Blazers only play the Warriors three times in the regular season and two of them are home games. Can't bitch about that scheduling. Although, it looks like I'm going to have to convince Mrs. e_blazer that watching a Blazers/Warriors game is in fact a romantic way to spend Valentine's Day.
Wow only two five game road trips? Not bad And in October/November we have ten out of eleven games at home for one stretch. That'll be nice to gain some momentum.
GAMES BY MONTH October: 7 (3 away, 4 home) November: 15 (7 away, 8 home) December: 13 (7 away, 6 home) January: 16 (9 away, 7 home) February: 10 (6 away, 4 home) March: 15 (5 away, 10 home) April: 6 (4 away, 2 home) ROAD TRIPS One game: 7 Two games: 2 Three games: 4 Four games: 2 Five games: 2 BACK-TO-BACKS: 15 (same as last year) BACK-TO-BACKS BY MONTH October: 1 (Road/Road) November: 3 (Road/Home, Road/Home, Road/Road) December: 2 (Road/Road, Home/Road) January: 4 (Road/Road, Road/Road, Road/Home) February: 3 (Road/Road, Home/Road, Road/Road) March: 3 (Road/Home, Home/Road, Road/Road) April: 0 BACK-TO-BACKS BY TYPE Road/Road: 8 Road/Home: 4 Home/Road: 3 GAMES BY DAY OF THE WEEK Monday: 11 Tuesday: 13 Wednesday: 11 Thursday: 9 Friday: 15 Saturday: 14 Sunday: 9 NATIONAL TV GAMES: 11 (6 on ESPN, 5 on TNT) WESTERN CONFERENCE OPPONENTS WITH ONLY THREE GAMES Dallas Mavericks (one home, two road), Los Angeles Lakers (one home, two road) (1H/2A), San Antonio Spurs (two home, one road), Golden State Warriors (two home, one road) A few notes… • One assumes it’ll be important for the Trail Blazers to get off to a good start in 2017-18, something they’ve struggled to do the last two season, considering they play nine of their first 14 games at the Moda Center and finish the year playing seven of their last 10 games on the road. Also worth noting that after starting the season with a three-game road trip, Portland plays nine of their next 10 games at home over the course of 25 days. • With four back-to-backs, nine road games and 16 games overall, January is the easy pick for Portland’s most difficult month this season. Honorable mention goes to April for packing in a bunch of tough games into a two-week stretch. Easiest month is a tossup between November and March, with March winning out due to a fewer number of road games. • The Trail Blazers haven’t played on Christmas Day since the 2010-11 season, and that doesn’t change in 2017-18. Portland also will not play on the Martin Luther Kind Jr. holiday this season either. But they’re playing on January 1 again, which is a nice way to break up the ubiquity of New Year’s college football bowl games. http://www.nba.com/blazers/forwardcenter/portlands-2017-18-schedule-home-early-road-late
The most obvious change is moving up the start date of the regular season. After starting the 2016-17 season on October 25, the Trail Blazers will begin their 2017-18 campaign with a three-game road trip starting October 18, a full week earlier than last season, versus the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena. The regular season has gradually started earlier the last few years — Portland started the 2016-17 season three days earlier than the 2015-16 season — though pushing up the start date to mid-October this year is easily the most drastic scheduling change since the All-Star break was extended a few seasons ago. Another change is the elimination of four-games-in-five-nights stretches, which is also something the league has been working on the last few seasons. After having two such stretches during the 2015-16 season and one four-in-five stretch in 2016-17, the Trail Blazers, along with the other 29 teams, have no four-in-fives this season. However, Portland saw no decrease in their number of back-to-backs this season, as they have 15 such stretches in 2017-18, the same number as they had in 2016-17. But other than a few diversions from the last few seasons — the end of Portland’s season, which has been fairly home-heavy the last few years, looks much more difficult in 2016-17 — not many of the changes the NBA has reportedly been working on made their way onto the Trail Blazers’ schedule. Other than an increase in back-to-backs, the Trail Blazers actually have more one-game road trips in 2017-18 (seven) than they had in 2016-17 (four) and the same number of weekend games (23) as in 2016-17. However, they only have two five-game road trips this season after having twice as many in 2016-17, though the difference is made up with two four-game trips this season after having no four-game trips in 2016-17. The end result is the Trail Blazers have nine games in which they are considered “fresh” (as in they did not play the night before but their opponent did), five fewer than last season, 10 in which they are considered “tired” (games in which they played the night before but their opponent did not) and 63 where they are considered “even” (both teams playing or resting the night before), which is eight more games than last season. And that’s the NBA’s ultimate goal: to have the most games in which both teams are generally dealing with the same level of fatigue. When it’s all said and done in, the Trail Blazers will have traveled 55,254 miles this season, which is just 35 miles less than the maximum distances traveled by any team for the 2017-18 season, though it is 1,330 miles less than Portland traveled last season. Also of note: Portland has 11 nationally-televised games this season — six on ESPN and five on TNT — after having 14 last season. http://www.nba.com/blazers/forwardcenter/portlands-2017-18-schedule-home-early-road-late
One of our back to backs isn't really a back to back. We play Sacremento in Sacremento, then we play Sacremento in Portland. So they have the same exact back to back as us lol.
@KingSpeed needs to go to this game if we land Melo, and @SlyPokerDog needs to get the man interviewed on the Rockets broadcast.
Vs. Knicks (Tuesday, March 6): As of this moment, Carmelo Anthony is still a New York Knick, despite the very public recruiting efforts of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. If Anthony is still a Knick by the time New York visits Portland in March, then it could make for an awkward on-court situation. On the other hand, if Anthony does finally agree to waive his no-trade clause and accept a trade to the Blazers, then this could very quickly turn into another of the NBA's many notable reunion games in 2017-18, one where Melo would get to show off his new home to his old teammates. -- Adam Reisinger http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/20317230/nba-see-home-game-all-30-nba-teams
I like the home-heavy early schedule, but a stretch of 10 out of 11 at home is brutal to every other facet of life. 10 of 22 nights will be spent at the Moda. I may not have much of a social life, but still.
Based on my standings predictions, the Blazers have a SOS of .5009, compared to an expected SOS of .5024 for a team in their position (West, 46-36). Here is the SOS breakdown by month: October: .490 (7 games) November: .419 (15 games) December: .528 (13 games) January: .489 (16 games) February: .498 (10 games) March: .567 (15 games) April: .531 (6 games)
I think it's funny how they assume what month is easiest just based off number of games and number of road games in the month. March is by far the hardest matchup, with only two below .500 teams playing the Blazers, and they're on a back to back (Knicks on the 5th, Lakers on the 6th). In March, the Blazers will play: Warriors Cavaliers Celtics Rockets Thunder x2 Clippers x2 Timberwolves Heat Pelicans Grizzlies Pistons That'd a deathly lineup of teams. March will be by far the toughest month of the season. It'll be a good thing if the Blazers finish with a .500 record for the month.
Just looking at the schedule as quickly as I did. I didn't recognize the SoS. I did see March as a problem month for Portland though.
