Breaking Down the 2022-23 NBA Schedule

about Ben Simmons and Tyler my hero. Things are still popping in the streets all the way in August. Some say I am the only one right now making NBA podcasts. Everyone else's on vacation twenty two, twenty twenty three season is here, So do me a favor and drop that beat. Uh Rihanna should not happen Spotify. How do we get CDs skipping on Spotify? Jesus, I just had PTSD for

my high school years. Really quick. If you're old enough to have a CD, think about the last time you heard a song skip and how that just messed up the entire vibe of your life and how we don't really have to deal with that anymore except for when the Internet goes down. So just real quick, NBA season has. The schedule has Finally, that means the NBA season is right around the corner and we got it in. They'd like to do it like drugs, just a quick, little

slow trickle. First and foremost. They give you the Christmas Day slates, Get a couple of Christmas Day games, interesting Election Day evening slates, which is just a wild new packaging of marketing. Here finally, key matchups before they drop the whole enchilada in our laps, let's break it down. Christmas Day. Christmas Day has gotta be the NBA's version of NFL on Thanksgiving Full Day of hoops? Is there someone over there that I don't know? Is there anybody

over there? Oh? I thought you saw somebody. Christmas Day has become the NBA version of NFL Thanksgiving Full Day of basketball. This year, seven of the final eight teams alive in the playoffs last season got Christmas Day games. The odd man out is, of course, the most boring NBA team that is succeeding the Miami Heat. Unfortunately, poor pat Riley he makes the Eastern Conference Finals multiple times in multiple years, has a Jimmy Buckets three pointer away

from going back to the finals again. Can't even get a squeak. Can't even get a peep of the biggest day of the NBA season. Here's the Christmas Day rundown seventy six Ers Knicks. I was gonna wait for the full slate for me to tell you before I gave a reaction, But ugh, ugh, who wants to see that? Does anyone? Does anyone care about that tea?

I didn't even notice that until it just now because I was so deep in the weeds in the full season, But that is not a game that anyone is circling on their schedule unless they're a die hard Purple and Gold fan of the Lakers. Sun's at Nuggets I guess, I mean, okay, that's fine, Like that was the original Suns and four guy, so maybe holl show back up. I don't know what's happening here, but the final two amazing Bucks at Celtics and Eastern Conference semi matchup went

seven games, some people are saying. Some people are saying that if Chris Middleton didn't go down, then the Bucks would have won and probably would have gone back to the finals. But not me. I am much too classy for that. But some are saying that now we get to see what a real matchup looks like with a fully Milwaukee team versus a fully baked Celtics team. Also really fun considering that maybe Kevin Durant is there at this point, who knows, not sure. And then finally the

Memphis Grizzlies versus the Warriors. I am so excited to see a fully healthy Ja Morant play this Warriors team at Chase Center. This is the game we have all been hoping for and praying for and waiting for so Ja Morant and the Warriors, well, really, the Memphis Grizzlies and the Warriors out as a whole have been going back and forth all off season, creating a little drama between the two. There's a rivalry, they're saying. Ja Moran is saying that the Warriors have a spot in their heads.

The Memphis Grizzlies live in their heads. Rent Free, you've got issues with Klay Thompson and Jaron Jackson Junior going back and forth on Twitter. I wondered everyone's wondering will these two teams get the NBA Christmas Day game? Like jaw was saying, yes, they did, and John Rant tweeted at Draymond afterwards and said, we got what we wanted, Dre. Draymond responded, that's the power of your voice, young king.

Let's go bring the fam to the crib for dinner after If you think things are nicely nicey between these two teams, because they have a little nice Twitter exchange, remember that the grizz have this quote from Draymond plastered on a chalkboard inside of their weight room that says, quote, Memphis is going to get their reality check and then they have tally marks right next to it. I don't know what that means. It's probably like pr or like weight.

