NBA National TV Schedule Revealed for 2022-23

From ABC and ESPN to TNT and NBA TV, check out the most important games headed to national TV for the 2022-23 season in the Association.

The 2022-23 NBA schedule is here, with the league’s top players and teams returning to the court and looking to dethrone the defending champion Golden State Warriors.

The season opens on Oct. 18 with the defending Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics visiting the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Warriors heading to Crypto.com Arena to take on LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.

“We work very collaboratively with ESPN and TNT to create the national TV schedule for the season, focusing on maximizing viewership and storylines,” Evan Wasch, the NBA’s executive president of basketball strategy and analytics, told Boardroom. “We also have a great, cross-departmental team of more than a dozen people at the league office involved in creating the full 1,230-game schedule.  The whole process is a sprint, spanning about 5-6 weeks from the start of free agency in early July until schedule release in mid-August.”

For the first time in NBA history, the league is taking off on Election Day on Nov. 8, with all 30 teams competing on Nov. 7 in an effort to promote voting and civic engagement.

“No games scheduled on Election Day is just one measure of the NBA family’s commitment to promoting nonpartisan civic engagement and expanding voter access,” said James Cadogan, the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition’s executive director. “Making your voice heard on whatever you think is important is a key part of our democracy and we want to encourage everyone to recognize that and exercise their civic duty.”

For the first time ever, there will also be an NBA Rivals Week. From Jan. 24-28, there will be 11 nationally televised matchups between teams and players. Those will include location based rivalries like Clippers-Lakers and Knicks-Nets, but also classic feuds like Lakers-Celtics, recent rematches like Celtics-Heat and Grizzlies Warriors, and player-based rivalries such as Nuggets-Sixers in a duel between MVP Nikola Jokic and runner-up Joel Embiid and Bulls-Hornets in a battle between Lonzo and LaMelo Ball.

‘It was envisioned as a week to highlight the different types of rivalries in our league: player-to-player rivalries, players returning to face their former teams, recent playoff rematches, as well as historical rivalries like the Celtics vs. the Lakers,” Wasch said. “The goal is to create a new high-interest time in the year where people can tune in and focus on these rivalry matchups separate from our existing tentpoles like Opening Week, Christmas Day, and MLK Day.”

• The average miles traveled per team for the 2022-2023 season is 41,000 miles per the league, a record low in the current 30-team, 82-game schedule format. Last year’s average was 43,000, a record low at the time. In total, it’s 53,000 less cumulative miles traveled from 2021-2022.
• “We’ve also attempted to focus our efforts on the teams that have historically had the most miles to fly to opponents due to their geographic location,” Wasch said. “While the average team will save nearly 2,000 miles traveled this year relative to 2021-22, the teams with the highest travel burden last season— Portland, Golden State, and Phoenix— all saw substantially larger travel benefits in this year’s schedule than average. 
• This year’s schedule will have just 6.8 single-game road trips per team this season, Wasch said, an all-time low in the league’s current format.
• There’s a greater emphasis on what the NBA is calling no travel games, which includes consecutive road games against the same opponent or two games in a row against the Los Angeles or New York City area teams. There are 88 of those instances in 2022-2023, up from 53 last year. That includes 53 times where a team plays at the L.A. or NYC teams two games in a row.
• Like last season, all ESPN and TNT doubleheaders will start at earlier times of 7:30 and 10 p.m. eastern.
• Teams will play an average of 13.3 back-to-back games this season, down from 13.5 in 2021. It’s down 31% from the 2014-2015 season when teams averaged 19.9 games on consecutive days.
• All 30 teams will play on April 9, the final day of the regular season. The seven Eastern Conference matches and one interconference game will be played at 1 p.m. eastern, while the seven Western Conference games will begin at 3:30 eastern. ESPN will televise a doubleheader that day.

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Let’s dive into the NBA National TV schedule for 2022-23 across ABC, ESPN, TNT, and NBA TV:

NBA TV Schedule 2022-23:
Top ABC & ESPN Games

• Christmas Day will feature the Philadelphia 76ers at New York Knicks at noon ET on ESPN, the Los Angeles Lakers at Dallas Mavericks on ABC at 2:30, Milwaukee Bucks at Boston Celtics at 5 on ABC, the Memphis Grizzlies making their first ever Christmas Day appearance at the Warriors at 8 ET on ABC, and the Phoenix Suns at Denver Nuggets at 10:30 ET on ESPN.
• The ABC Saturday primetime schedule is highlighted by an NBA Finals rematch of Celtics-Warriors to start things off and the Knicks visiting the Brooklyn Nets and Celtics-Lakers on Jan. 28 as part of NBA Rivals Week.

• ABC’s Sunday showcase will have three dates this season. Memphis visits Boston on Feb. 12 in a Super Bowl Sunday battle; Phoenix-Milwaukee and Lakers-Dallas clash in a Feb. 26 doubleheader, while Phoenix-Dallas and Golden State-Lakers round out the schedule on March 5.
• The ESPN schedule kicks off Oct. 19 when the Knicks visit Ja Morant and the Grizzlies followed by Luka Doncic and Dallas take on Devin Booker and Phoenix. Dallas-Boston and LA Clippers-Golden State are on the network on Nov. 23 to highlight the Thanksgiving Eve slate.

Full National TV Schedule: ABC & ESPN

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Top TNT & NBA TV Games

• As mentioned, opening night on TNT on Oct. 18 features Sixers-Celtics and Warriors-Lakers as the two NBA finalists are featured along with Joel Embiid and LeBron James. Opening week continues on Oct. 20 when Philadelphia hosts Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State hosts Chris Paul and the Phoenix Suns.
• The new Minnesota Timberwolves trio of Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert debut on TNT on Nov. 1 when they visit Phoenix. The first game features the top two picks of this year’s NBA Draft when Paolo Banchero and the Orlando Magic take on Chet Holmgren and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
• TNT’s traditional Martin Luther King Jr. Day doubleheader features Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and the Miami Heat taking on Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks followed by Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies hosting Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns.
• In addition to MLK Monday, TNT will broadcast 18 Tuesday and 13 Thursday twinbills.

• NBA TV will broadcast 107 games, beginning with a doubleheader on Oct. 22 when the Sixers host the San Antonio Spurs and Morant and Memphis visit Luka Doncic and Dallas.
• The network has an MLK doubleheader with Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics taking on LaMelo Ball and the Charlotte Hornets at 1 p.m.. ET, with a nightcap of the Lakers hosting Jalen Green and the Houston Rockets at 10:30.
• NBA TV will also broadcast the league’s two regular season international games. San Antonio hosts Miami on Dec. 17 in Mexico City, and DeMar DeRozan and the Chicago Bulls take on Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons on Jan. 19 from Paris.

Full National TV Schedule: TNT & NBA TV

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