REACTION: Did the NBA Give the Cleveland Cavaliers a GIFT With the Schedule? | 24 National TV Games!

REACTION: Did the NBA Give the Cleveland Cavaliers a GIFT With the Schedule? | 24 National TV Games!

On today’s show, the NBA has released its schedule. We know all 82 regular season games that the Cavs are going to play. There are some tough stretches, there’s some easy stretches, and there are a lot of nationally televised games. We’ll talk about it all on today’s edition of Locked on Cavs. You are Locked On Cavs, your daily Cleveland Cavaliers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. your team every day. What’s up everybody? My name is Danny Cunningham and you might know me from my time covering the Cleveland Cavaliers. Places like my Substack, the Inside Shot, Cleveland Magazine, 923 The Fan, and a number of other stops along the way. And I want to say thank you to you for making today’s edition of Locked on Cavs your first listen. And thank you for those of you that do make it your first listen every single day. You can find the show anywhere you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else. Make sure to drop us a fivestar rating. Leave us a nice review and of course be a friend. Tell a friend about Locked on Cavs. Make sure you’re subscribed. Make sure a friend is subscribed as well. And if you’re watching this show on YouTube, do us a favor. Hit that thumbs up button for us. Click subscribe and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss the latest locked on Cavs content. A proud part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. And today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use code locked on NBA. That is L O C K E D O NA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. On Thursday, we got the full complete schedule for the 2025 2026 Cleveland Cavaliers season. The NBA of course announced every team schedule and we learned a lot. The first thing that stood out to me about this schedule, the Cavs will make 24 appearances on national television this year. They will have seven games that are on ESPN. They will have five games that are on NBC/Pacock. They will have another five games that are exclusively on Peacock. Um, curious if we’re going to view that like NBA TV. I do think that this is probably a little bit um higher up the the pecking order than an NBA TV game would have been. So, I don’t think that we’re going to count it quite like that. Although I do think that the Peacock exclusive game might be like the least um you know the least important nationally televised game. Uh four games on Amazon Prime and then three games on ABC which does include Christmas Day, the February 22nd game at Oklahoma City, and then March 8th when the Boston Celtics come to town. I did expect the Cavs to have roughly this amount of nationally televised games. They are a team that deserves to be in the spotlight. They’re a team that is should be proving over and over throughout this season that they belong in the spotlight. And they’re a team that I think America is going to have to get to know very well, probably better than they had to get to know them last year. Despite the fact that the Cavs won 64 games, I do think that this team this year is set up for a little bit more postseason success than what last year’s team was. And I’ve talked about that on several editions of Locked on Cavs. I don’t need to dive into that today just because there’s a lot of schedule stuff that I do want to get to, but it is good. I think that the Cavs are going to be on national TV a lot. Um, opening night on national TV in New York against the Knicks. They also play October 29th on opening night. They play or on national TV on ESPN, excuse me. They play October 27th on Peacock. They have a lot of national TV games. They have the seventh most, I believe, nationally televised game in the Eastern Conference. They’re only behind the New York Knicks, which I think was very predictable that they were going to have the most nationally televised games because New York is New York and that market matters quite a lot. And the Knicks should be pretty good, too. And then the Boston Celtics have one more nationally televised game. They have 25 compared to 24 for the Cavs. I was a little surprised by that. Obviously, the Celtics are a huge brand, right? Like everybody knows the Celtics. It’s not like they are such a they are a marquee franchise. Um, but with them maybe not being as good this year, I was a little surprised to see them getting 25 nationally televised games. Um, the Cavs will be opening up their home portion of the regular season on Sunday, October 26th against the Milwaukee Bucks at 6:00. I was a little surprised that the Cavs are opening up with two consecutive road games. Obviously, opening night in New York against the Knicks and then Friday of opening week. So that would be I believe the 24th of October. They’re in Brooklyn to take on the Nets. So they open up with two games in New York. And that is kind of one of the things too that I look at the schedule and I see something that the Cavs I don’t believe had last year but have much more of this year. And it’s the baseball type schedule, right? Think back a couple of years ago. They had a set of games in Charlotte. They had two games in Charlotte where they’re basically in Charlotte for a week. They had two games in Orlando where they are in Orlando for the week, they only go there once. Um they had two games in Brooklyn against the Nets that year where they go to New York for a week, they play the Nets twice, and then they come home. They didn’t have any of that last year, but that is back this year. Um obviously they have the opening week, which is not the same because they’re facing two different teams, but they are staying in the same city. They’ve got it against Miami in November where they go to Miami and play the Heat um November 10th and November 12th. They also have it in Philadelphia um January 14th and January 16th. So they do and then even home and away ones. They play the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minnesota on January 8th and then they play the Minnesota Timberwolves at home on January 10th. So, they do have some of these baseball type series where it can serve as a bit of a a bit of a playoff preparation type of thing regardless of the team. Like, you know, we’re not expecting the Brooklyn Nets to be very good obviously, but being able to prepare for them multiple times in a row. I guess it’s not even