Portland Trail Blazers 2025-26 Schedule: Full Breakdown and Analysis

Portland Trail Blazers 2025-26 Schedule: Full Breakdown and Analysis

In today’s show, the regular season schedule is out. We know who the Blazers are going to play during the 2025 2026 season. We know when they’re going to play him, too. Let’s break down everything else. Welcome to Lockdown Blazers. Let’s get into it. You are Locked on Trailblazers, your daily Portland Trailblazers podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. What’s up world? It’s your past first point guard and trailblazers reporter Mike Richmond. You’re listening to another episode of Locked on Blazers, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, available wherever you get podcasts and also on YouTube. Thanks for making the show your first listen. Coming at you three days a week, most weeks in August and into the first couple weeks se September and then we’ll be back to five days a week once we get closer to the season in midepptember. But for now, we’re rolling along three days a week, plus bonus episodes when the team gets sold. Um, you’re listening to Friday, August 15th’s program. And today, we are talking all about the 2025 2026 regular season schedule. The NBA on Thursday officially released the entire schedule. We know who the Blazers are going to play, at least in the first 80 games uh that are on the schedule. The the other two we will talk about in a moment. Um, we’ll get into everything you need to know. That’s what we’re going to do in the show is break down all of the nuts and bolts, the ins and outs, and everything you need to know about the schedule. I I want to start here like you know the the sort of classic joke is like 41 on the road and 41 at home. Well, now the way the schedule works, first of all, they only release 80 games because there’s this inseason tournaments and then based on whether you advance in the inseason tournament or you don’t advance in the inseason tournament, you they you get paired up uh beyond that. So we the Blazers will get two other games um during the second week of December. That’s December 9th through 16th somewhere in that second week of December. They’ll get two extra games. Um conceivably if they advance in the inseason tournament, they they could they will also get extra games during that first uh during that second week of Septe of December, excuse me. But like in general, I do not think the the NBA season schedule matters really. It matters for you and your homies who like going to the games because you can look at the schedule and say, “This looks like a fun weekend. This is a fun weekend. Oh, we could go to Minneapolis for this weekend. Oh, we could go to Milwaukee. Oh, this would be a nice time to go to New York and see them in Brooklyn and in Manhattan.” Like, it it’s fun for planning. It’s fun for getting excited about. It’s fun for like looking at the games and kind of um uh you know, having the anticipation of the NBA season that will start, you know, in in in a couple months. It is not particularly predictive partic like especially now in August. That doesn’t mean that it’s not worth parsing. Like I’m going to parse it here. We’re going to spend a half hour doing that in today’s show. 25 minutes doing that in today’s program. But I I I just don’t think it’s like um I don’t really believe in strength of schedule stuff like the long arcing strength of strength of schedule stuff that you can predict in August. But I do think there are things you can predict and things you can know about the schedule based on its structure. And we’ll get into all of that. But let’s get into what you need to know. Uh the regular season starts on a Wednesday night at the MOA Center. The Blazers will kick off the season with a couple games at home. The home opener is against the Minnesota Timberwolves on October 22nd at the Moda Center. That’ll be your chance to cheer for Damen Lillard, not wearing a jersey. Um maybe out of a boot. I don’t really know how that works, but you know, in street clothes and they announce on opening night, they’ll announce everybody. He’ll get announced his return. It’ll be back. Something to look forward to. They play that Friday against Golden State and then they head out on a three-game road trip and that’s your first five games of the season. Minnesota, Golden State, and then to California for the Clippers and the Lakers, uh, back toback, but um, it’s not in no longer in the same building, but at least in the same county, beautiful Los Angeles County, and then to Salt Lake City before heading home. Game six kicks off the uh, we’re not going to go through all 82 here. Uh, but game six kicks off the first of the NBA Cup games. The Blazers are in West Group C. And let me tell you, West Group C sucks. That is where the good teams are. Easily the best group in all of the in all of the conferences. Uh in all