The Wizards' 2010/11 schedule has been released, and here are some quick bullet-point notes on it. Some of these are from Wizards PR, while others are stuff we discovered ourselves:
- The Wizards' home opener is November 2 against the Philadelphia 76ers at 7 p.m. This will put number one overall pick John Wall against number two overall pick Evan Turner. The Wizards will be the last team to play a home opener, as they will open with two straight road games.
- The Wizards' first game against LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat is November 29 in Miami. Their first home game against the Heat is December 18.
- Other key home dates: November 6 (Antawn Jamison's return to D.C.), November 10 (Yao Ming vs. Yi Jianlian), November 19 (Memphis, meaning Greivis Vasquez' first game home), December 14 (the Lakers' only visit), January 22 (Boston's first visit), January 25 (Baltimore native Carmelo Anthony's only visit), February 26 (Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson return to D.C.) and March 14 (Kevin Durant's only visit).
- Some key returns for current Wizards: November 13 (Kirk Hinrich returns to Chicago), December 16 (Yi Jianlian's return to New Jersey), January 5 (Gilbert Arenas' return to Philadelphia, where "Finga Gunz" happened), January 8 (at Charlotte, meaning John Wall returns to his native North Carolina) and January 31 (Josh Howard's return to Dallas).
- The Wizards' closing stretch is, as usual, road-heavy. The team will play 11 of their last 17 games away from the Verizon Center.
- The Wizards will play 21 back-to-back sets this year, with many of those coming in the second half of the season. They break down as follows: eight home-road, six road-road, five road-home and two home-home.
- The Wizards will be on national TV eight times, though five of those games are NBATV games. The other three are on October 28 at Orlando (TNT), November 25 at Atlanta (TNT) and January 21 at home against Phoenix (ESPN).
- The team's longest road trip of the season is their traditional five-game West coast trip from March 22-28. This year, the Wizards will play Portland on the 22nd, the Clippers on the 23rd, Denver on the 25th, Golden State on the 27th and Utah on the 28th.
- The team has two four-game homestands (February 4-12 and February 26-March 5), which double as the longest homestands of the year.
- The Wizards will play on the following holidays: Thanksgiving (at Atlanta on TNT), New Year's Eve (at Indiana), New Year's Day (at home against New Orleans) and Martin Luther King Day (at home against Utah at 1 p.m.).
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