How many five hundred pound reps Ja Morant did, It's like seventy five on the tally chart. It's gonna be the best game on the slate. I'm gonna do whatever I can in my power to go to this game. One because I love the Memphis Grizzlies. Two because I have a Warriors Finals ticket already in my pocket. Two Warriors fans hate me, so why not show up at Chase Center See how it feels to be there since the Suns in four, nine and one fiasco all went down. I love this for both teams. New sneaky rivalry I

think will continue to persist throughout time. Super fun schedule outside of the whole Knicks and the Sun's Nuggets thing. Opening night games are gonna be fun as well. Here's a sample of what we have to look forward to here as some select games that I picked out. Phoenix at Dallas is October nineteenth. The last time that we saw these two teams play. The entire Phoenix Sun's roster had COVID. Nobody knew many Williams was throwing DeAndre eighton

underneath the bus with low key, shady comments. The world thought DeAndre Ayton would never be in a Sun's uniform ever again, and things seemed to spiral. The championship windows started to close for the Phoenix Suns after this game Game seven against the Dallas Mavericks, and now at least we know Suns are running it back one more time.

The MAVs have no Jalen Brunson, So now it's a steady dose of Probably Luca is, let's be honest, sixty pounds lighter now than he was coming into camp last year because he came in thirty pounds heavier than he was supposed to be at the start of camp, they said last year. And now he's probably twenty to twenty five thirty pounds lighter than he was at the start or at peak season. So you're talking about a sixty pounds swing for Luka Donciins. What's that mean? Nightmares for

the rest of the league is what that means? That means Luka Donciins is gonna win MVP. If we've only seen fat fluffy eating Croatian sweet treat, Luca hanging on the beach and now Lucas I'm taking his freaking training Seriously, Luca is going to set the world on fire. I tell you what, that's gonna be a game you might when I give you this matchup, you're gonna wonder why I even said it. Portland at Sacramento October nineteenth. What a wild opener. This is like like, no one cares

about US Portland Trail Blazers, No one cares. I love Sacramento, I do. I've said so many positive things about Sacramento, rooting for them. They're the little engine that won't and and I'm really hoping that they turn things around. No shade to sack Town. But when you have to play the Kings on opening night, it's bad in the streets for your team. The Blazers and the Kings. They were just the last two teams left after the NBA picked their opening night matchups. It was like, oh, who's left?

Kings Blazers. Sounds fine. They're in the same division that nobody even knows exists. I bet you don't even know that the Northwest Division exists in the NBA, and that the winner of the Northwest Division gets something that will be decided at a later date. It's true. The sad part is the Blazers played the Utah Jazz last year on opening Night, the number one overall seed in the prior year. That's how far the Blazers have fallen. Damian Lillard just gets a little stomach injury and all of

a sudden things come rolling down. That is the effects of tanking. You are now an irrelevant team you decided to go after Oh yeah, how many games into the season. By the way, do you think it takes for us to see shade and sharp all that that tanking yielded us? If you want to say maybe I'm pessimistic, maybe I am, But that is a shady ass matchup for a team that has been to the playoffs every year outside of

last Sheer Flight the last two decades. Celtics at home against the seventy six ers on October eighteenth, got of a low key little rivalry between these two teams. And maybe maybe we'll see Katie and Kelly Green then if if that's the case, we're gonna see Kevin Durant facing his new bestie, James Harden. He's been parleying in Europe with him all year, all summer he's been in London, he's been in sandro Pei. They're going to soccer matches,

they're seeing new movies and concerts. Travis Scott. I thought Travis Scott was canceled. What happened to that? Anyway, game's gonna be out outrageous through the roof New York. At Memphis opening night October nineteenth, someone said, oh, look, Memphis gets a bye bye week. That's rude. That is not even anything I would ever say, But that's funny. So I figured I would make mention of it on the podcast. I like Brunson on the Knicks, here's a little here's

