Full Memphis Grizzlies Schedule Breakdown | Jessica Benson Show

Full Memphis Grizzlies Schedule Breakdown | Jessica Benson Show

I genuinely do get excited for schedule release day because one for us like it is our it’s our schedule. It’s the team schedule. It’s our schedule. It dictates our lives for the next however many months it is. And it’s just exciting to figure out like what what is this actually going to look like? And so, you know, the normal things that you’re looking for opening night, how many backto-backs, 14 of them this year. Uh opening week, I think, is always just kind of a how’s this team going to start? Is there an opportunity for a really good start? Are you playing easier teams? And in the case of the Grizzlies, I think you could you could win your first three. We’ll go through it game by game to look at what the full schedule looks like. Uh but I would I would normally look for the MLK Day game. We don’t have that this year and we already know when the uh Berlin and London games are, but then I look at Thanksgiving week. I look at Christmas week. I look for the longest road stand, the longest home stand, how the season ends, like the last couple of weeks. If there’s a playoff push, what does that schedule look like? The number of nationally televised games. The Grizzlies have 10 nationally televised games this season. Do you think that’s a fair number, John Roser? Yeah, that’s fine. I think it’s totally fine. You want to know how many the Pacers have? Nine. And they were in the NBA finals. And I know Tyrese Albert’s hurt, but still. All right. Are we We do. Do we count NBA TV as national television? No. Then why do we count Peacock? It’s different. We’re merging into New Times. Peacock feels adjacent to NBC in my opinion. Yeah. Just like technically NBA TV was adjacent to TNT. They’re literally broadcast in the same like they’re both in Atlanta like Yeah. So you’re you’re a hater. You’re a peacock. You’re a hater. This is the second show that you’ve been a hater on this week. Well, I love Peacock actually cuz you get all the Law and Order SVU you want, all the dine you want. So I love Peacock and all the Bravo you want. I don’t know about that, but I was just saying if there’s an if there’s an equivalent to So are you counting Prime? Um I feel like everybody has Amazon Prime. I think everybody already respectful to Peacock. Maybe. So, and if you have Xfinity, you have Peacock. I don’t have Xfinity. Well, that’s you’re I know I don’t I actually don’t have peacock and it it’s the first time I haven’t had peacock. And they’ve upped their prices for next year. Of course they have. Of course they have. Of course they have. Why wouldn’t they? The uh the No, 10’s fine. 10. Yeah, is that Halloween game on Amazon Prime against the Lakers. So, that’s your first nationally televised game of the season, which is a good one to start with. Just one NBC game Tuesday, December 30th against the Sixers. That’s why that why play Sixers on NBC. I don’t know. I don’t know. Two on Peacock, December 22nd at OKC and Monday, February 2nd verse Minnesota at home. Love the Minnesota. And one more on Peacock, March 23rd at Atlanta. I’m tired of playing the Thunder on national television. I’ve seen how this goes. And then your ESPN games are January 30th at New Orleans, February 11th at Denver, and February 25th against Golden State here. That was one of the things that stood out. The Lakers and the Warriors both only coming here once. That’s a bit of a bummer for fans. It stinks because the Lakers only came here once last year. Yeah. And it stinks. And and and no one see nobody This is This is what’s difficult about the NBA schedule, the NFL schedule. It’s like, okay, so if you’re a team from the NFC North, you know, if you played the AFC North teams the year before, then you’re playing the AFC Southwest. Like, you know, you’re playing one of those other divisions. And if you finish third place, you’re playing a you’re playing other third place teams from the year before. Like, you kind of and then you play your division teams. You kind of know how it works. I have no idea the rhyme or reason to when we play a team why we play this team three times this year and don’t play them three and then play them three times the next year then play them four times and we like why do we play like I don’t know I haven’t even looked enough to know do we play the Blazers four times like why we play the Blazers four times but play the Lakers and the Warriors only three times like I don’t know the rhyme or reason to it. Yeah I don’t I nobody does and it is one of life’s greatest