The Cleveland Cavaliers’ schedule for the 2019-20 NBA season has been released, and the Cavs will kick off a brand new year of basketball on the road against the Orlando Magic on October 23.
Cleveland will return home three days later to host the Indiana Pacers at the newly renovated Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The Cavs, which will parade the intriguing backcourt tandem of Collin Sexton and Darius Garland next season, will have some interesting games that fans should look forward to. The defending NBA champions Toronto Raptors will be paying them a visit on January 30, followed by a bout with one of the most successful teams in recent years, the Golden State Warriors on February 1.
Fans of LeBron James will have to wait though, as the Cavs won’t be meeting the Los Angeles Lakers until March 26.
The Cavs will face each Eastern Conference team four times, with the exception of the Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets, Washington Wizards, and the Raptors, whom they’ll only be seeing three times.
Per NBA.com, here are some other things you’ll need to know about the Cavs’ schedule.
14 sets of back-to-back games, including three home-road sets (Nov. 17-18, Dec. 6-7 and Dec. 11-12), three road-home sets (Nov. 22-23, Jan. 27-28 and Feb. 28-29), two home-home sets (Jan. 4-5 and March 7-8) and six road-road sets (Dec. 27-28, Jan. 13-14, Jan. 17-18, Feb. 21-22, March 13-14 and April 7-8).
Cleveland’s longest homestand consists of six games over 14 days from Nov. 23-Dec. 6, featuring contests versus the Portland Trail Blazers (Nov. 23), Brooklyn Nets (Nov. 25), Orlando Magic (Nov. 27), Milwaukee Bucks (Nov. 29), Detroit Pistons (Dec. 3) and Orlando Magic (Dec. 6).
Cleveland’s longest road trip spans six games over 12 days from March 10-21 and includes trips to Chicago (March 10), Charlotte (March 13), Atlanta (March 14), Houston (March 17), Orlando (March 19) and Indiana (March 21). The team also has another six-game road trip from Jan. 9-18, featuring matchups at Detroit (Jan. 9), Denver (Jan. 11), Los Angeles Lakers (Jan. 13), Los Angeles Clippers (Jan. 14), Memphis (Jan. 17) and Chicago (Jan. 18).
Cleveland finished as the second-worst team in the East last season, registering a 19-63 record as they start their rebuilding efforts in the post-LBJ era. It remains to be seen if they can improve on last year’s record, but there’s no doubt they look a lot better this year.