a good example because that’s not one of them. Um, Philadelphia might be good, might not be good, but the fact that they get to play Philadelphia twice is a really good thing. Miami comes to Cleveland for two straight games. So, they’ll get to do that with Miami a couple of times. I think that’s really good preparation for the team. I think that’s a really good thing in terms of preparation for the coaching staff at the end of the season in games that might not matter. They have two games against the Atlanta Hawks right in a row. One in Cleveland, one in Atlanta. That certainly could be a nice playoff refresher. Of course, that I would imagine if all goes well by April 8th, um the third to last regular season game of the year, I would imagine the Cavs have the one seed locked up because I’m expecting this team to win quite a few regular season games. And there are some really good things about this schedule to look at. There are, of course, marquee opponents. The fact that they do play on Christmas Day, a really big deal. That will always be a very big deal. The fact that they play on Martin Luther King Jr. day at home against Oklahoma City, I think that’s a really big deal and should be viewed as such. The fact that, you know, the NBA thinks highly enough of the Cavs, and listen, they should because of how good they were last year despite the fact that they did not advance in the postseason, they are getting, I think, a lot of schedule respect. Um, there were some other things that stood out to me. One of them, obviously, you can’t play every team in the Eastern Conference four times because that’s not how it works out. But I was surprised to see, and I I don’t necessarily know how this gets decided, but the Cavs only play Boston three times this year. They play them twice at home and once in Boston, which comes very early in the season. They only play the New York Knicks three times this season. They play them once at home, twice at MSG opening night and Christmas Day. All three of those games, of course, will be nationally televised. They only play Charlotte three times. They only play Toronto three times, Washington three times, and Brooklyn three times. I was surprised to see Boston and more particularly New York um as teams that the Cavs only play three times. New York in particular, and again, I don’t know how this gets decided. Um I’m sure somebody does, but I have not found out how it gets decided. The fact that the two best teams in the Eastern Conference only play each other three times this season does seem like a a bit of a missed opportunity for the NBA. Um I think it’s a bummer that the Cavs and Knicks won’t play each other after February. Um, I would love to see kind of how we had it last year where they played I mean they played twice late in the season which you know you might not need all of that but one late season matchup to give a playoff preview but this is it feels similar to last year against the Celtics where they played the Celtics on February 28th and that was expected to be the Eastern Conference Finals. Obviously neither team made it to that point but that was expected to be a playoff preview and you weren’t going to see that team again for a few more months. So, I do think that is a bit of a missed opportunity. Um, only having three games against Boston, you know, I do think because those two teams have played in some really fun competitive basketball games over the last couple of years. And of course, the Celtics have franchises that are bigger rivals to them than the Cavs are. But I do think that between these two groups, all that’s been missing to really solidify a rivalry between them is a postseason matchup. We’ve not gotten that, but we’ve gotten some very, very exciting regular season games. And of course, would be remissed if I didn’t mention in the first segment to the group play games for the NBA Cup that have been scheduled. The Cavs in the same group with Toronto, Washington, Indiana, and Atlanta. They will play Toronto and Indiana at home. They will be on the road against Washington and Atlanta. So that, you know, maybe it will matter. I, you know, teams that have advanced uh or won the NBA Cup, I guess, uh, more accurately, have not fared well the rest of the season. So, I don’t know that winning the NBA Cup is a huge goal, of course, for the Cavs. There are some monetary incentives for it, but I don’t know that it’s some huge goal. Now, the Cavs, I do think I think the Cavs got a pretty big break from the schedule makers. I’ll tell you what that is next right here on Locked on Caps. Today’s show is brought to you by Game Time. Have you ever decided last minute that you want to head on down to the ballpark and check out a baseball game with friends or family? I know I certainly have and maybe you have as well. Maybe today is game day and hey, it is game day and you want to be in the stands. You could want to be in the stands tonight downtown Cleveland. Maybe you want to be, maybe you don’t. I don’t know. But if you do, game time comes in right there because they are the place to go for your last minute ticket buying needs. It is the easiest way to grab last minute tickets without all the stress, without all the planning, without having to worry about, man, how am I going to be able to pull this off? Game time is going to help you out. They’re going to help you save money on tickets so that you might be able to even splurge on food, drinks, merch, maybe even invite a bigger group that you were planning on bringing with you because Game Time makes all of that possible. They make buying tickets fast and simple, and prices on the app actually drop the closer you get to first pitch. Plus, they’ve got incredible lastminute deals, clear seat views, and a lowest price guarantee that takes all the worry out of buying tickets. So, take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, redeem code locked down NBA. That is L O C D O NA for $20 off your first purchase. Two do apply. Again, create an account, redeem code lockdown NBA for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Thank you again for making Lockdown Cavs your first listen today and every day. And like I said earlier, you can find the show anywhere you get your podcast, Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else. Make sure to drop us that fivestar rating, leave us that nice review, and of course, be a friend, tell a friend about Locked on Cavs. And I think the Cavs got a pretty big break from the NBA schedule