of the the uh you know, there’s three there are three groups in each conference. And in all of the groups, uh West Group C is by far the best along with Houston, Denver, Golden State, and San Antonio. um the highest combined win total of any of any group of in the um uh of among the inseason tournament groups like this just this is the group of death. This is the best these are the best teams. Uh Denver and Houston are going to be really good. They’re going to win probably north of 50 games. The Warriors um when healthy are going to be competitive. They’re old obviously and health will be an issue. And San Antonio might be a team that’s like truly on the rise with with a healthier dear Fox and Victor Wanyyama in year three. Um yikes. But uh so you you get that first o the first first Friday in October. That’s Halloween. Friday night against uh against the Nuggets. Uh and then they’ll play a couple a couple more Fridays. They’ll play four games. They play against all of those teams. And then depending on whether they advance or not, um I’m going to say not because those are really hard games. They’ll play two other games like I said in the in mid December that will be their games uh I mean technically they’re like games uh 20 and 21 I believe on the schedule but games 81 and 82 in terms of when we know about them. It’s um let me get into a couple other things before before I get into some rants about the about the inseason tournament. I don’t have any problem with the inseason tournament. It adds fake juice to um otherwise games in October and November that you wouldn’t really care about. Um and if you don’t really care about them anyway, giving them fake juice and like fake, you know, special courts and special um they’ll be all on Amazon Prime. The uh like giving them a little bit special treatment doesn’t make them any worse. Uh at it it’s it is at worst neutral and at best it makes them like slightly more exciting, I guess. Um, I do think like the the once you get once the teams advance and they make the semi-finals and the finals of the inseason tournament, those games are pretty fun. Those games have have have proven to be fairly competitive, particularly like in that part of the schedule where you don’t usually get games with stakes. Games with stakes are good. Speaking of Amazon Prime, the Blazers play eight nationally televised games this year. Eight. That’s a big jump. Seven of them are on NBC/ Peacock. Um the the NBA’s new media rights deal kicks in this year. Rest in peace to the the good folks at Turner Broadcasting who um are still producing a show for ESPN. Boy, the media world is weird. Um but uh games no longer on TNT. Uh NBA TV, which was also operated by Turner, has gone the way of the Dodo or at least is shelved for now in terms of broadcasting games. So, the national TV games are ESPN/ABC, NBC, and Peacock and as well as Amazon Prime’s streaming service. You can um it will be and then other than those eight televised games, the other ones will be available on League Pass/Blazervision. If you’re someone who streams, it is probably easier to stream games this year than it ever has been as a Blazer um fan. But you got to buy Peacock and you got to buy Amazon Prime. Is that better? I don’t know. But eight eight it’s it’s actually worse. I I I could tell you that um for sure at eight national telev when Damen Lillard came to town. It was kind of depressing that their only national it’s like the only time that you’re an important team is when you’re the most famous player who doesn’t even play for your team returns home. Uh eight is is not um like in the top half of of of national televised games. Golden State and the Lakers have 34. Peace along with the Knicks and the Thunder all have 34. Um the the Blazers eight puts them 21st among teams of nationally televised games. The last in the league, Utah and Washington each have two a piece along with Toronto, New Orleans, and Brooklyn. Those five teams all have two a piece. Eight uh puts the Blazers just behind the Kings who have nine and ahead of strangely the Miami Heats who only have five nally televised games. I will say this, a nally televised game is worse if you are a big fan of the team because if you’re a big fan of the team, like nobody’s going to know the team better than Lamar Herd and Kevin Calabro and Brook Rollendam and the Blazers like local broadcast bringing you the the apologies to Tom Ho bringing you the like um the local feel, right? Um, when you go when you have national televised games, it’s like it’s like guys and and gals. Uh, like it’s it is folks who have not watched the team as closely, do not know it as well as you, and you’re kind of like I see I think a typical fan interaction. It’s like, oh man, this these people don’t know know my team as well as I do. I hate them. But, um, the Blazers will still, but it is a sort of sign of like respect and maybe like a sign of like national interest. I think the Blazers playing better the second half of last season. The um addition of Yan Hansen, although like that those games are going to be on ch Chinese TV, it doesn’t matter really matter as much national TV, but um yeah, like it’s just a sign the Blazers have are are not like considered like a true bottom dweller this year, at least by their sort of media partners. Uh seven of those games will be on NBC/ Peacock. The Blazers get one Amazon Prime video g uh game and that will be uh the day after Christmas December 26 with an 8:00 p.m. start against the Clippers. 