NBA releases full regular season schedule with Nuggets to participate in 82 games

The NBA released their full regular season schedule today, and Denver is playing 82 games.

Seriously though, Denver’s full regular season schedule has been made public. They will open the season away against the Los Angeles Clippers in Staples Center on October 17th. The home opener will take place on October 20th against the Phoenix Suns.

The #Nuggets will open the season on Oct. 17 at the L.A. Clippers. The home opener is on Oct. 20 vs. Phoenix.

The Nuggets have 14 nationally-televised games. And that is backing up all of the buzz they've been receiving of late.

— Chris Dempsey (@chrisadempsey) August 10, 2018

As Chris Dempsey of Altitude TV also says, Denver will play 14 nationally televised games this year, more than the nine they had last year and more than I personally expected. Among those 14 are a bunch on ESPN, as listed here by our own Adam Mares.

Nuggets games on ESPN this year:
NOV 30 at POR
DEC 14 v OKC
JAN 23 at UTA
FEB 1 v HOU
FEB 8 at PHI
MAR 6 at LAL
MAR 8 at GSW
APR 5 v POR
APR 10 v MIN

— Adam Mares (@Adam_Mares) August 10, 2018

Of the nine games listed, five are against division rivals with two against the Portland Trail Blazers, so the games should be intense and highly competitive.

The Nuggets have also been a better second half team for the last few years, which is one of the reasons why so many national games are being played later in the season. Denver’s full list of national TV games is as follows:

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Not counting the NBA TV games, that comes to 14 nationally broadcasted games for everyone to see, an uptick from last year’s total of nine.

Looking through the schedule more in-depth, Denver has 13 back-to-backs this year. The average across the NBA was set at 13.3 back-to-backs, according to Shams Charania, so Denver is right in line with the average.

Notable tidbits on 2018-19 NBA schedule: No four-games-in-five nights again; back-to-backs are at historic lows (average of 13.3 per team this season, it was 19.3 in '14-15 and 14.4 last season) — and elimination of eight games in 12 nights for first time.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 10, 2018

10 of Denver’s first 15 games this year will be at home. There are some tough contests though: Denver will host Golden State, Houston, New Orleans, Utah, Boston, and Milwaukee during that 15-game stretch, but if the Nuggets take care of business at home, they will be set to enjoy some easier stretches down the road. The actual home stands and road trips this year are shorter, with the longest home trip being three sets of four games, and the longest away trip being a run of five games in late November/early December.

Conversely, the final nine games represent another gauntlet:

@ Houston
@ Oklahoma City
VS Washington
@ Golden State
VS San Antonio
VS Portland
@ Portland
@ Utah
VS Minnesota

All were playoff teams last year, and nothing should change the competitiveness of those contests this time around.

There’s also this, from our own Zach Mikash:

In the 25 games after the all star break for the #Nuggets 22 of them will be against teams who finished no worse than 10th in their conference last season, or signed LeBron James in the offseason

— Zach Mikaš (@ZachMikash) August 10, 2018

It’s tough to finish the schedule this way, but that means Denver has an opportunity to get off to a quick start and get hot during December and January. If they can accomplish that, it will set them up well for the gauntlet to end the year.

Make sure to check out the entire schedule here.

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