Story By: Richard Thomas
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
The Washington Wizards announced their 2015-16 regular season schedule today, including their home opener on Saturday, Oct. 31, against the New York Knicks. This is the first time the Wizards have played a home opener on Halloween night
The Wizards tip off the beginning of the season with a two-game road trip when they visit the Magic on Wednesday, Oct. 28, in Orlando, then travel to Milwaukee to face the Bucks on Friday, Oct. 30. The first two weeks of November feature the lone visits to Verizon Center by the San Antonio Spurs on Nov. 4 and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 10. Overall, the Wizards will play 18 of their 41 home games on the weekend (Friday-Sunday), with six of those dates coming on Friday and eight falling on Saturday.
The Wizards’ 2015-16 schedule includes 13 nationally-televised games (three on ESPN, two on TNT and eight on NBA TV), highlighted by a Feb. 3 match-up at Verizon Center against the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors on ESPN. The schedule also features two visits from the Cleveland Cavaliers on Jan. 6 and Feb. 28 and the lone visits from the Chicago Bulls (March 16), Los Angeles Lakers (Dec. 2), Los Angeles Clippers (Dec. 28) and the Houston Rockets (Dec. 9). The Wizards will host the Portland Trail Blazers in a Martin Luther King Day matinee match-up on Jan. 18. The home finale will take place on April 13 when the Wizards host the Atlanta Hawks.
The Wizards’ longest home stand is a four game stretch from Jan. 1 – Jan. 7, while the longest road trip will take place from March 27 – April 3 and consists of five games. Washington will have a four-game trip from Dec. 11 – 16 where they will face New Orleans, Dallas, Memphis and San Antonio. The team will embark on two west coast swings, the first consisting of Portland, Utah and Denver from March 8 – 12 and the second from March 27 – April 3 when they will face the Lakers, Warriors, Kings, Suns and Clippers. There are 19 back-to-backs scheduled and one set of four games in five nights. Last season, Washington had 19 back-to-back sets and played four games in five nights four times.
Each team in the Eastern Conference will visit Verizon Center twice with the exception of Brooklyn (April 6) and Chicago (March 16), while the Wizards will visit New York (Feb. 9) and Indiana (Jan. 15) only once during the regular season.