mysteries. Uh chat already asking if this could be LeBron’s last time in Memphis. So that’s why I think that’s the Lakers game is why it should probably it’s it should be number one on everybody’s this is the game. Yeah. Because I’m a LeBron James hater. Okay. But there’s no doubt about where he is in the hierarchy of the NBA and his legacy in the NBA. The king calls self-titled the king. Yes. It it could be his last game here. It could be until he gets traded to Dallas. All right, let’s go through the schedule and we’ll see if there’s anything that trumps Grizzlies Lakers on Halloween as we go through it. They open against the Pelicans again. I saw a lot of not animosity, I’ll call it agnostic response to Grizzlies Pelicans opening night. Listen, I don’t mind it because it’s not as if the Pelicans these days are the biggest draw in the world and opening night, no matter what, is a giant draw. So, you’re going to get a great crowd. You’re gonna have an awesome environment. Grizzlies, Pelicans, maybe it’ll be a rivalry in the next year. We opened against the Pelicans uh two years ago. We had our home opener against them and they beat our ass. Didn’t we open against them last year, too? Last Magic. Magic. Last year, Magic. Yeah, we went we went it’s it’s like the fourth year on the road we’ve opened three games in four nights. Yes. And last year it was at Utah, at Houston, home Orlando. It feels like that’s always a result of not being a part of one of the big national TV packages. So you get the three and four nights. So it is three straight home games to open. Pelicans, Heat, Pacers. We start in three and 0. Roser Grizzlies starting three and 0. Oh, yes. Okay. Few. Yes. I got excited. Yes. The only one of those that I think worries me Well, I mean there’s worries with all of them. Like if Zion’s freaking awesome uh I honestly like Miami could be Miami could be sneaky like not horrible. Okay, they can be a tough team. The Pacers on Saturday, the only college football Saturday interference game of Yeah. What’s our schedule? What’s our college football? What’s our college football slate that weekend on that Saturday? October 25th. That’s late in the college football season. No, that’s Yeah. Oh, well, I don’t know if Tennessee is going to be very good this year. So, October 25th is Hold hold hold week five. Oh, that’s September. Never mind. My bad. October 25th. It would be helpful if I got the actual matter. Uh, Texas, Mississippi State, Wisconsin, Oregon, Alabama, South Carolina, Texas A&M, LSU, Stanford, Miami, Houston, Arizona State, Illinois, Washington, Michigan, Michigan State, SMU, Wake Forest, Kansas State, Kansas, Miss Oklahoma, UCLA, Indiana, BYU, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Tennessee, Kentucky. It’s a pretty solid weekend. I mean, I it’s a solid schedule. Well, I mean, right now, if you just go preseason rankings, Alabama, South Carolina, Texas A&M, LSU, Miss, Oklahoma, that’s three solid SEC games. Although, South Carolina is not going to be as good as people think. I am fine with one of them because we have none of the others. I’m going to try to knock off two SEC stadiums this fall. That’s cool. Which ones haven’t you? I’ve only been to Arkansas. Hit up our buddy Randall. Our buddy Randall’s got connections up there. Okay. We’re going to try to go to the Arkansas I think we’re going to try to go to the Arkansas Notre Dame game. We’re going big. It’s the one I want to go to. It’s It’s Arkansas. I need like a good opponent coming through. And then I think we’re gonna try to go to an Alabama game. I’ve never been to Tus. Never been to Brian Denny. I’ve never been to Brian. I’ve been to the stadium. I’ve never been there for a game. Same with Neand. I’ve been to Neand the only SEC stadium I’ve seen a game in is Vaude Hemingway. I’ve only been to SEC bangers. I went to Miss Tennessee at Neland where they threw the golf balls and the mustard bottles. And I went to Miss LSU at Vaude Hemingway where it was Jaden Daniels, Jackson Dart, shootout, rush the field, crazy times. You were there. Oh, that’s a great one. So now I have to add it’s an alltime. Maybe maybe a little Arkansas chaos against Notre Dame. Yeah. And I hate Notre Dame, so that sounds like a perfect time. And then maybe Alabama Oklahoma. I don’t know. That’s where my brain went. We only have one home Grizzlies game on a Saturday. That’s exciting. We’ll get to Sunday games during the NFL playoffs, which is less fun for Roser and I as football fans, but that’s okay. Eight of the first 11 games are at home. So, you go Pelicans heat pacers, then you go two Warriors to