Wednesday, August 6, 2008

NBA SCHEDULE RELEASED!


08-09 OKC schedule via Newsok

After much anticipation, the 2008-09 NBA schedule has finally been made available to the public.

The league will open play with the defending champion Boston Celtics taking on LeBron's Cleveland Cavaliers and another game featuring the Los Angeles Lakers hosting the Portland Trailblazers in Greg Odens premier (finally).

Also, locally, Oklahoma City will open play at home against the Milwaukee Bucks. This matchup doesn't appear sexy at first, but when you consider that Kelvin Sampson will be making his NBA debut against the new OKC team, it suddenly becomes very juicy and you wonder what kind of welcoming the home crowd will give him.

After the opener the next two Ford Center games are vs. Minnesota (yawn) and vs. Boston (hell yeah!).

Also, the Hornets return to the Bricktown on November 21 and then the two teams play again the next day (22nd) in New Orleans. I'll like to see what kind of welcoming Chris Paul and Byron Scott get here and if OKC will even acknowledge that they were once here. I for one, would like to see some sort of tribute, even if it was just minor.

Other notable dates include Shaq coming on Nov. 25 and Dec. 29, LeBron on Dec. 21, Wade and Beasley Jan. 18, the first Kevin Durant/Greg Oden showdown that has been anticipated for over a year on Feb. 6, the Mark Cuban grudge match on March 2, San Antonio March 16 and April 7, the home finale against Charlotte on April 10, and (perhaps the biggest date for a certain NBA OKC blogger I know) a New Year's Eve showdown at the Ford Center against none other than the Golden State Warriors.

I'm sure there will be further breakdown of the NBA schedule later on, but this was just a run-down of key dates for OKC this season