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The first normal offseason in three years has led to some quiet time around the NBA ever since Summer League wrapped up in Las Vegas about a month ago. That finally changed on Wednesday afternoon with the always much-anticipated annual schedule release. As for the Charlotte Hornets, who they’re going to play this season was already pre-determined – the excitement lies in the when, where and even how these games will transpire.
- The Hornets will open on the road in San Antonio on Wednesday, Oct. 19, making this their first season opener against a Western Conference team since Oct. 18, 2013, when they lost in Houston, 96-83. This will mark the team’s first-ever season opener against San Antonio.
- For the second time in franchise history, Charlotte’s home opener on Friday, Oct. 21 will also be against a Western Conference opponent – this time the New Orleans Pelicans. The only other home opener against a Western Conference team was a 109-107 loss to Oklahoma City on Dec. 26, 2020.
- This will be the first time in franchise history that the Hornets will open the regular season with two consecutive games against Western Conference opponents.
- Charlotte will play four of its first five regular season games on the road for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign and just the second time overall in the last 12 years.
- The defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors will come to town on Saturday, Oct. 29. Charlotte has won three straight home games against the Warriors and four of their six meetings overall since the start of the 2019-20 NBA campaign.
- The first of the Hornets’ three nationally-televised games (at least for now) will be in Chicago on Wednesday, Nov. 2 on ESPN. They’ll face the Bulls again at home on Thursday, Jan. 26 (TNT) and then play the Celtics in Boston on Friday, Feb. 10 (ESPN).
- There will be five sequences of playing the same team two times in a row in the same location this season: at Miami (Nov. 10 and 12), at Toronto (Jan. 10 and 12), vs. Boston (Jan. 14 and 16), vs. Cleveland (March 12 and 14) and vs. Toronto (April 2 and 4).
- The Hornets will host Minnesota the day after Thanksgiving – Friday, Nov. 25 – for the second straight year. They beat the Timberwolves, 133-115, on Friday, Nov. 26, 2021 thanks to a then-franchise-record-tying 23 3-pointers.
- Six of Charlotte’s eight Southeast Divisional road outings take place across a 16-game stretch between Sunday, Oct. 23 and Sunday, Nov. 20 (Atlanta, Orlando, Miami twice, Orlando again and Washington).
- Charlotte only has one really long Western Conference road trip this season – a six-game gauntlet featuring a pair of back-to-backs running from Sunday, Dec. 18 to Tuesday, Dec. 27 (Denver, Sacramento, LA Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland and Golden State). This is the fourth time in five years that the Hornets have had a continuous six-game all-Western Conference road trip.
- With Memphis scheduled to play in Golden State on Sunday, Dec. 25, the Hornets are now the lone NBA team that will have never played on Christmas Day.
- The Hornets will host Brooklyn on Saturday, Dec. 31, marking the team’s first home game on New Year’s Eve since Dec. 31, 2019, which ended with a 109-92 loss to Boston.
- Charlotte will host Boston on Monday, Jan. 16 at 1 PM ET on NBATV, marking the team’s first day game at home on Martin Luther King Jr. Day since a 124-119 double-overtime victory over Utah on Jan. 18, 2016. Kemba Walker had a then franchise-record 52 points in this contest and now-Hornet Gordon Hayward poured in 36 points for the Jazz.
- The Hornets have won three consecutive day games at home on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. They also beat Minnesota, 105-80, on Jan. 19, 2015 and Toronto, 100-95, on Jan. 20, 2014. Their most recent such loss was to Houston, 100-94, on Jan. 21, 2013.
- Charlotte will play three consecutive home games (Denver, Atlanta and San Antonio) heading into the NBA All-Star Break, which runs from Thursday, Feb. 16 to Thursday, Feb. 23. Utah will host NBA All-Star Weekend for the first time since 1993 and second time overall.
- The longest homestand of the season for the Hornets will run from Saturday, March 11 to Monday, March 20 and features five games against Utah, Cleveland (twice in a row), Philadelphia and Indiana.
- Three of the Hornets’ final 13 regular season games will be against Cleveland, a team that finished just one game ahead of them in the Eastern Conference standings last year.
- Four of Charlotte’s final five regular season games will be at home for the first time since the 1997-98 campaign. This stretch features a four-game homestand from Friday, March 31 to Tuesday, April 4 (Chicago, Toronto twice in a row and Houston) followed by the regular season finale in Cleveland on Sunday, April 9.
- The Hornets will face every Western Conference team twice (home and away) and every Eastern Conference team four times (two home, two away), with the exception of four opponents. Milwaukee and New York (one home, two away) and Indiana and Philadelphia (two home, one away) will all be three-game season series.
- There are 12 back-to-backs on the schedule this season – tied for the fewest in the league and down from 15 in 2021-22 – although only two are entirely at home (tied for the fewest) and five are entirely on the road. Charlotte went 2-13 on the second night of back-to-backs last season (41-26 with at least one day of rest) and certainly needs to improve its production in this particular area this upcoming season.
- Of the team’s 82 regular season games, 68 of them will have even rest, meaning the Hornets and their opponent both played or both did not play the day before (does not factor in any travel). Charlotte will have five games with a rest advantage (only opponent played the day before) and then nine games with a rest disadvantage (only opponent did not play the day before).
- The most successful days of the week for the Hornets to play on last season were Friday (12-5; .706 winning percentage), Wednesday (14-7; .667), Thursday (2-1; .667) and Sunday (6-6; .500), while the least successful days were Tuesday (0-4; .000), Monday (6-11; .353) and Saturday (3-5; .375).
- This season, the Hornets will play 18 games on Friday (nine home, nine away), 14 on Wednesday (seven home, seven away), 13 on Monday (eight home, five away), 12 on Sunday (five home, seven away), 10 on Saturday (eight home, two away), eight on Tuesday (two home, six away) and seven on Thursday (two home, five away).