Notes on the 2007-08 NBA schedule.

The NBA schedule will be released at 1:00 PM ET, but details are already leaking out. The number one pick in the NBA Draft, Greg Oden, will play his first game on the road against the San Antonio Spurs on Opening Night. The game will also feature the Spurs’ ring ceremony. The second game of the Opening Night doubleheader will be Rockets/Lakers. The next night, ESPN will air Mavericks/Cavaliers, followed by Kevin Durant‘s debut, when the Sonics take on the Nuggets.

Christmas Day will feature Heat/Cavaliers at 2:30 PM and Suns/Lakers at 5:00 PM on ABC, followed by Blazers/Sonics at 8:00 PM on ESPN.

National TV appearances by team:

24: Los Angeles Lakers (5 on ABC, 10 on ESPN, 9 on TNT): Despite being an awful team that could easily finish with 50 losses next season, the Los Angeles Lakers are making the maximum amount of television appearances next season. Why? Consider the fact that games involving the Lakers were the highest rated on ABC last year.
24: Phoenix Suns (5 on ABC, 10 on ESPN, 9 on TNT): The Phoenix Suns will make the maximum amount of national television appearances. Amazingly, their first game against San Antonio will air on NBA TV.
24: Miami Heat (5 on ABC, 10 on ESPN, 9 on TNT): Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat make the maximum amount of national television appearances, despite being swept in the first round last year. All three games between the Cavaliers and Heat will air on national TV.
23: Dallas Mavericks (5 on ABC, 9 on ESPN, 9 on TNT): Despite losing in the first round last year, the Dallas Mavericks will make a significant amount of national TV appearances. The Mavs’ first and last games against the Golden State Warriors will be nationally televised.
22: Cleveland Cavaliers: (5 on ABC, 9 on ESPN, 8 on TNT): The defending Eastern Conference Champion Cavaliers will play the Miami Heat on both Christmas and Martin Luther King Day.
22: San Antonio Spurs (4 games on ABC, 9 on ESPN, 9 on TNT): The Spurs will play the Cavaliers in a rematch of the dreadful 2007 NBA Finals on Thursday, January 17, but will not play on Christmas (meaning no Spurs/Suns rematch). The defending champions make four appearances on ABC, short of the maximum five.
21: Chicago Bulls (2 games on ABC, 10 on ESPN, 9 on TNT): The Chicago Bulls get two games on ABC, one on January 27 at home versus Phoenix and one on March second on the road against Cleveland.
17: Denver Nuggets (1 on ABC, 10 on ESPN, 6 on TNT): Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony and the Nuggets will make the maximum 10 appearances on ESPN. The Nuggets are scheduled to have three straight games air on ESPN during the first week of March.
15: Detroit Pistons (3 on ABC, 8 on ESPN, 4 on TNT): The Pistons status has fallen from recent years; while the Pistons will open on TNT NBA Thursday, they make their fewest national TV appearances since the year before they won the NBA Finals.
14: Houston Rockets (1 on ABC, 7 on ESPN, 6 on TNT): The Rockets will make four of their seven ESPN appearances in the span of two weeks in November.
11: Golden State Warriors (0 games on ABC, 6 on ESPN, 5 on TNT): The Golden State Warriors will not appear on ABC. The team will get a combined eleven appearances on ESPN/TNT, including a November 8 game versus the Mavericks.
11: Portland Trailblazers (0 games on ABC, 5 on ESPN, 6 on TNT): In addition to games on Opening Night and Christmas, the Portland Trailblazers get a combined 11 appearances on ESPN/TNT. Portland will not appear on ABC.
10: Boston Celtics (0 games on ABC, 7 on ESPN, 3 on TNT): The Boston Celtics open up on ESPN, with a game against the Washington Wizards on November 2. The team is not scheduled to appear on ABC. Kevin Garnett will return to Minnesota for the first time on February 8; ESPN will televise the match-up. The game is the only national TV appearance for the Timberwolves.
9: Washington Wizards (0 games on ABC, 7 on ESPN, 2 on TNT): Despite the wizardry of Gilbert Arenas last year, the Wizards are not the darlings of national television. Washington will make only two appearances on TNT, one in December against the Heat, and one in March against the Cavaliers.
8: Seattle Supersonics (0 games on ABC, 4 on ESPN, 4 on TNT): Kevin Durant and the Sonics make eight national TV appearances, including their first two games.
6: Utah Jazz: (0 games on ABC, 4 on ESPN, 2 on TNT): Despite making it to the Western Conference Finals last year, the Jazz find themselves with fewer appearances than the playoff-starved Seattle Supersonics, among others. Utah will bookend its national television appearances with games against the San Antonio Spurs, both of which are slated to air on ESPN.
5: New Jersey Nets (0 games on ABC, 4 on ESPN, 1 on TNT): The Nets get only five national TV appearances, despite having made the second round of the playoffs five out of the last six years.
4: Los Angeles Clippers (0 games on ABC, 3 on ESPN, 1 on TNT): The Clippers will somehow make four national TV appearances, including an April 10th game against the Lakers on TNT.
3: New York Knicks (0 games on ABC, 2 on ESPN, 1 on TNT): The New York Knicks get three national TV appearances, including one on TNT against the Celtics on November 29, one on ESPN against the Blazers on February 1, and another on ESPN against the Heat on March 26.
2: New Orleans Hornets (0 games on ABC, 2 on ESPN, 0 on TNT): The Hornets will travel to Portland for Greg Oden’s home debut on ESPN November 2, one of only two games the team has on national television this year.
1: Toronto Raptors (0 games on ABC, 1 on ESPN, 0 on TNT): The Toronto Raptors get only one appearance on national TV. Their January 4 home game against the Pistons will air on ESPN.
1: Charlotte Bobcats (0 games on ABC, 1 on ESPN, 0 on TNT): The Bobcats get one national TV appearance, on December 19 versus Utah. The Jazz get six national TV appearances, four on ESPN and two on TNT.
1: Orlando Magic (0 games on ABC, 1 on ESPN, 0 on TNT): The Orlando Magic will appear once on national TV, a matin?e on Final Four Saturday against the Cavaliers on ESPN.
1: Memphis Grizzlies (0 games on ABC, 0 on ESPN, 1 on TNT): Memphis gets a national TV appearance; the Grizzlies’ traditional Martin Luther King day game, this year against the Bulls, will be part of a TNT tripleheader.
1: Milwaukee Bucks (0 games on ABC, 1 on ESPN, 0 on TNT): The Milwaukee Bucks will make their lone national TV appearance on the road against the Lakers on January 11. The game will be televised by ESPN.
1: Minnesota Timberwolves (0 games on ABC, 1 on ESPN, 0 on TNT): The Wolves get their lone national TV appearance in the aforementioned return of Kevin Garnett.
1: Sacramento Kings (0 games on ABC, 1 on ESPN, 0 on TNT): Somehow, some way, the Sacramento Kings got on national TV. The Kings get an early season ESPN appearance against the Cleveland Cavaliers; Ron Artest will not be part of that game, as he will be serving the fifth game of a seven-game suspension to start the season.
The Philadelphia 76ers, Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks will make zero national television appearances. The Hawks have not been on national television since an April 2003 home game against the Washington Wizards on TNT.