On Tuesday, Oct. 24, the new NBA season will begin with two big games on TNT.
A person with direct knowledge of the opening night TV confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that the Denver Nuggets will host the Los Angeles Lakers in a rematch of last season’s Western Conference Finals, followed by the Phoenix Suns traveling to San Francisco to face the Golden State Warriors. The individual asked to remain anonymous since they were not authorized to speak publicly until the timetable was formally revealed.
The Nuggets will be presented with their championship rings as well as the franchise’s first championship banner. The Lakers will open the season against the defending champs for the second year in a row, having lost to the Warriors on opening night last year.
Star-studded matchup
The Warriors will play a fresh trio of talents in the Suns’ Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Devin Booker, but there will be familiar faces all over the field.
Chris Paul returns to the Warriors after being traded to them during the offseason. It will also be the first time Durant confronts the Warriors in front of Chase Center fans since 2019 – the year he left Golden State. Last season, after the Suns acquired Durant before the trade deadline, the two players played only 15 games together.
The performance of the newly constructed teams against each other is a major theme for the evening, but it will most certainly be overshadowed by the opening matchup.
Reigning champs and conference drama
Since their playoff series, the Nuggets and Lakers have had a lot of bad blood.
Following Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone stated that the story was all about the Lakers and their changes, not Denver’s talent. He told reporters, “So you put that in your pipe, smoke it, come back, and you know what, we’re going to go up 2-0.”
Denver eventually swept the Lakers, and during their title parade, Vic Lombardi, a Nuggets studio presenter, told the fans that Michael Malone had become the “Lakers’ daddy.” Darvin Ham, the Lakers’ head coach, was not pleased with the new moniker.
“God bless his soul. This (expletive) ain’t over. God bless his soul,” he said in July.