Sacramento Kings’ schedule unveiled as NBA releases first-half slate for 2020-21 season
The Kings will play 10 of their first 14 games at home under the schedule the NBA unveiled Friday for the first half of the 2020-21 season.
The Kings will play the Denver Nuggets in their season opener Dec. 23 at Ball Arena in Denver. They will play their home opener against the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 26 at Golden 1 Center. The Kings will play 38 games in the first half of the season, including 20 at home.
Sacramento will start the season with seven tough games against Western Conference foes. They will play the Nuggets, Suns and Houston Rockets twice before concluding that stretch against the Golden State Warriors.
The Kings will have a seven-game home stand from Jan. 6-17 with games against the Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Portland Trail Blazers, Indiana Pacers, Blazers, Los Angeles Clippers and New Orleans Pelicans. Sacramento will set out on a six-game road trip Jan. 24-Feb. 1 to play the Memphis Grizzlies (2), Orlando Magic, Raptors (Tampa Bay), Miami Heat and Pelicans.
The NBA has put provisions in place for teams to welcome fans back to their arenas as local health restrictions permit, but the Kings said games at Golden 1 Center will be played without fans to start the season. The team said it made that determination in accordance with state and local health guidelines to slow the spread of COVID-19, and out of an abundance of caution for the health and wellbeing of the community and fans.
The NBA previously announced the national television schedule for opening night and Christmas Day. The Warriors will visit the Brooklyn Nets and the Clippers will face the Lakers in season openers. The Christmas Day slate features the Pelicans vs. Heat; Warriors vs. Milwaukee Bucks; Nets vs. Boston Celtics; Dallas Mavericks vs. Lakers; and Clippers vs. Nuggets.
The Kings will play the Warriors and Lakers only once during the first half. They will visit the Warriors Jan. 4 and play host to the Lakers on March 3. NBATV will broadcast Sacramento’s Jan. 2 road game against the Rockets and a Feb. 6 home game against the Nuggets.
The second-half schedule will be released at a later date. That portion of the schedule will include the remainder of each team’s 72-game season as well as any games postponed during the first half that can reasonably be added to the second-half schedule, the league said.
The NBA and National Basketball Players Association agreed in November to play a shortened 72-game season beginning Dec. 22. Each team will play 42 conference games and 30 nonconference games.
According to the league, each team will play three games against each opponent in its conference with each pairing featuring either two home games and one road game or one home game and two road games. Within each team’s division, the league office has randomly assigned which two opponents will be played twice at home and which two opponents will be played twice on the road.
All five teams from within a division will play all five teams from one other intraconference division twice at home, and all five teams from the remaining intraconference division twice on the road. Each team will play two games against each opponent in the other conference with each pairing featuring one home game and one road game.
Unlike the 2019-20 restart following the coronavirus shutdown in March, the NBA will not have the benefit of a bubble. Teams will travel and play games in home arenas, although steps have been taken to reduce travel.
In some cases, instead of jumping from city to city virtually every day during road trips, teams will remain in the same city to play the same team a second time, eliminating the need for a return trip later in the season. The Kings, for example, will have a back-to-back set at home against the Suns Dec. 26-27. They will have back-to-back road sets against the Rockets Dec. 31-Jan. 2 and the Memphis Grizzlies Jan. 24-25.
The first half of the season will end March 4. The All-Star Break will be observed March 5-10, though there will be no All-Star game. The second half of the season will begin March 11 and the regular season will end May 16.
Building on one of the NBA’s bubble experiments, the league will hold a play-in tournament for the final two playoff berths in each conference May 18-21. The playoffs will begin May 22 and end by July 22.
Last week the NBA released preseason schedules for all 30 teams with 49 games scheduled to be played from Dec. 11-19. The Kings will play four games against two Pacific Division foes.
Rookie first-round draft pick Tyrese Haliburton will make his preseason debut with De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield and Marvin Bagley III when the Kings open up on the road against the Blazers on Dec. 11. Sacramento will remain in Portland to play the Blazers again Dec. 13 at Moda Center.
The Kings will then come home to close out their preseason schedule with two home games against the Warriors. The Kings and Warriors will play Dec. 15 and Dec. 17 at Golden 1 Center, which has not hosted an NBA game since the 2019-20 season was suspended March 11 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 12:19 PM.