the Suns. So, I’m saying we start 3-0, maybe we go 4- one. Maybe, maybe, just maybe, the Grizzlies get their first win in California in the state of California in forever in a day because they didn’t win a game in California last year. But then you get the Lakers on Halloween back at home. You go to Toronto to play the Raptors, then home versus the Pistons, Rockets, Mavs, and that is your first 10 games of the season. That’s a tough backto back getting Detroit on the second night of a backto-back because they’re a tough team. Yeah, that’s a that little home stretch right there. That stretch from uh November 3rd to November 18th might be your toughest stretch of the season cuz it is Pistons, Rockets, Mavs, Thunder, Knicks, Celtics, Cavs, Spurs. Yeah. Like you I mean there’s you expect the Spurs to the Spurs and Mavericks to compete for playoff spots. The Celtics I mean the East is so bad. Who knows? they could easily make the play in in the East and then those other teams are all going to be playoff teams. That first home game against Oklahoma City, a Sunday 5:00 PM game, that’s perfect time slot. Should be a fun environment, but it is very much a like when I looked at the schedule, it felt flip-flopped from last year. Last year, we started so easy peasy and then the end of it was just a brutal gauntlet that smacked this team in the face. This year, you’re starting fairly more difficult and you have a bit of an easier end. We’ll get to it when we get there. But I do think easier second half of the schedule than first half of the schedule for the Grizzlies this season. Uh following that Spurs game on the road, that’s a four-ame road trip. You’re back for one game against the Kings. You’re back on the road to Dallas. You’re back home for a game against Denver. There’s a lot of pingponging. Like not a lot of There is home stands. It’s more like home sprinkles. And so you’re kind of back and forth. And then we’re into Thanksgiving week and no Grizzlies Thanksgiving games at home. They are at New Orleans the day before Thanksgiving. They are at the Clippers on Black Friday and then they are at the Kings on that Sunday. So there’s there’s there’s now one thing to always look for in these schedules. I always try to find like schedule losses. Okay. Basically where it’s like you play the second night. So you always one thing you look at is look when you play at Denver. Yep. And if you play in Denver on the second night of a backtoback, like that’s typically you’re toast when you kind of goes for Utah. Even though Utah’s easy weird place where the altitude and that stuff weird, I think we’ve got potential for Los Angeles disasters this year. Oh, we’ll we’ll get to my favorite Los Angeles disaster. I know where you’re going with this cuz I was looking at this last night. I was like, “Oh, no.” Okay, so uh after Thanksgiving, Kings on the Sunday after Thanksgiving at Spurs the following Tuesday to start the month of December and then games at home versus the Clippers and the Trailblazers. And then it’s NBA Cup knockout rounds. So, we’ll figure those games out when they get here. December 17th, you go back to normal. Well, I I will say I think after that four-game road trip, Pel over Thanksgiving, Pelicans, Clippers, uh Kings, Spurs, I respect the NBA scheduling gods. uh the computer who put this together. If it was chat GPT or Grock, whoever, whoever puts together the whatever computer, whatever AI device puts together the NBA schedule, giving us two days off before we start back at home. Little two days rest before you get the uh before you get the Clippers. That’s nice. Uh back at home. Yeah, that is nice. Uh December 17th, back out of the NBA Cup. Maybe the Grizzlies will be the winners of the NBA Cup. We can We can only hope. The Emirates Cup. uh at Minnesota, then home against the Wizards, and then at OKC on Peacock, that’s where you face the Thunder on national television. At Utah, that’s where I looked at an altitude back-to-back game. Just one of those, especially coming off a big one against the Thunder, perhaps a scheduled L. Then you’re back at home against the Bucks the day after Christmas. Yeah, we’re going to put lumps of coal in Giannis’s stocking. Yeah, he thinks he’s getting wings this time. Uh-uh. Nothing but Cole for Giannis at Wizards on the 28th. Home versus the Sixers on the 30th. Okay. So, I can talk myself into this Sixers game now that I’ve thought about it. I don’t know. I still don’t know why it’s on NBC cuz I don’t I don’t know if Jover over under. Joel Embiid plays 50 games the rest of his career. Would you take the over or the under? I would