Raptors 2017-18 schedule released: What you need to know

The NBA released the schedule for the 2017-18 season on Monday. 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 a Raptors-Celtics game might be able to garner a nod, but last year’s Wizards-Celtics playoff series must have won out in the end. The schedule is a little underwhelming in parts, but you can see a pretty clear logic for each of the 10 teams selected for a day that’s entirely about U.S. television ratings and isn’t traditionally a straight reward for performance. The Raptors haven’t played on Christmas since 2001.

The Raptors do not play on Christmas once again. Phi-NY, Cle-GS, Was-Bos, Hou-OKC, Min-LAL.

— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) August 10, 2017

National TV

The Raptors will be on *true* national television in the U.S. five times this season, down from six a year ago but still well up from two the year prior. They do not have one of the league’s eight opening-week national roll-out slots. Here are the nationally televised dates:

• January 11 vs. Cleveland (TNT)
• March 2 at Washington (ESPN)
• March 7 at Detroit (ESPN)
• March 21 at Cleveland (ESPN)
• April 4 vs. Boston (ESPN)

The Raptors will also be on NBA TV seven times for a total of 12 nationally televised games (they were on eight times last year for 14 national games overall). Some may be disappointed in the number of US-wide looks they’ll get given the four-year run they’re on (and how many times some comparable teams get on), but it’s still an improvement from where they were previously (they had 10 total in 2015-16 and nine in 2014-15). Getting on national TV a dozen times is solid considering the factors that go into such things, though it is below the league average and median.

Each team's number of national TV games overall and by network. pic.twitter.com/CZ2ZpGWEo7

— Yaya Dubin (@JADubin5) August 14, 2017

As always, a lot factors into these decisions, particularly that Canadian viewership doesn’t help national U.S. ratings (neutralizing Toronto’s would-be market size advantage), that there are more teams competing for 7/8pm starts than 9/10 ones, and that, you know, the Raptors are in that good-not-great, been-there-a-while, not-super-interesting-from-a-narrative-perspective area. Toronto is an awesome basketball city and the Raptors are a good team, but this is the lot we should all be used to by now.

Opener

The Raptors will open their season at home on Thursday, October 19 against the Chicago Bulls. What a test out of the gate! They’ll also host the Philadelphia 76ers at home (Oct. 21) before playing their first road game in San Antonio (Oct. 23), the first game of a six-game west-coast road trip. So it’s hardly an easy start for the Raptors.

The Raptors will open their season at home against the Bulls (oh no!) on Oct. 19.

— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) August 14, 2017

Breakdown

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

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

The Raptors also have 14 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 push the boulder to the top of the mountain only to watch it roll back down on them on the following dates:

• Thursday, January 11 (home)
• Wednesday, March 21 (away)
• Tuesday, April 3 (away)

Celtics

One of the more notable “rivals” of the last year or so and the team the Raptors are probably most in competition with from a general East tiering perspective, the Boston Celtics, are on tap four times as part of the usual Atlantic Division schedule. The division could be decided over these four games:

• Sunday, November 12 (away)
• Tuesday, February 6 (home)
• Saturday, March 31 (away)
• Wednesday, April 4 (home)

Warriors

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

• Wednesday, October 25 (away)
• Saturday, January 13 (home)

Returns

• Patrick Patterson makes his return to Toronto with the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 18.
• Cory Joseph will once again be “repping The Six,” this time as a member of the Indiana Pacers, on Dec. 1 and April 6.
• P.J. Tucker and the Houston Rockets visit on March 9.
• The DeMarre Carroll Revenge Games (his returns with the Brooklyn Nets) are Dec. 15 and March 23, barring injury.
• Terrence Ross, Bismack Biyombo, and Jeff Weltman are back this way with the Orlando Magic on April 8.

Home stands/Road trips

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

• Oct. 23-Nov. 3: 6-game road-trip (SA, GS, LAL, Por, Den, Uta)
• Dec. 8-13: 4-game road-trip (Mem, Sac, LAC, Phx)
• Feb. 2-8: 4-game home-stand (Por, Mem, Bos, NY)

And that’s it! The Raptors have historically disliked extended home stands (or at least, Dwane Casey has said as much), and they have a lot of two- and three-game stands. Only one four-game home-stand isn’t a big deal – they still get 41 at home – and while the opening trip is really tough, getting that west trip (and their longest trip) out of the way early is probably preferable to hitting it later.

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:

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.