The NBA released its full schedule on Thursday, and the Charlotte Hornets did their own anime-style reveal of it.
So it’s time to go game by game and count the wins.
Or we can just look at the calendar as a whole and see what jumps out.
* The Hornets get a winnable matchup at home against the Nets to start the season. That’s followed by road games against the 76ers, Wizards, and Heat. It’s a decent chance to set the tone for the season.
* On the other end, the Hornets have a prime opportunity to make a late run. 10 of their last 14 games will be in the friendly confines of Spectrum Center. If they are anywhere near contention for anything, the schedule sets up nicely for them to take it.
* Despite having such a home heavy home stretch, there aren’t any egregious stretches of away games like there was last season. There’s a five game Western Conference road trip in mid January and a four game Western Conference road trip against some softer opposition in March. That’s about as bad as it gets.
* The Hornets have three nationally televised games, all on different networks:
* Mon Dec 22 at Cleveland Cavaliers on Peacock
* Wed Jan 21 vs Cleveland Cavaliers on ESPN
* Sat Jan 31 vs San Antonio Spurs on Amazon Prime
* I don’t know how the new streaming platforms are going to look and what their scheduling is like, but I am excited to see the Hornets making appearances on them.
* The Hornets host the Warriors at 1:00 in the afternoon on New Years Eve. Might be a fun way to spend the day before the festivities in the evening.
* On the holiday theme, the Hornets have home games against the Knicks and Bulls on either side of Thanksgiving if you want to make plans with the family.
* Without counting, it seems like the Hornets have an inordinate number of earlier games compared to year’s past. There are a few matinees and a lot of the weekend games are at 6:00pm local time, both at home and on the road.
We have just over two months until we have Hornets basketball back on our screens. Time to start making arrangements to watch and/or attend way more games than many would deem to be responsible.
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