OKLAHOMA CITY — After a summer spent trying to improve their young roster, the Oklahoma City Thunder will get an early chance to see where they stack up against the NBA's best.
The NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers and the team they beat in the Finals, Orlando, will both visit the Ford Center within the first two weeks of the upcoming season. The Lakers will visit Oklahoma City on Nov. 3 in the Thunder's third home game of the regular season. The Magic come to town five days later.
The Thunder also play the Eastern and Western Conference champions again on the road within the first month of the season.
"We have a great slate of home games to start the second season of Thunder basketball. Our November schedule promises some exciting nights, with the Lakers, Magic and Clippers all coming to Oklahoma City within the first five games," Senior Vice President of Ticket Sales and Service Brian Byrnes said.
The Clippers, featuring No. 1 overall pick Blake Griffin from Oklahoma, will play their only game at the Ford Center on Nov. 15 in one of only three games scheduled to be on national television. Other highlights of the schedule released Tuesday include LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers playing for the only time in Oklahoma City on Dec. 13 and visits from the New Orleans Hornets -- who played most of two seasons in Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina -- on Jan. 6 and March 10.
Oklahoma City got off to a brutal 3-29 start before improving down the stretch last season. General manager Sam Presti has spent the offseason tinkering with the roster, waiving veteran guard Earl Watson and replacing him with Kevin Ollie and also swapping guards Damien Wilkins and Chucky Atkins for center Etan Thomas.
Oklahoma City will open its season Oct. 28 with a home game against Sacramento but then play nine of its next 14 games on the road before a season-long five game home stand starting the day after Thanksgiving. While the Lakers and Magic make up four of the first 14 games, there are also five games in that stretch against Sacramento, the Clippers and Washington -- the only three teams to finish last season with worse records than Oklahoma City.
After having no home games on Saturdays last season, the Thunder have three this season -- including one against Charlotte the day after Christmas. There are 10 games on Sundays and nine on Friday nights.
The regular season finale is an April 14 home game against Memphis.
share on: facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment