The Charlotte Hornets’ 2017-18 regular season schedule has dropped. Here are some instant observations of the 82 game schedule.
Every NBA team’s regular season schedules were released on August 14th at 6:00 p.m. EST. The Charlotte Hornets‘ 82 games for the upcoming campaign were revealed. They will get things started away from home as they take on the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday, October 18th.
Getting right into things, the Queen City team will play a total of eight nationally televised games. Three of them will be on ESPN (November 15th vs Cavs, December 6th vs Warriors and December 13th @ Rockets), five will appear on NBATV (November 24th @ Cavs, January 15th @ Pistons, March 28th vs Cavs, March 31st @ Wizards and April 1st vs 76ers) while they will have zero games broadcast on TNT.
The Hornets’ home opener will be their second game of the regular season on October 20th versus the Atlanta Hawks. Dwight Howard, who was traded from Atlanta to Charlotte this offseason, will get to face his old team early in the year.
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The league made it a priority to reduce the number of back-to-backs. With the season starting nearly a week earlier than usual the NBA’s average number of back-to-backs went down from 16.3 per team to only 14.4. Charlotte will only have 13 back-to-backs this year which is below the league average.
Fortunately, the league was able to eliminate four games in five nights from every team’s schedule.
Their longest homestand will be five games and that be from January 15th to January 26th while their longest road trip will consist of five games along the east coast in mid-March.
While the Hornets won’t play on Christmas Day, they will play on a couple other holidays. Charlotte will travel to New York to face off against the Knicks on St. Patrick’s Day (March 15). They will also play on MLK Day (January 15th @ Pistons) and Valentine’s Day (February 14th @ Magic). The team will play on New Year’s Eve (December 31st @ Los Angeles Clippers).
It’s worth noting that 10 of Charlotte’s final 15 games will come away from home.
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With a revamped roster, the Charlotte Hornets will be looking to improve on the 36-46 record that they had last season. Fewer back-to-backs may make a difference and be an advantage in the long run for them. If they makes the playoffs and does well this year, expect more national exposure for the team in 2018-19.