NBA Schedule Announced

This actually happened yesterday, but the NBA announced its schedule for the 2005-06 season. You can see the full schedule here, see the national TV schedule here, and see the Blazers' schedule here.

The first month of the season starts off tough. Portland opens the regular season on the road at Minnesota and Denver, then comes home for a five-game homestand versus Atlanta, New York, Detroit, Chicago, and Golden State. Not too bad, right? Following this, they go on their longest road-trip of the year, seven games on the east coast. They will be on national TV eight times this season:

1. Friday Nov. 11th vs Detroit, 7:30 pm, ESPN
2. Sunday Dec. 11th vs Houston, 6:00 pm, NBATV
3. Wednesday Dec. 28th vs Philly, 7:00, NBATV
4. Sunday Jan. 16th vs Cleveland, 6:00, NBATV
5. Monday Jan. 30th @ Seattle, 7:00, NBATV
6. Friday Feb. 3rd vs Minnesota, 7:30, ESPN
7. Tuesday Feb 21st @ LA Lakers, 7:30, NBATV
8. Wednesday Mar. 29th vs Sacramento, 7:00, ESPN

Clearly the networks aren't expecting a ton of success out of Portland this season. Can't blame them.