Brooklyn Nets: Dissecting the 2018-19 newly-released schedule

The Brooklyn Nets’ 82-game slate was unveiled on Friday, as the team seeks its first winning season since 2014.

The Brooklyn Nets, along with their 29 NBA counterparts, saw their 2018-19 schedule unveiled on Friday afternoon. Here’s what you need to know about their upcoming 82-game slate …

Net-ional TV

The Nets, coming off their fourth consecutive losing season and third straight year missing the playoffs, are predictably low on national television appearances, limited to a single game on ESPN. That lone prime-time contest will be their Febr. 13 visit to Cleveland, as they take on the LeBron James-free Cavaliers.

Brooklyn does have five further appearances on NBA TV, the first being a December 18 home game against James and his new comrades, the Los Angeles Lakers. They will see the Milwaukee Bucks twice on the NBA TV platform, once at Barclays Center on Feb. 4, and in their penultimate road game of the season on April 6. The other land on March 4 (vs. Dallas) and March 25 (at Portland).

Happy Reunions

Newly anointed Net Kenneth Faried, who made a name for himself as a 2011 first-round pick of the Denver Nuggets, won’t have to wait long for a Rocky Mountain reunion. He’ll return to Pepsi Center on November 4, as the Nets face the up-and-coming Nuggets in the second part of a four-game Western Conference tour. “Linsanity” will return to Brooklyn for a December 16 matinee, as Jeremy Lin, a Net for the past two seasons before a July trade brings his Atlanta Hawks teammates to Barclays.

Dwight Howard, briefly a Net this summer before being waived after a trade to Brooklyn, will make his “return” to the area on Dec. 14, as he and the Washington Wizards come to visit.

Hooping It Up on the Holidays

While the Nets were predictably kept off the popular Christmas slate, last playing on Dec. 25 in 2013, the holiday season is nonetheless backed with Nets basketball. Ghosts of the 2004 playoffs will surely haunt a Halloween matchup at Barclays between the Nets and the Detroit Pistons. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 21 brings forth another home game, a matinee against the Sacramento Kings. The Nets will also look to get lucky on March 17 in Los Angeles, taking on the Clippers on St. Patrick’s Day.

Finally, both November matchups against the Minnesota Timberwolves will have a holiday feel to them. The Nets will be in Minnesota for a Veterans’ Day matchup on Nov. 12, before a special noon tip-off against the Wolves eleven days later … Black Friday.

November Rain

The early portion of the Nets’ schedule will instantly test the young team. November alone will be particularly daunting, as the Nets not only have to make a four-game western road trip that features visits to Phoenix, Denver, Golden State and Minnesota, but they’ll play three back-to-back sets as well.

The month does ease up at the end with a four-game homestand, their longest of the season, though the first three of that set will come against 2018 playoff teams (Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Utah).

Westward, Ho!

The Nets’ longest road trip of the season will come toward the end of a potential playoff push in March. From March 13-28, the Nets will embark on a full western tour, visiting Oklahoma City, Utah, both Los Angeles teams, Portland and Sacramento, before returning to the right-hand side of the country, concluding their road trip in Philadelphia. What’s awaiting them back home? The Boston Celtics on March 30.

The Schedule

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