

The Cavaliers will play five games in December, 17 games in January, 14 games in February and two games in the early part of March.

Of the 38 games in the First Half schedule, Cleveland will play 22 Eastern Conference opponents and 16 Western Conference opponents.

The Cavs’ final road game of the First Half schedule is at Houston on March 1.

Cleveland will wrap up the First Half of the 2020-21 regular season schedule at home against the Indiana Pacers on March 3.

All Cavaliers games will be broadcast on WTAM 1100 AM and WMMS 100.7 FM radio, as well as WNZN 89.1 FM Spanish radio, and FOX Sports Ohio TV.

Each NBA team will play 72 games total for the 2020-21 NBA regular season. The schedule for the Second Half of the season (March 11 – May 16, 2021) will be released during the latter part of the First Half portion of the schedule. The Second Half schedule will include the remainder of each team’s 72 games not scheduled in the First Half as well as any games postponed during the First Half that can reasonably be added to the Second Half schedule.

Each team will play three games against each intraconference opponent (42 total games per team), with each pairing featuring either two home games and one road game or one home game and two road games. Within each team’s division, the league office has randomly assigned which two opponents will be played twice at home and which two opponents will be played twice on the road.

All five teams from within a division will play all five teams from one other intraconference division twice at home, and all five teams from the remaining intraconference division twice on the road.

Each team will play two games against each interconference opponent (30 total games per team), with each pairing featuring one home game and one road game.