8:00 p.m. start locally on the West Coast is nonsense. It’s awful. An 8M start locally anywhere sucks, but it particularly sucks in the West Coast for uh both you trying to like go to bed early on a random week night and um also anyone back on the other side of the country who’s trying to watch a game that will tip off after 11:00 p.m. That’s nonsense. Um, let’s talk longest road trips, longest homestands, uh, and and some other, uh, odds and ends from the Blazers schedule. Join me in that second segment and we will do just that. First though, let’s talk Monarch money. Most people can’t name all the financial accounts that they’ve got or even what those financial accounts are worth. So whether it’s 401ks or investments or any other things you might have, um you are if you are missing the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. And that’s where Monarch Money comes in. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. Uh, you can link all your accounts in minutes, see clear data visuals, get smart categorization of your spending, and finally feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. So, if you happen to agree to a $4 billion purchase this week, maybe Monarch Money can help you see where all that hockey money, where all that uh pickle ball money, and where all that Portland Trailblazer money is going. Don’t let the financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with the code locked on NBA. [Music] All right, let’s keep it rolling. Talking more Blazer schedule stuff. Last year, the Blazers had a sevengame road trip. a truly just a an enormous amount of time to be away from from uh the friendly confines of the motor center. Just away from away from your family, away from your friends, away from your the bed you sleep in if you’re a Blazers player or Blazers employee. Uh that’s a long trip. Uh this year the longest road trips are thrice. They will be on the road for for five gamers. November 8 through 16. Uh February 26th through March 6. That’s the end of February to the first week of March. and then again at the end of March or the middle of March, excuse me, March 15th to 22. Um, they do have a 4 gamer in December that could end up being a five-game trip depending on how the NBA Cup games shake out because they have a four gamer that wraps up and then on the heels of that they will get a scheduled one of their um one of their NBA Cup games, whether they advance in the group or uh more likely do not advance in the group. More likely from my from my mind. Um, it could happen. It could happen. They could they could beat the Nuggets and the Rockets, right? It could happen. They could They could be They could be champions in Vegas this winter, but but depending on what happens with those games, there’s a chance that they have another five-game road trip in December. December right now looks relatively homeheavy. It’s their home heaviest month. They’re home for the holidays. Um, but that’s we’ll see what the first little bit of of of December looked like that middle part of December. The longest home stands of the season. Uh last year they also had a sevename home stand. They were here for a fat stretch. Uh but they played every other day. During that stretch they played like seven seven games over 15 days. Um just like every other night you play a basketball game, but you do get to sleep in your own bed. But they’ve got two fivegame home stands. Uh December 22nd to the 29th. Like I said, home home for the holidays, but they do play the g the day after Christmas against the Clippers in that nally televised game. Uh and then they head out after that uh home stand to OK beautiful Oklahoma City for New Year’s Eve where they’ll play uh on December 31st and then spend uh ring in the new year and spend part of New Year’s Day uh in Oklahoma City and then traveling as they continue on with a road trip. And then their second fivegame home stand is February 2nd through the 9th in early February. I think this is also a meaningful um stretch of the schedule here um is that they end the season with seven of their last uh 10 games at home including game 82 vers Sacramento. Now like I said projecting out into games that happened in April is a fool’s errand but I am a fool so come with me along this