The Golden State Warriors begin their title defense on Oct. 27, at 10:30 p.m. ET, against Anthony Davis’ New Orleans Pelicans. This means an early reunion with Alvin Gentry, who left his Golden State assistant coaching job for the head position in New Orleans.
Here are some other highlights from their 2015-16 itinerary:
• Though the NBA has cut the average amount of back-to-back games to 17.8 per team, the Warriors will play a league-high 20 such sets this season. The only other teams with as many are Houston and Detroit.
• The Warriors are participants in 25 nationally televised games (five on ABC, 10 on ESPN, 10 on TNT). That’s the most Golden State has ever received, which makes some sense considering that the team just won the championship. The only other team with as many nationally televised games is Cleveland.
• Speaking of Cleveland, the Warriors host LeBron James’ Cavaliers on Christmas Day at 5 p.m. ET on ABC. They also visit the Cavs on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at 8 p.m. ET on TNT.
• The Warriors will see Gentry again on Halloween in New Orleans when the Warriors again face off against Anthony Davis and his Pelicans.
• David Lee returns to Oracle with the Boston Celtics on April Fool’s Day. Make of that what you will.
• The Warriors play 15 of their last 21 games at home, but that final stretch isn’t so easy: The last four games of the season are San Antonio, at Memphis, at San Antonio, Memphis.
In summary, the Warriors have a difficult schedule -- plenty of back-to-backs, plenty of travel. Some of that is partially a result of their recent success. It’s hard to schedule a team for a lot of nationally televised games without squeezing in back-to-backs. Fortunately for Golden State, they also have a deep team with which to attack this schedule. Optimism is warranted, even if a repeat of 67 wins is unlikely.