take the under. I don’t think he plays more than 50 games over 50 games the rest of his career. So, but I do think that Jared McCain, Tyrese Maxi, VJ Edgecomb, I think there’s fun. There’s fun there. There’s a lot of small guards, but got to figure that out. But I I think there’s potential for Philly fun. We’ll call it the Philly fun. Yeah. Last game of 2025 fun. We’ll we’ll work on what we call We’ll work on that. No New Year’s Eve game. We’ve had a New Year’s Eve game the last we had a home game and a New Year’s Eve game the last year and it always feels like we play the Kings New Year’s and this year we saved. I’m like I am so tired of going to the arena and seeing Demar De Rozan to end my year, right? Resolution I signed up for and do Sabonis get 25 rebounds. Uh no New Year’s Day game but here we go. But two games against the Lakers on January 2nd and January 4th, that is cruel and unusual punishment. New Year’s, Will the Grizzlies spend New Year’s Eve in So that’s the question. Do they travel to LA on Wednesday, New Year’s Eve? Because if they have New Year’s Eve in LA, New Year’s Day in LA, January 2nd, January 3rd, January 4th, big hand, they could have one, two, three, four, five days, five nights in LA. As a lover of Los Angeles, if I were a member of the Memphis Grizzlies, I would be begging, please let me go take a little vacation to LA. But if I am the coach of the Memphis Grizzlies, yes, I’m literally leaving the night of New Year’s Eve and saying you will have one day when you get there and then you play the second in the fourth. I mean, do you know that they could go to I mean, they could go to Exchange LA, uh, Lazona, Rosa, Club Baja, what did you Google? the best nightclubs in Los Angeles where uh where Kobe Bryant famously got Chandler Parsons hooked up. Supper House. I don’t know if that still exists. It did when I was there. Okay. Supper House. Yes. Uh Heat Ultra Lounge. Yeah. And then my favorite, One Oak. Always love a One Oak appearance. Um the Grizzlies first home game of 2026 is against the Spurs. I like that. A little welcome back ring in the new year. John Morant trying to dunk on Victor Webbyama except he’s not dunking so he’ll just have a fancy layup package or they’re still gonna be hung over from their five nights in Los Angeles before that. Then back to back you have the Suns the next night. 14 back tobacks overall that one less than last year. That Suns win that’s a sneaky sneaky letdown spot right there. You are s you are coming off an LA trip and you are sandwiched between home games of San Antonio and Oklahoma City. That’s a be careful one. Back home for first or I’m sorry, uh, back home against the Thunder on January 9th. Sunday afternoon game against the Nets on the 11th, the annual Megan Triplet return game. Big Europe trip. So then they’re not home from January 12th until January 21st. They have a couple big chunks where they are gone in early 2026. Uh, they play the Hawks on 21st at home, Pelicans on 23rd. Denver, that is a three-game home stand up to this point. And I think that’s their first threeame home stand since the starting three-game home stand of the season. Then at Houston, home versus Charlotte, at New Orleans on the 30th, back home on the 31st versus Minnesota, another game against Minnesota on February 2nd, and then they are gone until February 20th. February 2nd to February 20th because it includes the All-Star break. The Grizzlies will not be home. All right. do a a Wednesday night in the middle of J at the end of January. You don’t want to go see Grizzlies Hornets at 7:00 in the snow. Well, for LaMelo Ball plays like less than any plays fewer games than like any player in the league. So, um, how many people do you think are going to be at that one? Wednesday night, late January, so it’s going to be cold as hell. We might be boiling water by then. You don’t want to go see Salomon. Uh, Salomon. Salomon. I don’t know how to say his first name. Salomon. Is it? I don’t know. Salon. It helps. That doesn’t that doesn’t do quite the same thing as Edgecom with the Sixers. You can’t talk yourself in to the Hornets on a Wednesday January fan. I can talk myself into Conan Nipple. the the Hornets signed and they drafted and signed so many white guys this off season. Yes. Okay. Go look at their roster. Um next up, you come out of that 18-day absence from FedEx Forum. So, you’ll be wanting them back. Too bad you don’t get them. Road trip of Oh, I’m sorry. Within the within the 18 days away from FedEx Forum, it’s a road trip of Kings, two at Trailblazers, Golden State, Denver, and then Allstar Break. Yeah, that’s a