The NBA schedule isn’t slated to be released until Wednesday afternoon, but Nets fans now know who their team will open up the season against.
Brooklyn will face Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans at Barclays Center on Wednesday, Oct. 19 to open the season, according to Bally Sports’ Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson and The Athletic’s Shams Charania. The Nets had opened the year with a two-game road trip last season.
The report comes as the calendar inches closer to September and the start of training camps in the NBA. It was already reported over the weekend that the Nets had been conspicuously absent from the Christmas Day slate of games this season, which has become a marquee day for the NBA on national television.
And it remains unknown if the season opener for Brooklyn will be part of the national television slate of games the NBA has.
Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram traveling to Brooklyn to face the Nets, with at the very least Kyrie Irving still on the roster, should make for an entertaining matchup to start the year. The Nets have been embroiled in drama since their season ended with a first-round exit at the hands of the Boston Celtics.
Questions around whether superstar Kevin Durant, who requested a trade to team owner Joe Tsai in June, have dominated the narrative surrounding the organization since. Ironically, the Pelicans had been one of the teams mentioned that were possibly pursuing a deal to bring the 12-time NBA All-Star to The Big Easy.
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In order for the Pelicans to get any sort of deal done for Durant, it would likely take them including Ingram in a package and that isn’t likely to happen, according to nola.com.
The Nets won both games against the Pelicans last season, taking the first game on Nov. 12 120-112 and the second game on Jan. 15 120-105.
