Last season, only five teams played more nationally-televised regular-season basketball games than the Knicks.
This season, a team built around newly-crowned captain Jalen Brunson and his Villanova Wildcat cohort (plus Julius Randle, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson) will play 24 times on national TV, 34 if you include games streamed on NBA TV.
The tally ties the reigning champion Boston Celtics for the third-best exposure to the national spotlight among NBA teams. The Knicks only trail LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers and Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors in the national eye this season.
Both the Lakers and Warriors are anchored by Hall of Fame-bound superstars nearing the twilight of their legendary careers.
Which means there’s virtually more interest in the Knicks, as interpreted by the number of times the NBA is putting them on national TV, than there is in every team that either does not have James or Curry on the roster or did not just win an NBA title.
Not a bad place to start the NBA season from a ratings standpoint, though the Knicks would rather have marks in the win column.
They can get them, and in bunches, but it’ll take work given the arduous schedule that was released on Thursday.
Here are its highlights:
KNICKS WILL PLAY 14 SETS OF BACK-TO-BACKS
It’s two more sets of two-games-in-two-nights than the Knicks played last season, when they finished 17-7 in either leg of a back-to-back and 6-6 in the second leg.
The Knicks open their season in Boston against the Celtics, who will both receive their championship rings and host New York at the TD Garden to open the season on Oct. 22.
New York will then host the Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers before traveling to Miami to face the Heat, kicking off a four-game road trip. After stops in Detroit, Houston, and Atlanta, the Knicks will host Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, then travel to Indiana to face Tyrese Haliburton’s Pacers again before taking on Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers in their first NBA Cup game of the season.
That means seven of the Knicks’ first 10 games are against playoff teams from last season. Two of those games are against the Pacers team responsible for ending New York’s season in the second round. And four more of those teams — the Celtics, Cavaliers, Bucks and 76ers — will serve as early tests for the Knicks in their quest for the Eastern Conference crown.
Tom Thibodeau’s team, of course, welcomes the challenge and would rather face these tough opponents early.
GRUELING END TO SEASON TOO
The Knicks will play seven games in 10 days between April 1 and 11, leading into the April 13 finale against the Nets at Barclays Center. The Knicks have three sets of back-to-backs baked into those 10 days: April 1 and 2 vs. Philadelphia then at Cleveland; April 5 and 6 at Atlanta then vs. Phoenix; and April 10 and 11 at Detroit then vs. Cleveland.
The schedule is further complicated by a stretch of 11 road games in 27 days from Feb. 21 to March 20, including a five-game West Coast swing and no more than one home game separating at least every two road games.
However, the Knicks will also enjoy two lengthy home stands: an eight-game, 17-day stay (including one road game at Barclays Center) from Jan. 17 to Feb. 3, and a five-game stretch from Jan. 6-13.
OTHER IMPORTANT DATES
- The Knicks will host former center Isaiah Hartenstein and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Jan. 10. Hartenstein, a key contributor and starting center on last season’s 50-win roster, left New York after signing a three-year, $87 million deal with Oklahoma City early in free agency.
- The Knicks will also host former first-round picks R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley when the Toronto Raptors visit Madison Square Garden on Dec. 23 and Jan. 8.
- Kristaps Porzingis and the reigning champion Celtics will visit the Garden on Feb. 8 and April 8.
- Haliburton’s Pacers will come to New York for the home opener on Oct. 25.
- Quentin Grimes will return to Madison Square Garden as a member of the Dallas Mavericks on March 25. The Knicks traded Grimes to the Detroit Pistons in the Bojan Bogdanovic-Alec Burks deal, and Detroit subsequently moved him to the Mavericks for Tim Hardaway Jr. and draft picks.
- The Knicks will host Embiid and the 76ers on Feb. 26 and April Fool’s Day.
