Familiar teams dominate NBA TV lineup
NBA fans will get a smorgasbord of LeBron James in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform, the all-star lineup of the defending champion Golden State Warriors, the Houston Rockets and the up-andcoming Boston Celtics as part of the league’s national television schedule.
The NBA released its TV schedule for the first week of the season, Christmas Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Wednesday, and those teams are prominently featured. James Harden and the Rockets will appear three times on U.S. national television in the opening week of the season, while the Lakers, Warriors and Celtics will be featured twice.
The highlight of the coveted Christmas Day games is James facing a familiar foe — Stephen Curry and the Warriors — for a fourth straight year, only this time James will be wearing Lakers colours.
The Warriors, who added centre DeMarcus Cousins in the offseason, feature a lineup with five NBA all-stars.
The Toronto Raptors were once again denied a Christmas game, despite pulling off a blockbuster trade to acquire superstar Kawhi Leonard last month.
The Raptors have made the Christmas schedule only once, a 102-94 loss at New York in 2001 at the height of the Vince Carter era in Toronto.
Toronto has two nationally televised games in the U.S. during opening week: Oct. 19 against visiting Boston on ESPN and Oct. 20 at Washington on NBA TV.
The other Christmas Day games include Kyrie Irving and the Celtics hosting the young but talented Philadelphia 76ers. The Rockets, who came within a game of knocking off the Warriors in the Western Conference finals last season, will host the Oklahoma City Thunder, while Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks visit the New York Knicks and the Portland Trail Blazers visit the Utah Jazz.
The featured MLK Day games includes a Warriors-Lakers rematch — this time in Los Angeles — while the 76ers host the Rockets, and Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans visit the Memphis Grizzlies.
The NBA season begins Oct. 16 with TNT televising the 76ers at the Celtics and the Thunder at the Warriors.