a little inside behind the curtains. So I met up with a couple of people. I'm not gonna say who, but I met up with a couple of prominent people on the Knicks, and I was like, oh, love the brunts and pickup. That's awesome, good stuff there, And do you think anything else gonna come down the horizon? What's happening there? And they were like, gotta get Tibbs some more talent on this team. Have they added more talent

since then? No? They have not. Do they feel if you're looking at it and you say Are the New York Knicks satisfied with this current roster? Absolutely fucking not. And the Memphis Grizzlies are a wagon. This is gonna be an absolute beat down. But remember New York looked good. Remember Bing Bong Bing Bong early early season Knicks or something to behold. So maybe this is a spot where the Knicks can actually get one as underdogs New Orleans

at Brooklyn is October nineteenth. They're billing this game. This is how you know. It's just they're billing this as Zion versus Ben Simmons. That just tells you everything you need to know about the state of the Brooklyn Nets. Ben Simmons. They're marketing, We're marketing Ben Simmons. Now, does anyone actually believe that Zion or Ben Simmons is even

gonna play these games? What? Don't even get me started on the fact that Zion is now telling the world that we bullied him because he can't be in shape and he went to a dark place, which we know just leads him to eating more and being less in shape. If you don't want people to point out that you're three hundred and seventy five pounds, maybe don't be three hundred and seventy five pounds and be a professional athlete, be a professional eater. Miami at Chicago, October nineteenth. This

is a boring matchup. Unfortunately, that's a hit. I so want to be excited about this matchup, but they are just not really that exciting. I had two weeks where I liked the Bulls when DeRozan was hitting game winners and they look like they could be fun. And Lonzo Ball had two functioning knees and Alex Crusoe hadn't had a concussion yet, and Vucevich wasn't a defensive liability, or at least we didn't know how bad he was. I mean,

I don't even know why this is an opening. This is the I guess, second tier level of the shady matchup between Sacramento and Portland. Like this is about as exciting as that to me. I might even watch Sacramento

Portland over this, truthfully. Lakers at Clippers October twentieth. Kawhi's return is against ad Lebron and perhaps Russ Perhaps maybe he'll be Hey, maybe sit these out for a little while we're working on something the back burner just don't bring any attention but just maybe take a vacation like Tom Brady did in the beginning of training camp. They I like that they open against each other because they do this every year and that means no travel for

either one of them. It's like the one short cut loophole that they each have. How many times they need to do this, I don't know. Should be a fun game for the Clippers, not so fun. This is the smack your face matchup for the Lakers, Like, oh shit, we really don't got it. Like that question that I have is how many more games will it take for Anthony Davis to be in street clothes? Yeah? Like game

four games? Maybe maybe this game, maybe he'll take a hard fall and he'll be in street clothes by halftime. Milwaukee at Philadelphia October twentieth. These last two opening games are pretty exciting. On October twentieth, TNT headlined by Bucks and Sixers. I'm really excited to see if James hardness fitting into his warm up suit. I am excited to see whether Joel Embiid is fully healthy, how he's feel after being snubbed from the French national team in the summer.

So that's a fun matchup as well. Other key matchup dates to circle on your calendar. Orlando at Atlanta's October twenty first. So you might say, why is that a key matchup? This is how you know that the league lies to us when they say they don't want drama. They don't want any drama. They just want to focus on the games. They just want to make sure that we highlight the elite athleticism from these young players. Why do we have to make everything about storylines? You're I mean,

you're lying. It's Dejonte versus Poollo. After Jonte and Palo get into some little scuffle in the middle of a pro am and then they go back and forth on Twitter and Instagram and all the little social media apps like you don't want to wait for this little thing to cool off. No, you want to stoke the fire and have them play the first weekend of the NBA season so that everybody can talk about it. We can put it on our little pregame panels. Probably TNT Charles

Barkley making fun of Pallo making fun of Dejonte. Two Pacific Northwest guys from Seattle have never accomplished anything yet in the NBA level, and all of a sudden, they want to like create something. The league is the drama? Am I the drama? I don't think I'm the drama. Yes, yes, Adam Silver, you are Utah at Minnesota. The Rudy Gobert revenge game example number two of the league deciding to capitalize on drama. Yes, Like, is Donovan Mitchell still playing?