five. That’s a five on the road. And then you’re back at home against the Jazz for the first game after All-Star break. You’re so thirsty. You’re going to be excited to see Grizzlies Jazz in that first game back. That is then a backtoback where they go to Miami on the 21st. This is they are. So the scheduling gods helped us in early December coming off the road trip. Give us two days off and then they’re like and then they’re like, “All right, we’re going to test you and find out if you’re sinners or not.” because they they give us what four to five nights in Los Angeles and then they are giving us a Saturday night in Miami postall all-star break in Los Angeles. Kings at home 23rd Warriors one home game February 25th Chris Luther will be in the building. You can count it. Three-game trip Mavs Pacers Wolves and another back toback and there four backtobacks in March. Four backtobacks in March. You go from Wolves to home versus the Blazers. Saturday home game versus the Clippers. Four game road trip. So this is a stretch of seven of nine on the road at Nets, Sixers, Pistons, Bulls. Back home March 18th against the Knicks. Home versus Boston on the 20th. Then on the road to Charlotte the next night, then you’re at Atlanta. And then you finally enter the longest home stand of six straight. So that six straight is Spurs, Rockets, Bulls, Suns, Mavs, Raptors. Then four of the last five on the road at Bucks home versus the Cavs at Nuggets Jazz Rockets home game the night of the national championship game. I don’t love that. That is Monday against Cleveland. That’s the Cleveland Ty. I think that they didn’t play on national chair. Am I making that up? Did I have a fantasy in my head that they don’t the national champ? I thought they didn’t. I really thought that was a thing. Yeah, maybe this is my Mandela effect. I don’t know. Yeah, I I didn’t think they did. I didn’t think they And they used I feel like they used to not with college football either until it college football decided to have a right super big playoff and have to move everything back and now they play on MLK. It is April. I just double checked. It’s April 6th at Lucas Oil Stadium is the men’s national championship game. So alas, that is the end of the Grizzly schedule. What’s your what’s your record, Roser? How many wins? I have no idea. I haven’t done that yet. Um I will I will um I do I mean it’s not like super interesting. You notice in November we play the Knicks and the Celtics back to back and then in March we play the Knicks and the Celtics back to back again. Um there’s a day between in March, but it’s still it’s it’s two straight home games. Um no, I I mean I don’t I I think there’s I mean it’s a schedule. It’s a schedule. have a take. You should be excited for the schedule because it is the schedule. I’m doing my read. It is the schedule of the 25th season of Grizzlies basketball in Memphis and so you should mark your calendars for big matchups and get ready for can’t miss moments at FedEx Forum. Single game tickets go on sale today at noon. Call 90188 hoop or visit grizzlies.com/scched to see the schedule and get ready to secure your seats for the 2025 2026 season. Tickets on sale at noon. You get one single game ticket. What are you spending it on, John Roser? Um, Halloween night against the Lakers. I mean, what what what are you looking for here? Okay, we’ll take a break. No, we’ll ask. Okay, I What are you looking for here? What are you looking for out of this answer? Best value. Wednesday, March 18th against the Knicks when Giannis comes to town. You ready for that spice? Oh, you want that? Okay. You want mine? Are you ready for that? You want mine? January 6 when the Spurs come to town. I enjoy Grizzly Spurs games. I look forward to Grizzly Spurs games. Oh, but there’s not like any spice with that. I want John Marant to try to dunk on Victor Robinyama again. Oh, okay. I find that fun. I And it’s the first game of 2026. That is fun. I find that a fun thing to to anticipate.

The NBA and Memphis Grizzlies released the full season schedule. Jessica Benson and Jon Roser go game-by-game to breakdown the Grizzlies schedule. See which games they’re most excited for this year.

#jessicabensonshow
—-
1-click Subscribe to GCM: http://bit.ly/subscribe2gcm

Discover the latest Memphis sports community news at: http://grindcitymedia.com/

~SOCIAL~
Instagram: http://instagram.com/grindcitymedia
Twitter: http://twitter.com/grindcitymedia
Facebook: http://facebook.com/grindcitymedia

Follow the Memphis Grizzlies on YouTube for exclusive team videos and player highlights: http://bit.ly/subscribe2memgrizz