The Cavaliers have had big home openers in the past – they’ve even had some big home openers against the Knicks in the past. But when the curtain opens on the 2016-17 campaign, fans will enjoy an opening night like none before. That’s the night that Quicken Loans Arena makes room in the rafters for the 2016 NBA Championship banner and the players receive their Championship rings. (Editor’s note: Man, it feels great to type those words!)
The Knicks spoiled LeBron’s return in the 2014-15 home opener – and they come into this year having made a big splash with the addition of former MVP Derrick Rose – joining Carmelo Anthony, sophomore Kristaps Porzingis and new head coach Jeff Hornacek.
After taking on Carmelo and Co. at The Q on October 25, the Cavs tip off their road schedule against the last Eastern Conference squad they faced last summer – traveling to Toronto for a rematch with the Raptors.
Including Playoffs, the Wine and Gold went 1-4 against Dwane Casey’s club on their home floor last year. That single victory, however, was enough to put them back in the NBA Finals for the second straight season.
It’s not quite the Spurs’ annual “rodeo trip” or the Bulls’ “circus trip,” but it’s almost a given that the Wine and Gold will make their perennial Western Conference roadie following the first week of the New Year.
That’ll be the case again this year – with the Cavaliers making their longest junket of the season – an 11-day, six-game trip that starts out in Brooklyn and wraps up with a Martin Luther King Day meeting in Oakland. That matchup at Oracle Arena will mark the second time in 23 days that the two heavyweights will match up in the regular season.
Unlike last year’s longest trip – which bounced around the Eastern Conference before three straight in the Texas Triangle – this year’s trip goes from Brooklyn to Phoenix, with a tough back-to-back in Utah and Portland, wrapping up with a stop in Sacramento and the MLK Day meeting against Kevin Durant’s Dubs.
Having LeBron James on your team means playing basketball on Christmas Day. (This year’s will be the 11th of his career.) But having LeBron and the World Championship means you play at home on Christmas Day.
After traveling to the Bay Area for the holidays last year – taking on a Warriors team that was off to a 27-1 start – the Wine and Gold welcome their Western Conference rivals to snowy Cleveland for this year’s matchup.
Before that Finals rematch on Christmas day, the Cavaliers will be home for Thanksgiving – with a pair of Western Conference clubs on either side: Portland on Wednesday, the Mavericks on Friday.
Tyronn Lue’s squad will be in Charlotte for a New Year’s Eve meeting with the Hornets and, this year, Easter Sunday (April 16) actually arrives after the regular season wraps up (April 12).
Last season, the Cavaliers played 66 percent of their games on weekdays and 34 percent of them on the weekend. This year, it’s a little closer to even with 56 percent of their games slated for weekday nights.
Here’s how the Wine and Gold did on each night last year: Monday (10-4 overall, 7-3 at home); Tuesday (6-4, 2-2); Wednesday (11-4, 7-1); Thursday (6-2, 5-0); Friday (11-4, 3-1); Saturday (7-6, 6-1); Sunday (6-1, 3-0).
The Cavaliers were above the league and conference average in number of back-to-backs that they played last season with 19. That’s the case again in 2016-17, but this year they’ll only play 18 of them.
Two of those back-to-backs involve no travel: on December 9 and 10 at The Q against Miami and Charlotte and their March 18 and 19 matchups with the Clippers and Lakers at Staples Center.
That’s the good news. The bad news is they have two more back-to-backs in which they have to travel over 750 miles in between and nine in which they’ll travel across different time zones (as opposed to five such trips last year).
At no point during the upcoming regular season do the Cavaliers have a stretch of four-games-in-five-nights.
The Cavaliers get a very nice break in the schedule immediately before the All-Star Game in mid-February and lasting through the rest of the month. Cleveland plays Minnesota at the Target Center on Valentine’s Day and doesn’t hit the road again until a March 1 matchup in Beantown.
In between those dates, at least one Cavalier will represent the franchise at the All-Star Game – whose date we know (February 19), with the midseason classic’s destination still TBD.
And although the prolonged homestand lasts 13 days, the Cavs will only play four games – the Pacers (2/15), Knicks (2/23), Bulls (2/25) and Bucks (2/27).
Aside from the big-name, big-team matchups, there are always some quirky points in each team’s schedule. For the Wine and Gold this season, there’s a few interesting dates to check out.
