These guys will both be playing in Portland's home opener on Halloween. Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The NBA has released the schedule for 2012-13. It will be the customary 82 games, and not the 66 we saw last season. Here’s the link to the NBA’s Blazer schedule page.

The Blazers’ first game of the season will be at home against the Los Angeles Lakers. The first two weeks of the season look brutal, but then again with the age of Portland’s roster and some of the more glaring rotation holes the whole season might turn out to be brutal.

I’ll have a post today or tomorrow breaking down some of the more important games of the season (SPOILER ALERT: Brandon Roy’s return), but for now here’s the official press release announcing the Blazers’ Halloween Night meeting with Steve Nash’s new team and other things about the upcoming season:

TRAIL BLAZERS HOST L.A. LAKERS HALLOWEEN NIGHT TO TIP-OFF 2012-13 SEASON

Portland’s 82-game schedule begins Oct. 31 at Rose Garden

 

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Portland Trail Blazers tip-off their 43rd NBA season by hosting the rival Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, Oct. 31, marking the fourth straight year the team has opened the season at the Rose Garden.

 

All 82 Trail Blazers games will be aired by national carriers or the Trail Blazers Broadcast Television Network. Portland’s complete broadcast schedule and preseason schedule will be available in the coming weeks.

 

The Trail Blazers have sold out 192 consecutive games, dating back to 2007.

 

Portland opens the season by playing 12 of its first 19 on the road, including a season-high, seven-game trip from Nov. 25-Dec. 5. The Trail Blazers close out the season playing eight of the final 12 games at the Rose Garden.

 

Among the top teams making the trip to the Rose City in 2012-13: the defending NBA champion Miami Heat on Jan. 10; Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and the Los Angeles Lakers on Oct. 31 and April 10; the defending Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Jan. 13 and April 12; and the Boston Celtics on Feb. 24.

 

Portland will take on 10 of 14 Western Conference opponents twice at home and twice on the road, while playing Golden State, New Orleans, Phoenix and San Antonio only three times apiece. Of those matchups, the Trail Blazers host Phoenix and San Antonio twice, and Golden State and New Orleans once. The club will face each Eastern Conference team twice.

 

The Trail Blazers close out the 2012-13 NBA regular season at home on Wednesday, April 17, vs. Golden State.

Get ready, Andre Miller makes his first trip to the Rose Garden as the Nuggets' new PG in the season's first week. Photo courtesy of OregonLive.

The day has come. The NBA schedule was released today, which means that those last few fans who were holding their collective breath anticipating that somehow at the last second the season would vaporize in much the same way it seemed to materialize not two weeks ago can go ahead and exhale. The calendars have been aligned, the flights and hotel rooms have been booked, the season ticket sales have begun.

We knew we were going to have a season when the tentative agreement was reached, and we knew when it was going to start only a short time later. Now we know who Portland gets to play. Joe Freeman of the Oregonian and Ben at Blazersedge have very nice breakdowns (here and here respectively), so I won’t get in to that here.

Since I’m coming in a little late to the party this evening I thought I’d pick out a couple of games to look at specifically. These aren’t likely to be the most important games of the upcoming season, but they’re ones that I think might be worth keeping an eye on, and if you’re the type to do so, maybe marking your calendar  for.

(more…)

Well, Buchanan may have inadvertently let slip the team’s plans for the 2007 no. 1 overall pick in a recent appearance on Wheels at Work (Blazersedge link to audio of the interview):

People want Greg to be ready at the start of the season… Looking long term, we need everyone healthy, clicking together, come March, April and into May. If we can get Greg to play 60-65 games this year and continue the development curve he was on before he got injured last year, I think we’ll have a chance to have some success in the playoffs, this season.

Well then, there’s your answer. It’s disappointing on the surface, but can we really be all that surprised? The front office has refused to say anything other than variations on “he’s progressing, and he’ll be back this season.” If they believe that by keeping Oden out the first month of the season, he will be back 100 percent when he does play again, then this is the right decision. To pressure him into starting on opening night if he’s not entirely ready is to run your team based on how many “Is Oden the New Bowie?” segments on PTI you want there to be, not on the best interests of the club. If Oden plays 60-65 games at the level he was playing before he got hurt last year and his healthy for the playoffs, what Blazers fan wouldn’t take that?

So with all of that said, where does that leave the first quarter of the season? This is purely guesswork and speculation on my part, but based on Buchanan’s “60-65 games” comment and the makeup of the Blazers’ schedule, let’s assume the team is shooting for Dec. 5′s home game against the Clippers to bring Oden back. It’s the first game of a three-game homestand with two games before the next back-to-back. Oden would miss the first 19 games of the season in this case, which falls right in line with Buchanan’s estimate.

Here are the games Oden would miss in this case, with the opposing team’s starting center in parentheses.

• 11/26 vs. Phoenix (Robin Lopez)
• 11/27 at LA Clippers (Chris Kaman)
• 11/30 at New York (Ronny Turiaf)
• 11/01 at Chicago (Joakim Noah)
• 11/02 at Milwaukee (Andrew Bogut, pending recovery)
• 11/04 vs. Oklahoma City (Serge Ibaka)
• 11/06 vs. Toronto (Andrea Bargnani)
• 11/07 at LA Lakers (Andrew Bynum)
• 11/09 vs. Detroit (Ben Wallace)
• 11/12 at Oklahoma City (Ibaka)
• 11/13 at New Orleans (Emeka Okafor)
• 11/16 at Memphis (Marc Gasol)
• 11/18 vs. Denver (Nene Hilario)
• 11/20 vs. Utah (Mehmet Okur)
• 11/26 vs. New Orleans (Okafor)
• 11/28 at New Jersey (Brook Lopez)
• 11/30 at Philadelphia (Marreese Speights)
• 11/01 at Boston (Shaquille O’Neal [Kendrick Perkins out until late December or early January])
• 11/03 at Washington (JaVale McGee)

As far as first-quarter schedules go, that’s not that bad. In terms of teams with other young, elite centers with Oden’s skillset, we’re basically only looking at the matchups against Joakim Noah, Andrew Bynum (or Pau Gasol, depending on Bynum’s health), and Brook Lopez where there will be a huge void. There’s nobody else on that list that Marcus Camby can’t handle. A vast majority of these games are against teams the Blazers should be able to beat with or without Oden, and teams that they did beat last year without not just Oden but other players at various points in the year. The importance of having Nicolas Batum, arguably the Blazers’ best defender, healthy to start the year cannot be overstated. If the Blazers can get through this set of games with a decent record–and most of these are games they should win–and then get a completely healthy Oden back for the rest of the year, they’ll be fine. Say it with me: they’ll be fine.

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