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Warriors schedule release: 10 most intriguing games, including Kevin Durant's return, showdowns with Lakers – CBS Sports
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Despite a mediocre 2022-23 campaign and a postseason exit that fell short of the franchise’s impossibly lofty standards, the Golden State Warriors are once again being showcased as one’s of the league’s premier attractions. The 2023-24 NBA schedule, which was released on Thursday, features a league-high 29 national TV games for the Warriors. With Stephen Curry still dazzling, Draymond Green still podcasting and Klay Thompson still splashing, Golden State’s potential bounce-back — or continued decline — will be a focus of NBA fans throughout the globe.
With so many national TV games, we decided to comb through the schedule and pick out the most intriguing matchups — the ones you might want to highlight on your calendar to avoid disheartening schedule conflicts down the road. Potential can’t-miss games include a continued rivalry with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, a Christmas day meeting with the defending champion Denver Nugets and, of course, the return of Kevin Durant to Chase Center.
Here are the 10 most intriguing games on the 2023-24 Warriors schedule.
Here’s a little trivia. Did you know Kevin Durant has never played at Chase Center with fans in the building? That will hopefully change on opening night, when KD and the Suns come to town for a must-watch matchup. Klay Thompson and Devin Booker might also have a little something to say to one another after last season’s competitive exchange.
The upstart Kings pushed Golden State to seven games in the first round of last postseason, and they meet three times in the first month of the season. This late-November matchup gets a little extra juice, however, because it’s one of the group play games for the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament.
A rematch of the 2022 NBA Finals will serve as a nice amuse bouche for this season’s Christmas Day slate. The game also begins a stretch of 15 of 20 home games for Golden State, lasting until Jan. 30.
The Warriors head to the Mile High City to take on Nikola Jokic and the defending champions in an early holiday tipoff. This is the 12th-consecutive Christmas Day appearance for Golden State, but the first time they’ll match up with the Nuggets.
Any time the Warriors meet the Grizzlies, there are guaranteed fireworks (even with Dillon Brooks now in Houston). This particular matchup comes on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the 30th time that Golden State has played on the holiday (they’ve gone 20-10).
The Warriors already have a long and storied history against LeBron James, and now there’s the added wrinkle that his Lakers eliminated Golden State from last year’s playoffs. For those reasons, the NBA understandably backloaded the four matchups between these two teams, the first of which comes in late January in a Saturday primetime showcase.
Who knows whether James Harden will be in the mix, but any time the MVP comes to town, it’s worth tuning in. Joel Embiid will look to continue to feast on the Warriors’ lack of traditional size — he put up 34 and 46 points, respectively, in their two matchups last season.
Steph Curry has a tendency to make magic happen at MSG, so this is certainly a game you won’t want to miss. Also, don’t sleep on the potential Donte DiVincezo revenge game … OK, maybe not. Fun fact: The last time the Warriors and Knicks met on Leap Year Day was 60 years ago, when Golden State took home a 136-110 win in New York. Rattle off that tasty bit of trivia at your watch party and wait for the awestruck compliments to roll in.
This won’t be the first time the Warriors meet up with ballyhooed rookie Victor Wembanyama, but he’ll have almost a full year of NBA experience under his belt at this point, and might be a much better player than in their earlier matchups. This will be the eighth time in the last 10 years that the Warriors play on Easter.
Another meeting with the Lakers, but this one could have significant postseason implications for the Pacific Division rivals. Even if it doesn’t, it should be a nice tune-up for both teams as they potentially prepare to ratchet things up to playoff intensity.
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