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A32 sports
Diahuebs 18 augustus 2022

NBA schedule has less miles, and LeBron chasing more history

(AP) – By mid-January, that game in San Antonio's
LeBron James could be Alamodome, not their typi-
the NBA's scoring king. cal arena, and it'll be set up to
accommodate at least 65,000
The NBA schedule was re- fans.
leased Wednesday, all 1,230
games that are set between The biggest crowd at an
Oct. 18 and April 9 taking NBA regular-season game
place in four countries with is 62,046, who gathered to
Mexico and France playing watch Michael Jordan and
host to regular-season con- the Chicago Bulls meet the
tests along with the U.S. and Atlanta Hawks at the Georgia
Canada. Dome on March 27, 1998.

There are the usual high- The biggest crowd in league
lights — Stephen Curry and history was 108,713, that
Golden State will raise an- group gathering for the 2010
other title banner on opening All-Star Game at the home of
night, as is the NBA's cus- the NFL's Dallas Cowboys in
tomary perk for champions; North Texas.
a five-game slate of games
on Christmas yet again; the The Alamodome record for
traditional games in Atlanta an NBA game is 39,554 on
and Memphis as part of the June 18, 1999, when New
leaguewide commemora- York visited San Antonio for
tion of the life of Dr. Mar- Game 2 of that year's NBA
tin Luther King Jr. This year Finals.
brought a twist, with Election
Day now a newly created off I N T E R N A T I O N A L
day in the NBA. REACH
two games in a row against would need between 44 and dipped another 1.5% this The NBA has scheduled 45
And now that the list of the two teams from Los An- 49 games to pass Abdul-Jab- season — the average going games that will be shown live
games is out, the numbers geles or New York. bar. from 13.5 per team last sea- in prime time across Europe,
show that James could catch Games 44 through 49 for the son to 13.3 per team this sea- the Middle East and Africa
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the Add it all up, and NBA teams Lakers fall in the second half son. on Saturdays and Sundays.
final two weeks of January — will combine to fly about of January. They happen to
assuming James doesn't have 50,000 fewer miles this sea- be at home for most of that Since 2014, the average is Many of those games fea-
to miss games and scores at son. stretch, a coincidence since it down 31.1%. Teams faced an ture at least one prominent
his usual pace. James enters "There's a player health com- precedes the annual spot in average of 19.3 of them per international player, includ-
this season No. 2 on the all- ponent, and there's also a sus- the calendar where the Lak- season then. ing two-time reigning MVP
time list, 1,325 points behind tainability component there," ers and Los Angeles Clippers No team has fewer than 12 Nikola Jokic of Denver,
Abdul-Jabbar. Wasch said. "That's a 5% need to vacate their home back-to-backs this season. two-time MVP Giannis An-
decrease from where we've arena while it gets ready to No team has more than 15. tetokounmpo of Milwaukee,
"We have obviously a very been. We'll take it." play host to the Grammy reigning scoring champion
large ecosystem of league of- Awards. ATTENDANCE RE- Joel Embiid of Philadelphia
fice staff, team staff, players, Among the countless sto- CORD and All-NBA first-teamer
arena staff that are truly driv- rylines entering the season Other revelations from the The San Antonio Spurs' Luka Doncic of Dallas.
ing to this process," said Evan is James, and his pursuit of schedule: magic number on Jan. 13 —
Wasch, who, along with Gene more NBA history. BACK-TO-BACKS 62,047. I N T E R N A T I O N A L
Li and Tom Carelli, is on the If he continues scoring at his Minimizing the instances of If the Spurs' game against GAMES
NBA team of executives who typical pace — 27 points per having games on back-to- Golden State that night draws San Antonio has a "home"
build the schedule. "So, we game for his career, 30 points back days is still a point of at least that many fans, it'll game against Miami in Mex-
are just one small piece." per game last season for the emphasis for the NBA, and set an NBA regular-season ico City on Dec. 17. Detroit
Los Angeles Lakers — he the average number of them record. The Spurs will play has a "home" game with Chi-
Wasch, Li and Carelli spent cago in Paris on Jan. 19.
weeks putting a 1,230-piece
jigsaw puzzle together, mind- WELCOME BACK
ful of things like team wishes Some prominent NBA
to have games on certain names missed the entirety
dates, total miles traveled, of last season for a variety of
even carbon footprint. reasons. Among those who
were in that group and are
The big headline from their expected back this year, as-
work: Teams will travel a bit suming they're ready to go
less, about 5% fewer miles in when their teams play Game
the air on average over last 1:
season. Kawhi Leonard and John
Wall, now teammates with
The NBA made that happen the Clippers, would open
by adding to the instances their season Oct. 20 — a
of teams having no travel "road" game against the Lak-
between road games, some- ers.
thing that'll happen 88 times Denver's Jamal Murray
this season — up 66% from would return Oct. 19 at Utah.
last season. There are 55 in- Brooklyn's Ben Simmons
stances of teams playing con- and New Orleans' Zion Wil-
secutive road games against liamson also would be in line
the same opponent, and 33 to come back Oct. 19 when
instances of teams playing the Nets host the Pelicans.