In back-to-back weeks, the Cavaliers will play a home-and-home series. On December 13, they’ll take the Grizzlies at The Q before getting on a plane to Memphis for a game at the Grindhouse the following night. After a Saturday night contest at home against the Lakers, the Cavs travel to Milwaukee for a Tuesday night affair before taking on the Bucks in Cleveland the following night. (The Cavs also have a home-and-home against Miami in early March, but there is a travel day between games.)
The Cavaliers visit the Wizards in D.C. twice this season – on November 11 and again on February 6. As the reigning World Champs, they’ll be making a visit to the White House during one of these trips.
Beginning two seasons ago, the Cavaliers began a new trend on their annual visit to Tinseltown – taking on the Lakers and Clippers in back-to-back games. They haven’t lost any of those four games at Staples Center, so it’s worked out pretty well for the Wine and Gold – who meet the L.A. squads on March 18 and 19 this year.
The season-ending Fan Appreciation Night will be on April 12 as the Cavs welcome the Raptors to town for the finale.
In the NBA’s wide world of analytics, there’s the “Fresh, Tired & Even Score” when breaking down a squad’s schedule.
A team is “Fresh” if it did not play the day before and its opponent did. A team is “Tired” if it played the day before and its opponent did not. “Even” simply means a team and its opponent either both played or both did not play the day before.
Last year, the Cavaliers played 10 games Fresh, 15 games Tired and 57 games even. This year, they’ll play 13 games Fresh, 10 games tired and 59 games even. For those keeping score at home, that gives Cleveland a +3 net score.
This year, the Wine and Gold will log 39,253 miles. That seems like a lot of travel – and it is – but it’s actually one of the better numbers among the Eastern Conference. (And the Cavaliers traveled the fewest miles of any NBA team last season – 35,055 miles.)
The World Champion Cavaliers will be must-see TV once again this year. The Wine and Gold won the Big Enchilada after a 52-year drought, are loaded with star-power and have some of the most rabid fans in the NBA. For those reasons and others, a national audience will once again be glued to their title defense.
Get used to Thursday nights with Ernie, Kenny, Shaq and Sir Charles, because this year, the Cavaliers will appear on TNT on nine occasions – opening the NBA season on October 25 against New York and appearing regularly throughout the rest of the campaign. They’ll face Boston twice on TNT – both games at The Q – on November 3 and December 29.
Other TNT broadcasts include the December 1 meeting with the Clippers, the big MLK Day matchup at Oracle Arena, a visit to OKC in early February, another visit from the Knicks after the All-Star Break and a pair of tough road contests – against the Spurs and Bulls – in late March.
The Cavs-Warriors tilt will be the crown jewel of ABC’s big Christmas Day rollout on ABC/ESPN, and Cleveland will appear five more times the rest of the way – including a pair of big Saturday night inter-Conference affairs at The Q – welcoming the Spurs on January 21 and the Thunder on the 29th.
The Cavs will be featured twice in February – traveling to face the Knicks on the 4th and welcoming the Bulls on the 25th. The final regular season broadcast is a March 18 matchup with the Clippers at Staples Center.
Aside from the two huge meetings with the Warriors and their big home opener against the new-look Knicks, the Wine and Gold will be at the center of the basketball universe on several occasions this season.
The Cavs travel to Toronto for the first time immediately after the home opener, and ‘We The North’ will pack both the Air Canada Centre and Jurassic Park for their home opener against the World Champs. In early November, Cleveland welcomes another Eastern Conference playoff rival – the Atlanta Hawks – to Quicken Loans Arena, this year with Dwight Howard in tow.
The Wine and Gold tip off the month of December against Doc Rivers’ star-studded Clippers – facing their third Western Conference foe in an eight day stretch (after the Blazers and Mavericks bookend Thanksgiving Day).
One day later, the Cavs travel to the Windy City, where they’ll face off against the new-look Bulls – now featuring Dwyane Wade, Rajon Rondo and Derian Grant in the backcourt. And near the end of the month, it’s another established Eastern Conference rival – the young-and-hungry Boston Celtics – who make their way to The Q for the first time on December 29.
On January 21, it’s a Saturday night matchup against the Spurs at The Q with a Sunday afternoon affair against Russell Westbrook and the Thunder eight days later in Cleveland.