errand. Um, in the past I have kind of um, last season I’ll say not even in the past. Last season I would couch some of my comments with saying things like, “Well, if you want the Blazers to win, you know, that would that that’s the way I would I would sort of talk about the team.” And quite frankly, that would that’s not something I’m going to do this year because um, last year it was unclear to me why they wanted to win and I never got it and I just didn’t understand the direction and probably still don’t understand the direction they chose last season. However, this year, I’m not I’m not deluded by like, well, when are they going to lose? Like, this is a team that’s like these are a bunch of like cold, calculated losers. When are they going to start losing on purpose? They’re not doing that this year. They’re trying to win basketball games. Whether they’re able to win basketball games at a level that’s like deeply beneficial, I think, remains to be seen, but like what their approach is is not a surprise any longer. Like, we we know the deal. I know the score of the game, and the score of the game is that the Blazers are going to be competitive 1 through 82. And so that that gets us to that final 10game stretch. If this is a team and they they want to make, you know, they want to push forward and like be competitive, right? They’re a team that is trying trying to win um you know, maybe they’re not trying to like win the championship with the roster that they have, but they’re certainly like um they’re much more interested in winning any individual game than sort of like developmental investment, right? It’s like I think that’s abundantly clear from the decisions they’ve made over the last two seasons or last maybe two off seasons I should say. So these final 10 games of the season instead of being like well if you want them to win they do want to win right and so like having even even not knowing who the opponents are just knowing that you play seven out of your final 10 at home is a chance to make that push if you are a team that is on the cusp of getting the play in because at that time of year there are some teams that have pulled the plug. They’re like, “We’re not going to make the playoffs. We stink. We’d rather lose. Who cares?” And there’s teams that are like, “We’re pretty much locked into third.” Like, like, “Cool. Come what may.” Like, “We’ll just be third, you know? Like, we’re we’ve got a twoame lead with however many left. Um, you know, with with with six left and we know that like our magic number is three, right? Like, we just got to win. We got to win three of these. Uh, we feel good.” Or our magic number is one. We have to win one of our final six games to lock up the fourth seed or fifth seed in the West, whatever it is. there will be there. You’re just going to play teams at that final 10 game stretch that kind of have most of their season is locked like most of their situation is locked or if their situation isn’t locked what they’re trying to do is lose um that’s like the weird time of year in the NBA. So the Blazers if they are making that push to the playin or to the playoffs if you really want to get greedy here like pl closing with a homeheavy push is really useful for that. um you know they they start the year with um with such an aggressive stretch against the West. 16 of their first 20 games are against the Western Conference. Uh including their first eight. So like it’s going to be hard. Some of the nature of like oh they play however many games against West versus the East is kind of just like how how the schedule works. You play 30 games against Eastern Conference teams, you play 52 against Western Conference teams, you’re going to play more um almost twice as much, right? you’re going to play 40 40% more. Um, so like I think I think the the sort of it’s going to start out challenging, right? Because you’re going to play a bunch of Western Conference teams and there’s pretty much no bad teams in the West except for, you know, New Orleans and and the Utah and um New Orleans will probably be as healthy as they’ll ever be at the beginning of the season, right? Like I might be the best version of the Pelicans. So you you get this little push at the end of the year with these final 10 games and then you get game 82 and why I mentioned game 82 against Sacramento. you get a home game against the Kings right now. I would say that the Kings and the Blazers both basically by anyone who is a who is a prognosticator, they’re right in that same tier. Um I kind of think the Blazers are better than the Kings just cuz I think the Kings roster makes no sense. Um but I like but I don’t think the Blazers are like significantly way better, like insultingly better than Sacramento. And if if the Kings were to finish with a better record of the Blazers, I would not necessarily surprise me. But like right now, as I sit here in