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Last week, the NBA announced the regular season schedules for all 30 NBA teams. The Wizards will open their 2021-22 season, presented by Capital One, on October 20 in Toronto and will play their first home game of the season on October 22 against the Pacers. Here, we take a look at the full schedule by the numbers, breaking down key data points surrounding total games, time away from D.C., travel distance, day-by-day breakdowns and more.
82 – The Wizards are scheduled to play 82 regular season games – 41 at home and 41 on the road – a return to normal for the NBA after two consecutive shortened seasons. The 2019-20 regular season was cut unexpectedly short due to the pandemic while the 2020-21 regular season was shortened to 72 games to account for a brief offseason.
36 – Of the Wizards’ 82 regular season games, 36 will be played on weekends. Washington will play 13 games on Friday, 14 games on Saturday and nine games on Sunday. Of the 36 weekend games, 21 will be played at home, including eight home Friday games and eight home Saturday games. Washington is scheduled to play 18 games on Wednesdays, the most of any single day.
139.7 – Washington opens its home schedule on Friday, October 22, hosting the Indiana Pacers at Capital One Arena in a rematch of one of the Wizards’ most exciting series last season. In three meetings with Indiana (all wins), Washington averaged 139.7 points per game, including a 154-point offensive outburst on May 3.
11 – The Wizards will hit the road for the longest road trip of the season in mid-December, playing six games away from D.C. over the course of 11 days, returning home just before Christmas. In that time, Washington will travel to Denver (December 13), Sacramento (December 15), Phoenix (December 16), Utah (December 18), Brooklyn (December 21) and New York (December 23).
38,000 – Over the course of the entire season, the Wizards are expected to travel an estimated 38,000 miles.
15 – Just a couple weeks after their longest road stretch of the season, Washington is rewarded with its longest homestand since 1984, playing eight consecutive games over the course of 15 days at Capital One Arena. From January 11 to January 25, the Wizards will host the Thunder (January 11), Magic (January 12), Trail Blazers (January 15), Sixers (January 17), Nets (January 19), Raptors (January 21), Celtics (January 23) and Clippers (January 25).
13 – The Wizards are scheduled to play 13 back-to-backs over the course of the season, their first coming on October 27-28 against the Celtics in Boston and the Hawks in Washington. The Wizards’ 13 back-to-backs come in just below the league-wide average of 13.5.
16 – Washington is scheduled to play 16 games in the month of March, the most of any single month this season. The Wizards will play 15 apiece in November and December, 14 in January, 10 in February and six apiece in October and April.