If Donovan Mitchell is still playing for the Utah Jazz at this moment, that will be an electric factory. Those two going after each other. Rudy Gobert hard fouling Donovan Mitchell in the paint, talking about how he never paid as to him, so many opportunities for jokes. Maybe Donovan Mitchell is not going to be there, but I really really hope he is. Houston versus Dallas November sixteen. People are billing this the Christian would Revenge game. I actually

don't know if this is a key date. I just thought I would. I thought I would label it the Christian would Revenge Game. Bobon's return to Dallas. He was a beloved figure for the MAVs. I mean, there's not going to be many many dates that you want to circle on your calendar of the Houston Rockets. They will be fun. They will not win many games. They'll probably be fun to like a Little League pass team, but they're not going to accomplish months. We'll talk more about

them in the Victor Wambaiana Sweepstakes in a bit. Brooklyn at Philadelphia November twenty second. Yes, Ben Simmons return to Philadelphia. This is a game I might go to. It's a game I might have to pull up in a Ben Simmons Jersey, Philadelphia, Ben Simmons Jersey and see what's up. Hostile environment in Philly. I don't know if he'll make the trip ever to Philly. If I was him, I would always schedule doctor's appointments for or dentists and dentists

appointments for these dates like I have a toothache. I have to go see moy orthodontist. Uh, I'm sorry, I can't make it. Was really looking forward to it. I would be shocked to see him at this game. I've said this story a million times. I asked Ben Simmons one question about him and his relationship with Kendall Jenner, and he literally picked up his suitcase and he left. There's no shot he's there, right, The odds on Ben Simmons playing in this game at Wells Fargo Arena. It's

gotta be like plus four fifty. I'll give you five to one odds to this. Clippers at Golden State November twenty three, probably a preview of the Western Conference Finals. These two teams have three of the two of the three best odds to win it all. Golden State plus six hundred, Clippers plus seven hundred to win it all. Yes, it is true. So that's gonna be a really fun game.

I can't wait to see Paul George. I can't wait to see Kawhi and all of the depth that they've added since Kawhi went down with Norm Powell and Robert Covington and all those guys. Boston at Golden State is December tenth, NBA Finals return game. Kind of surprise, this wasn't a Christmas Day game, but again, NBA is stoking the tea and Memphis is a hotter matchup with Golden State than Boston, And if they were to do it, they would have had to play Golden State would have

had to play in Boston. And you can't have the defending champs play in Boston when unless you're the Milwaukee Bucks because I think they did that last year. That's just a shady thing to do to a defending champ, so I'm glad they didn't do that. He played the Spurs in Mexico City December seventeenth. The g League has

a team right now in Mexico City this year. This is probably not a game I would travel to Mexico to watch, given that I've already referenced how boring the Heat are to watch play, and that the Spurs are, even when they are elite, very boring, and now they are very boring and tanking. So probably not a game that you're going to circle on your calendar to travel to. But the league is also just an interesting wrinkle not going to have any games on Election Day this year.

They are going to be playing on Monday on what the NBA is deeming a civic engagement night that will encourage people to vote in the midterms. Kind of love that the entire schedule, by the way, is downloadable in PDF form from NBA dot com for both dates and by team. I would love to know, dm me get me on Twitter. What games are you guys looking forward

to the most? Which games that I leave out? What team do you think has the least amount of nationally televised games that should have more, and who has It's the Lakers. We know that the Lakers have too many nationally and don't even answer. We know the Lakers have the most amount of nationally televised games that they show do not deserve, but yes, check that out, hopefully seeing you at some of these games. I am so glad that the NBA season is fully here now that we have the schedule in play,