August, I think Portland is better than Sacramento because I think the roster makes more sense. Um, even though Sacramento clearly has more top-end talent and certainly some more name recognition on the roster. But if you do think they’re in the same tier, and I think that’s very reasonable to think they’re in the same tier, game 82, which is usually totally meaningless by the by the time you get there for, I don’t know, something like 28 of the 30 teams in the league, that could be meaningful for the for the Blazers and Kings. They could be jockeying for 910. They could be jockeying for 89. They could be jockeying for on the on the cusp, right? Like who’s going to finish 11th and miss the play and who’s going to finish 10th. You could get a meaningful game 82 and you get a home game and it could be one of those where it’s like not like a a twoame swing where it’s like, hey, if you beat them, you’re in. Like you can catch them and you’ll have the head-to-head record tiebreaker type of thing. Like it could be a meaningful could be a final meaningful game based on kind of where the Blazers are right there. I think the close to the schedule is nice. Um, but like that’s mostly just based on the the belief and the well wellestablished belief uh and that that home games are easier than road games for basically every team ever in the history of the sport and all sports really. Although uh I do think there is some evidence that homec court advantage has slightly dwindled over the last uh 15 years. I’ve I’ve read some of some of that. But even then, you’re still more likely to win a home game than a road game. And the Blazers close with a home game, including one that might be meaningful in the last game of the season. That was my fool’s errand. I’m a fool. I don’t really believe in strength of schedule stuff, but I do really like the website positive residual, and they’ve got a bunch of interesting data related to the schedule that does include some strength of schedule stuff that I will generally ignore. But I do think there’s some other sort of nuts and bolts on how the schedule is put together and built that I do think is meaningful. And we’ll talk about those meaningful things like rest advantages and disadvantages and backto-backs all in that third segment. Join me there, won’t you? Still a pass versus point guard. I’m still Mike Richmond. You still listen to Locks on Blazers. Like I said, I don’t believe in the long arching strength of schedule analysis because of the obvious myriad factors that make projecting games months down the line impossible to accurately predict as to be entirely meaningless. It is just it it just does not it’s just it’s just not a useful tool the way I see it. Can you project like a couple weeks out, 10 days out? Yeah, usually. But um trying to say like what games are going to be hard uh without knowing who is going to be injured and available, without knowing how the trade deadline is going to break out with shake out, like without all all of those things. Like I I just don’t think you could say like these games in March are hard. You can say like, “Wow, that’s a long stretch on the road.” Yeah. Okay. Wow. That that stretch February uh 26 to March 6, that’s five road games. That’s gonna be that’s a hard stretch, right? Um, but I I in general do not think that projecting in when the schedule comes out strength of schedule stuff where the Blazers on the website that I really really like and appreciate positive residual where the Blazers have the second hardest strength of schedule in the NBA. I do not think that is meaningful. What the real truth is is that the West is really good and the Blazers aren’t one of the really good teams in the West. So, they’re going to play a bunch of teams throughout the year that are good because they play in the harder conference. But when and how those things shake out and who’s healthy and when and all those things, that’s so much easier to be certain of when you get closer as opposed to further away. But I do think are you tired or or is the other team tired is actually a probably a much stronger indicator of strength of schedule than like overall talent from this distance. Once you get close, you can kind of know how the talent shakes out. I’m not anti-talent analysis. I’m just saying um there’s injuries and stuff and trades. Okay. Uh but the Blazers, um let’s talk rest advantage and rest disadvantages. That would be when you come in with a night off and the team that you’re playing has had does not have that night off. They’re on the second night of a backto-back and you are fresh and rested. That’s a rest advantage. The reverse when you’re coming in on a backto-back and they and they are rested to not play the night before. That is the rest disadvantage. Um, there’s for the rest uh advantage games. I I think it’s useful. Everyone in the league has between seven and 14 rest