Everything you need to know about the Toronto Raptors 2016-17 schedule

The NBA released the schedule for the 2016-17 season on Thursday. Below are some relevant dates for the Toronto Raptors, with a full schedule to follow.

You can find the Raptors full schedule here.

Christmas

As expected, the Raptors will once again be sitting out the league’s marquee Christmas Day slate. There was some thought that with the Miami Heat no longer being featured, a Raptors-Celtics game could be hot enough at that point in the season to get Toronto the (perceived as overdue) nod, but that’s not how it’ll go down. Boston will instead draw the New York Knicks, as first reported by Baxter Holmes.

Am told this is the Christmas Day slate of games this year:

BOS at NYK
GSW at CLE
CHI at SAS
MIN at OKC
LAC at LAL

— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) August 11, 2016

National TV

The Raptors will be on national television in the U.S. six times this season, up from two a year ago. Here are the nationally televised dates:

• Oct. 28 vs. Cleveland (ESPN)
• Nov. 16 vs. Golden State (ESPN)
• Dec. 8 vs. Minnesota (TNT)
• Feb. 27 @ New York (TNT)
• March 21 vs. Chicago (ESPN)
• March 31 vs. Indiana (ESPN)

The Raptors will also be on NBA TV eight times, matching last year’s total. Some may be disappointed in the number of US-wide looks they’ll get given the three-year run they’re on (and how many teams like the Celtics and Lakers are getting), but at least it’s up 40 percent (14 total) from 2015-16 (10) and up 55.6 percent from 2014-15 (9).

Shout out to Matt Moore for having the Raptors numbers ahead of the NBA release.

Number of national TV appearances for each NBA team, broken down by network. pic.twitter.com/yei2MtWYss

— Yaya Dubin (@JADubin5) August 11, 2016

Opener

The Raptors will open their season at home Wednesday, October 26 against the Detroit Pistons, the first game of a three-game home-stand to start the year that also brings the Cavaliers (Oct. 28) and Nuggets (Oct. 31) to town.

Breakdown

Here’s how often the Raptors will play each opponent:

• 4 times: Phi, Brk, NYK, Bos, Cle, Det, Mil, Cha, Mia, Orl
• 3 times: Chi, Was, Atl, Ind
• 2 times: Western Conference

The Raptors also have 17 back-to-backs but avoid any stretches of four games in five nights.

There are also these splits, per the team:

Cavaliers

The Raptors will square off with the defending NBA champions on the following dates:

• Friday, October 28 (Toronto, the second game of the season)
• Tuesday, November 15 (Cleveland)
• Monday, December 5 (Toronto)
• Wednesday, April 12 (Cleveland, the final game of the season)

Celtics

Toronto’s new apparent rival, the Boston Celtics, are on tap four times as part of the usual Atlantic Division schedule. Here’s when Jae Crowder and DeMarre Carroll will battle to the death:

• Friday, December 9 (Boston)
• Tuesday, January 10 (Toronto)
• Wednesday, February 1 (Boston)
• Friday, February 24 (Toronto)

Warriors

The Raptors go head-to-head with the Super Super Team on the following dates:

• Wednesday, November 16 (Toronto)
• Wednesday, December 28 (Golden State)

Returns

• Bismack Biyombo makes his return to Toronto with the Orlando Magic on Jan. 29 (and again March 27).
• Luis Scola and Anthony Bennett return as members of the Brooklyn Nets on Dec. 20 (and again on Jan. 13).
• The James Johnson Revenge Game is set for Nov. 4 when the Miami Heat visit (with an encore on April 7).

Home stands/Road trips

The Raptors have the following stands of four games or longer:

• Nov. 18-25 – 5-game road-trip (Den, Sac, LAC, Hou, Mil)
• Nov. 28-Dec. 8 – 6-game home-stand (Phi, Mem, LAL, Atl, Cle, Min)
• Dec. 23-Jan. 3 – 6-game road-trip (Uta, break, Por, GSW, Phx, LAL, SAS)
• Jan. 8-15 – 4-game home-stand (Hou, Bos, Brk, NYK)
• March 3-11 – 5-game road-trip (Was, Mil, NO, Atl, Mia)
• March 27-Apr 2 – 4-game home-stand (Orl, Cha, Ind, Phi)

Home schedule

For those of you looking ahead to key ticket dates, here is the team’s home-only schedule for the year:

Full schedule

And here’s the full schedule, which you’ll be able to bet on pretty soon as win over/unders come out.

Canadian broadcast schedule

The Raptors generally announce their Canadian broadcast schedule after the fact, as TSN and Rogers have to duke it out for games. We’ll update you with a separate post when that information becomes available.