Mark Your Calendars

The 2008-2009 schedule was released this morning. First off, there will be FIVE Christmas Day games: Hornets @ Magic, Spurs @ Suns, Celtics @ Lakers, Wiz @ Cavs, and finally Mavs @ Blazers.

Now for the Jazz games:

• Oct 29 - Opening game for the Jazz vs the rich and creamy Nougats
• Nov 1 and Nov 3 - A home and home vs former Jazz man Jason Hart, watch as he goes off for 20 points and 12 assists in each game.
  
• Nov 9 through Nov 15 - The Jazz's road mettle will be tested early. A 5 game trip versus the Knicks, 76ers, Wiz, Bobcats, and Cavs.
• Nov 21 - @ Spurs, can we FINALLY win there?
  
• Dec. 9 - 20th anniversary of Sloan as the Jazz head coach, but we're IN Minnesota, lame.
  
• Dec 15 through Dec 23 - Annual pre-Christmas east coast road trip starts in Boston, then Nets, Pistons, Bulls, and Bucks.
  
• Jan 2 - First of only 3 games against the Lakers (anyone want to guess if we get 2 home games or 2 road games?)
  
• Jan 7 - Hornets @ Jazz, first head-to-head matchup for CP3 and DWill since playing in the Olympics
  
• Of the final 10 games, 6 are on the road and at least 6 are against playoff teams. The final game of the season...@ Lakers. Awesome.
  

Has anyone else noticed that the Jazz play lots of road games against playoff teams during the last 10 games of the season? Playing AT the Lakers for the last game of the season? C'mon! That game will likely have serious seeding implications. Last season we were AT San Antonio, where the winner got home court advantage in the first round. Before that they were AT New Orleans and AT Dallas before getting a little home relief against 2 more playoff teams (Denver and Houston). In 2006, the Jazz finished the season with 3 straight road games before finishing at home, they played @ New Orleans, @ Dallas, and @ San Antonio.

Obviously the NBA can't know which teams will be good or which will make the playoffs, but they can reasonably predict which teams will be in the top 6 (Lakers, Hornets, Spurs, Jazz, Rockets/Mavs, Suns). I guess it makes for good TV if you've got a game with real playoff implications. But last season the Lakers finished the season with 4 straight home games, 2 of which were non-playoff teams (actually, one game was AT the Clippers, but they play in the same building).

This season, the Jazz have three 5-game road trips and only one 5-game homestand. There are two 6 of 7's at home, but a quick glance at the schedule makes it seem like we're playin 60 road games instead of 41.