advantage games. The Blazers have 11. It’s pretty good. That’s pretty That’s pretty good. They’re right They’re right in the middle. Um, they don’t have the fewest in the league, which is always always money for them, but but they didn’t get um they didn’t get the greatest gifts and have 14. The rest disadvantage games though and I these are these can be really really tough. Um you’re just like you know you’re playing on the road on the second night of a backto-back against a team that’s been waiting in their own home gym. Uh everyone in the league has between six and 14. The majority of teams have between 10 and 12. Nobody has 13. So everyone really has between six and 12 except for the Warriors. Whoops. Who have 14 rest disadvantage games on the schedule. Woo! An older basketball team with the most rest disadvantaged games on the schedule. What could go wrong for a relatively thin roster? Uh, captained, championed, guided by mid30s stars. Um, yeah, the Blazers have nine rest disadvantage games. 21 more teams in the league have more rest disadvantaged games. 21 more teams. Uh, you will note that none of the NBA Cup games are on backto-back. So, the Blazers would they, you know, we only know 80 of their games, but the games 81 and 82, they will not be rest disadvantaged games or advantage games. Everyone’s always gets a night off before those happen. Uh, so the Blazers at nine, that’s that’s like I said, 21 21 teams have more rest, disadvantage games than them. They actually have a relatively solid schedule in terms of are they going to be tired or unreasonably tired playing against um, you know, they’ll play on equal footing with their opponent uh, 62 times. uh this season and uh 11 where they’ll have an advantage and nine will they will have a disadvantage. Uh everyone in the league has between 13 and 16 backtobacks. That’s uh when you play on consecutive nights. The Blazers have 15, which is above average. Um 18 teams have fewer backto-backs. It’s a slightly above average, but yeah, right right in the middle there. 13 to 16. Everybody’s got them. Blazers with 15. Um those are the Blazers have been decent back tobacks just like under Chanty Bilips. I think that might be just an aberration but they have they were fairly uh competitive in those games last year. Um air miles this is always matters because geography just it just exists unfortunately. It just exists like the the United States of America uh along with I guess all of North America because of a team that plays in Toronto in Canada. Um like but the United States of America and and this continent in general is very large. It’s very just geographically large. Um, and the Blazers are located in the Northwest Outpost, which is just far away from everything else. The closest team is Sacramento, which is like, I don’t know, 400 and some miles, 500 miles. It’s Sacramento’s pretty far south. It ain’t close. Um, Denver, not close. Uh, these are these are your sort of your your closest team. Salt Lake City, not close. Um, so the Blazers are always going to be at the top just because when you get in an airplane, you have to fly. Like it is it is um it isn’t like a short it isn’t a little short hop, skip, and a jump. I I like Sacramento flights what, like 70 minutes, but it ain’t nothing. Um, the Blazers will travel the second most air miles of any team in the league. Orlando is number one and Memphis is third. Memphis, yeah, because Memphis is located in Tennessee on the east side of the Mississippi River, but also the Memphis Grizzlies play in the Western Conference. Los Angeles is far away from that portion of Mississippi River. All of the portions, but particularly that portion as well. Um, a real bummer for the Grizzlies. based on geography. Um, when the league, if the league should ever expand, the Grizzlies should try hard to get to the Eastern Conference. Not only because it’s been the JV Conference for 20 years, if not longer, um, but just because like they’ll travel less. Uh, Orlando just I I mean, some of it is maybe just like uh tough tough scheduling for for them because like they’re not even in South Florida. They’re they’re in central Florida, the northern half of a very long state. So, shockingly long state. like there are some teams that are close. Um but me but Orlando is it leads according to positive residual leads the the NBA this year and will lead the NBA this year in miles traveled. Um here’s the Midwest advantage for you. If you are located in the Midwest and you do play in the Eastern Conference unlike uh Memphis, which is like the American South for sure in terms of like a regional location, but in terms uh like geographically in the country is in the pretty much in the middle close to the middle. Um, but the Pacers, that beautiful Midwest dominance, they fly the least air miles of any team in the league, 35,000. The Blazers with the second most at 50,000. 