The Best NBA Games of the 2019-2020 Regular Season

The rumors, they're all true—the NBA season schedule is out now. The NBA has all the info, exhaustively outlined, and including national broadcast dates and times. Almost all 30 teams rolled out fancy promotions. In the summer sports dead zone—early August—the schedule announcement comes as a huge relief to hoops fans. 

However, it's a lot of info, all at once. Today, we're collecting the five most anticipated games of the season, as things sit, for the 2019-2020 NBA season. The season can't start soon enough. 

Kawhi returns to Toronto. There are no hard feelings here—at least it seems that way—but no matter how Toronto decides to host him, it'll be a moment worth watching. I love a pointless debate about the merits of a tribute video, so this might be a good early season opportunity to have that conversation. 

The Lakers and Clippers face off on the opening night of the season, but given the two teams' top-heavy constructions, it might take them both a little while to warm up. (Paul George had offseason shoulder surgery, and it's tough to tell whether he's going to be ready for opening night). So, the Christmas day game will be a better litmus test for which superstar duo is the most potent. 

The NBA knows how to build hype around a schedule. Zion's first game comes against the freaking NBA Champs, in a rookie debut that will be by far the most-watched since LeBron's. 

I don't purport to pick this game for basketball reasons. With Kyrie returning to Boston, I just think it'll be funny.

This will (probably) be Vince Carter's last game in the NBA. While I doubt VC will get the season-long red-carpet rollout that Dwyane Wade got a year ago, it's going to be a huge moment all the same.

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