The National Basketball Association today released its 2012-13 regular season schedule and announced the Atlanta Hawks will open its 45th season on Friday, November 2 at Philips Arena against the Houston Rockets. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
Following the season opener against the Rockets, Atlanta will face both participants from the 2012 NBA Finals in less than a week as the Hawks travel to Oklahoma City on Sunday, November 4 to play the Western Conference champions, and conclude the first week of competition at home against the NBA Champion Miami Heat on Friday, November 9.
The Heat’s second appearance in Atlanta comes immediately after the All-Star break (to be held February 14-17 in Houston, TX), as the Hawks host the league’s champions again on Wednesday, February 20. The Thunder makes their only trip to town on Wednesday, December 19.
Season tickets for the 2012-13 campaign are on-sale now and individual game tickets for those contests will go on sale in September at www.hawks.com/tickets, the Philips Arena box office or at all Ticketmaster locations. Also, back by popular demand, Hawks fans will once again be able to customize partial season ticket packages by building their own Flex plan. Flex plan deposits are now being accepted for priority access with plans going on-sale beginning August 15.
Atlanta will open training camp on October 1 on their practice court at Philips Arena. Additional information as it relates to training camp will be released at a later date. The Hawks’ complete regular season schedule is available at their web site, www.hawks.com. The full 2012-13 NBA schedule can be found on the league’s official web site, www.nba.com.
Among the other notable matchups on the schedule, Atlanta plays the Los Angeles Lakers, on Wednesday, March 13 in their only Philips Arena appearance. Last year’s playoff opponents, the Boston Celtics, will travel to town twice in the month of January (Saturday 5th and Friday 25th).
Featured on national television a total of six times during the upcoming season, the Hawks will have three telecasts each on NBA TV and ESPN. NBA TV’s three games will be November 19 (vs. Orlando), January 14 (at Chicago) and March 25 (at Indiana). ESPN’s televised contests are January 27 (at New York), February 20 (vs. Miami) and April 3 (vs. New York). The Hawks’ local TV schedule will be released at a later date.
This year’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday game is scheduled for Monday, January 21 against Minnesota at 2 p.m.
The 41-game home schedule is highlighted by 21 weekend dates – with 12 games on Fridays and nine on Saturdays. Atlanta will play five straight games at Philips Arena between November 24th and December 7th, and six consecutive road games from February 23rd to March 4th. The Hawks’ busiest month of competition comes in March when Atlanta plays 18 games, and they will close out the season with six of the final nine games at home. In addition, they will play 22 sets of back-to-back games.
Atlanta will play 14 games in November (eight home, six away), 15 in December (eight/seven), 16 in January (seven/nine), 11 in February (five/six), 18 in March (eight/10) and eight in March (five/three).
The majority of Hawks home games will start at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday starts set for 7 p.m. The season finale is Wednesday, April 17 in New York.
Via Hawks.com
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