15 less 15,000 less miles traveled. It’s just it’s just uh it’s better to be closer to other teams. Um, you know, like it’s it it all kind of comes out in the wash like it is a it is a disadvantage, but if you’re talented, you can overcome it, etc., etc. Um, I do think the rest disadvantage and advantage stuff is more meaningful than the air miles traveled, but the air miles traveled is not nothing. It is a long flight home often for the Blazers after a long road trip, which means you get in really late, etc., etc. It’s it’s just the NBA is a grueling schedule and the regular season is probably too long. That said, and this is my final thought here on why I don’t think that I I I don’t think the schedule matters that much in terms of like um I I’ve mentioned this before. Uh, I worked I’ve worked in Blazers Media in various capacities for over a decade. Um, I started in I guess 20 my first full season on the Beats was uh 20145. Uh, so like I I’ve been at it and I I I’ve worked in a bunch of different places and and and one of the places I worked with was alongside Jason Quick at the uh at the Oregonian and he would always make me do this this exercise when the schedule came out to write win loss win loss and like predict and say, “Okay, what’d you get to after the schedule came out?” And um I liked doing that because it was a fun thing to talk about with a colleague. But how the heck do you know? How the heck do you predicting maybe the first five games is possible, first two games is possible, right? Like, okay, Minnesota and Golden State to begin the season and then a road trip with two games in LA and and a game against Utah. Um, I would say one very winnable game against Utah, but um all of those other games hard like like the Blazers will probably be underdogs in all four in their first four games and four of their first five um and five of their first six because they play uh uh Denver on the way back. Like it’s gonna be hard, right? Um, and and I I think teams are often completely different in October than they end up being in in late February and early March, right? Like not only do they make trades and stuff, but also like teams get better. Like the Blazers were just a totally different team to begin last season when they got smoked by 36 on opening night. Then when they got to the middle of the year, they kind of found what their identity was and started playing to that identity and just like they were just a different basketball team that matured and got better by virtue of playing 40 pretty bad games and kind of figuring out what a good version of them was going to have to look like. But the games in October and and November still matter. They still count. And if to get back to my point I made in the second segment, if you want the Blazers to win, right, and you probably do, and they certainly do, if you are if you are pining for a playoff uh push, it’s a lot of peace, a lot of possives in the microphone. um this you you got to hit the ground run like that like the the you while so much changes over the course of the marathon season the in the standings game one is equally as meaningful as game 82 while it does seem like there are a lot of throwaway nonsense games in there and there probably are in the grand scheme you probably only need about 60 to really determine who’s good and who’s not and like have the standings like kind of normalize you you’re still going to play and I think the West is going to be so tight that like all of these really matter. And so while I don’t think the schedule really matters, each individual game is meaningful. Um especially if the Blazers have playoff aspirations as they do, or I should say postseason aspirations as they do. That is going to do it for today’s show. Uh I got three more shows coming to you next week. Uh Daniel Rang of 1051 The Fan is going to join the program and we will talk all things Trailblazers. Um, look for those shows Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week. Um, there’s also I am working to get a bonus episode related to the new Blazers sale. Um, that will come out likely on Tuesday. So, look for that one. That’ll be four shows next week, even during the season when we do three. How about that? Lockdown Blazers. Um, if you made it this deep in the show, tell a friend about the program. Uh, I I say with confidence, I don’t think you’re getting this volume of stuff anywhere else. Uh, I don’t think anyone’s covering the Blazers quite like this this time of year. So, tell your friends about the program. Tell them they can get it wherever they get podcast and also on YouTube. I appreciate you listening. Come back for more shows next week. I’ll talk to you soon.

The Trail Blazers are going to play at least 82 games. We know about 80 of them for sure. Let’s breakdown the full 2025-26 regular season schedule.

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