Reports: Blazers Host Thunder And Cavaliers In First Week Of NBA Season
(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
At long last, we have an NBA schedule related leak pertaining to the home team. Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman, in a report about the Oklahoma City Thunder’s schedule, wrote that the Thunder will be starting the season in the Northwest.
The Thunder will open the season at Portland on Oct. 29, a Northwest Division matchup that offered the makings of a rivalry last season when Kevin Durant admitted to reporters that the two teams don’t like each other. The Trail Blazers went 54-28 last season and finished second in the division, five games behind the Thunder.
Update 11:10 AM: Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports via twitter that the Blazers will play host to LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, (unofficially) Lake Oswego High School graduate Kevin Love’s Cleveland Cavaliers in the first week of the season.
After Knicks and Bulls to open the season, Cavaliers and LeBron James travel to play Portland, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) August 13, 2014
Reports of the Cavaliers schedule say they will open with an Oct. 30, Oct. 31 back-to-back against New York and Chicago before going to Portland.
The NBA schedule will be officially released tomorrow afternoon at 3PM, with a show on NBATV.
There seems to be some conflict between reports about who will be featured in the season opening double-header on October 28th. However, none of those reports include the Blazers.
It will be interesting to see the mix between Durant jerseys and Blazers fans coming back to the Moda Center after their best season in 14 years.
The Blazers split the season series with the Thunder last year and the series point differential was 0.
It should be a raucous atmosphere against an opponent that’s made for some of the most riveting Blazers games the past few seasons.
The Blazers last opened the season at home in the 2012-13 season, a win against the Lakers on Halloween night in Damian Lillard’s NBA debut. Last season the Blazers opened the season in Phoenix, where they lost to the Suns.
Erik Gundersen
Erik Gundersen is the Trail Blazers beat reporter for The Columbian. He's a graduate of the Allen School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in addition earning a degree in Spanish. He's covered the NBA for four seasons. You can also occasionally find his work on ESPN.com's NBA section for their TrueCities series. He also fist-bumped with Kanye West once. Follow @BlazerBanter on twitter for more Blazers and NBA news.