The Warriors’ long offseason isn’t over yet, but there are finally tangible matchups to circle on their calendar.
The NBA released its schedule Thursday morning, providing everyone the chance to analyze key dates, matchups, road trips, and other highlights.
By the time these games start, Golden State will have an actual roster. At this point, the team has only nine players under contract, as the Jonathan Kuminga restricted free agency stalemate continues and has halted other business.
The Warriors will open their season Oct. 21 at Crypto.com Arena against the Lakers. The matchup is the late tipoff of an opening-night double-header, with the first game of the NBA season featuring the defending champion Thunder hosting the Houston Rockets and newly acquired star Kevin Durant.
The Warriors-Lakers game will tip off at 7 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock. Games with LeBron James and Steph Curry — the defining superstars of their generation — always draw eyeballs, so it makes sense that the league wanted to set the tone with them.
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Two nights later, Golden State will host the Denver Nuggets for its home opener. The Nuggets traded Michael Porter Jr. for swingman Cam Johnson and added Jonas Valanciunas in the offseason, beefing up their core around three-time MVP Nikola Jokic.
Also, for the 13th consecutive season, the Warriors will play on Christmas Day. This time, former Warrior Klay Thompson and the Dallas Mavericks will come to town.
Here are three other highlights from the Warriors’ schedule drop:
An NBA Cup gauntlet … and rematch
Last year, the Warriors’ locker room was open about their NBA Cup — and NBA Cup purse — aspirations. It led to some of the most memorable games of the season, including a chapter in Golden State’s budding rivalry with the Rockets.
In Houston on Dec. 11, the Warriors blew a seven-point lead with three minutes left to get eliminated in the NBA Cup quarterfinal. Kuminga was whistled for a controversial loose-ball foul with 3.5 seconds left, giving the Rockets what became the game-winning foul shots.
Steve Kerr railed against the officiating postgame.
“This is a billion-dollar industry,” Kerr said. “We’ve got people’s jobs on the line. I’m stunned. I give the Rockets credit. They battled back and played great defense all night. But I feel for our guys. Our guys battled back, played their asses off. And they deserved to win that game or at least have a chance for one stop at the end to finish the game. And that was taken from us.”
There should be more NBA Cup drama for the Warriors this year, especially given their group.
The Warriors drew Denver (Nov. 7), San Antonio (Nov. 14), Portland (Nov. 21), and, yes, Houston (Nov. 26) in their group. Denver and Houston are likely two of the top three teams in the conference at full strength. The Spurs — with a healthy Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox — are ascending. Even the Blazers, who added Jrue Holiday and posted the No. 4 defense in the league after the All-Star break, could be tough.
It's not hard to manufacture intense games between the Warriors and Rockets, but adding extra stakes early in the season doesn't hurt.
The home stretch
The Warriors start and finish the regular season in Los Angeles, but the weeks leading up to their finale are eye-catching. They’re a reminder that last season’s sprint to the finish line could repeat itself.
The final three weeks of the schedule, starting March 23, features six games against possible Western Conference playoff teams (plus another against East contender Cleveland).
March 23: @ Mavericks
March 25: vs. Nets
March 27: vs. Wizards
March 29: @ Nuggets
April 1: vs. Spurs
April 2: vs. Cavaliers
April 5: vs. Rockers
April 7: vs. Kings
April 9: vs. Lakers
April 10: @ Kings
April 12: @ Clippers
If the West is anything like it was last season, that stretch of the calendar will be where play-in teams become playoff teams, and vice versa.
That’ll be especially true if the Kings exceed expectations. Sacramento is projected to struggle, but if the Dennis Schroder signing clicks everything else into place and the Kings return to the periphery of the postseason race, the Warriors will play almost every game in their final three weeks against a contender or a team in the West expected to fall in the four-through-10 range (just like them).
It could be another sprint to the finish for the Warriors. A lot can happen between now and April, though.
Heading east
The Warriors have two six-game road trips, the tougher one coming in mid-March on the opposite coast.
Golden State is set to play six games in nine days, starting March 15 against the Knicks. That’s a day after Curry’s birthday, and playing in Madison Square Garden should be a nice gift for him.
The night after, Golden State heads to the nation’s capital to play the lowly Wizards.
A midweek game in Boston isn’t as daunting as it normally would be, as the Celtics are taking a gap year with Jayson Tatum out for the season. But even in down seasons, the Celtics have tended to play the Warriors tough — especially in the Garden.
A back-to-back in Detroit and Atlanta pits the Warriors against two of the Eastern Conference’s top teams after they’d just played three games in four nights in three cities. Then the Warriors stop by in Dallas on March 23 on their way back to the Bay.
At least the weather on the East Coast in March is better than it would be in December or January.
Notably...
• Kevon Looney (and Jordan Poole) return to Chase Center as Pelicans for the first time Nov. 29. The home fans should give Looney the biggest tribute for a former player since Klay Thompson made his momentous homecoming last year.
• The Warriors have a franchise-record 34 nationally televised games. This is the first year of the new media rights deal, so those matchups will be split among ESPN/ABC, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime.
• The Warriors have two road baseball-style series: a set of games against the same opponent in the same city (at San Antonio on Nov. 12 and Nov. 14, plus at Minnesota on Jan. 24 and Jan. 26). It’s the first time the Warriors have played a road baseball series since 2021, the longest drought in the NBA.
• The Warriors’ longest homestand is an eight-game stretch Jan. 7-20. That’s the team's lengthiest homestand since 2022-23.