The pre-season is already underway but there is great anticipation for the start of the new NBA season 2024-25. The most prestigious basketball league returns with important new features and with revolutionized franchises ready to fight to snatch the title from the reigning champions Boston Celtics. Here is the complete guide with calendar, dates, confirmations and news for the new season. Great expectations especially for the father-son duo LeBron and Bronny James with the jersey of the Los Angeles Lakers, the first father-son duo in the history of American basketball.
When does the new NBA season start?
The night between Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23 October will mark the start of the NBA season, a long regular season of 82 games followed by Play-In, Playoffs and Finals. A very long season which will end on April 13, 2025.
Confirmations
For the second year, there will be NBA Cup with Final Four in Las Vegas (December 14-17). The Boston Celtics are the team to beat, in the West the Mavericks, Thunder and Timberwolves are expected to be confirmed, in the East the spotlight is on the Knicks, 76ers and Bucks. Naturally also confirmed the All-Star Weekend in San Francisco.
What’s new
The NBA’s goal is to have teams keep superstars on the court as much as possible. For this reason, franchises will not play either the night before or the night after a match live on national television, therefore theoretically very important; and there will be no NBA Cup games on the second night of a back-to-back. The maximum will be 16 back-to-backs and 11 teams will have it, including Suns, Nuggets, Clippers, Thunder and Bucks; the minimum is 13 and 6 teams will have it, including Celtics, Mavericks and Lakers.
The program and the formula
Each of the 30 teams will play 82 regular season gamesat least twice per year against all the other 29 franchises (one at home, one away), meeting four times against teams from the same Division, and three or four times against the other 10 teams from the same Conference . The first six teams in each conference (East and West) advance directly to the playoffsthe top four have the home advantage in the first round. From seventh to tenth, they compete in the Play-In Tournamentwith this formula: 7th vs 8th, the winner is in the playoffs like 7th, the loser is in the second round, 9th vs 10th, the winner is in the second round, the loser has finished the season; the winner of the second round is in the playoffs as 8th, the loser is “on vacation”. The playoffs all have best-of-seven series.
Days of rest
November 5: Election Day November 28: Thanksgiving Day December 18: After the NBA Cup Finals December 24: Christmas Eve February 14-19: All Star Break April 12: Eve of the final round of the regular season
Where to watch the NBA season on TV and streaming
In Italy, the rights to the NBA belong to Sky which broadcasts at least one match every night on the Sky Sport NBA channel (channel 209) and depending on the match also on Sky Sport Uno, plus NBA Saturdays, NBA Sundays, highlights and in-depth details. You must be subscribed to the “Sport” package. In streaming, it will be available on NOW TV with the “Sport” pass and via the Sky Go application. The NBA also has its own official application, the NBA League Pass, usable on smartphone, tablet, smart TV, XBox One and Apple TV.
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