makers because the place that my eyes went after knowing, oh, you know, opening night, we already know that. When is the home opener going to be? How many nationally televised games are the Cavs going to have? After digesting all of that info, the first place that my eyes went was, what does the month of March look like? Because it feels like every single year the month of March just is the absolute worst for the Cavs where they have to travel out west and they’re gone for 10 days and they play way more road games than home games. And you know, that seems to always be a bit of an Achilles heel for them. You know, last year we talked about, you know, they’re not peing at the right time and how much did the schedule have to do with that because they had that long West Coast road trip in the month of March. They had a brutal month where they were barely in Cleveland. Well, I looked at this March and it’s very different. So, the Cavs open up with an away game in Brooklyn on a Sunday afternoon. Very feasible. Not a big deal there. They play the Detroit Pistons at home two days later and then they’ve got four days off. They are off from Tuesday until Sunday in the month of March. The Cavs having four consecutive days off in March feels unheard of. And I’m not sure if that’s MAC tournament week. I think the MAC tournament is the next week, but they’ve got four days off before two more home games. So, in the month of March, the Cavs in one week will have more time at home than I believe they had the entire month of March last year with how frequently they were on the road, the fact they were out west. Um, they took that trip to Nashville in March, if you remember that, before playing Orlando, but it was a brutal month travel-wise for them. But from March 1st until March 10th, the Cavs will fall asleep in Cleveland. Okay, excuse me. March 1st until March 9th. They’ll probably travel on on March 10th to Orlando. But from March 1st, they will get home from playing Brooklyn on March 1st at the in the evening because that’s a 3:30 tip off. They will then be in Cleveland until the morning of March 10th in that month for this team with how frequently that month the schedule is bad for them. That’s a huge win. Then that road trip only two games. It’s Orlando, it’s Dallas. Not a bad road trip whatsoever. Then they’re back for another game against Dallas. Again, another one of those like baseball type schedule things where you play the same team multiple times in a row. So, they come home for a few days and then it’s another road trip, but it’s an easy road trip. It’s a one-time zone road trip. They go, and I’m not saying it’s easy because of the opponents, although I don’t think any of these opponents are very good, but it’s in Milwaukee, it’s in Chicago, and then it’s in New Orleans. That’s very easy as far as travel goes. None of those games are backtoback that you’re staying in the same time zone the entire time and then they come back and get two days off. This schedule in the month of March is so much better for the Cavs than last year’s schedule. After that, they have three straight home games in Orlando, Miami back-to-back and then another game against the Miami Heat at home before two days off and then they go on their second West Coast trip of the year where they take on the Utah Jazz, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Golden State Warriors. Second to last week of the season. So that and then that gets you into April. That month is so much easier than what the the month of March has been in the past. Of course, that’s not the only West Coast road trip that they have throughout the season. Um, they don’t go to Texas three times this year. They only go to Texas twice. They’ll take on Houston and San Antonio in December. And then, as I mentioned, they go to Dallas in the month of March. They do have another West Coast trip earlier in the season. Um, where they will be going out west to take on at the end of December, start of January, they go to Phoenix, they go to Denver. And I feel like I’m missing a few games here. Um, but the West Coast trip. Oh, found it. Never mind. They go to Phoenix at the end of January. They go Phoenix, Portland, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Denver. Not the easiest trip in the world, but the good news about that, they have two days off multiple times on that trip. They have no backtobacks on that road trip. That makes it infinitely easier as far as the travel goes. So, they’re in Phoenix January 30th. Then they have a day off. They travel to Portland. Then they have two days off and they go to LA to take on the Clippers. Then after that game, two more days off before they go to Sacramento. Very easy travel. One day off, they go to Denver. And then they come home for one game before the All-Star break. So, I look at what the Cavs have as far as their West Coast trips go. This is to me as good of a draw as they could possibly have. Um, they’re not bombarded with a West Coast trip in the month of March. Yes, they have to go out west for a small a slight trip. Like it’s a three-game, four-day trip, which as far as West Coast trips go, not bad whatsoever. have to be really really happy about that because of what last year was with not just having um two West Coast trips that were long because they had a four- game one then they had a fivegame one, but the fact that they’re not all they’re not on the road um for too too long is a really good thing. So the longest trip that they have as far as road games goes is that January 30th to February 9th trip that I brought up where they will be on the road for 11 days. They’ll play five road games. That’s the West Coast trip, the first West Coast trip, which as I mentioned, not that bad as far as travel goes. It could be much, much worse. They also have four three-game road trips, um, which those happen all the time in the NBA. So, I do think that this the Cavs got put in a really good spot as far as the schedule goes. And they also have 14 backtobacks. Four of those are home home sets where they play at home both nights. That’s December 5th and 6th, December 22nd, 23rd, March 8th and 9th, and March 24th and 25th. Seven backtobacks where they are at home for the first game and then they are on the road for the second game. They also have one road road backtoback plus two road home backtobacks. So those ones road road obviously both games are on the road and then the road home the first game is on the road and the second game is at home. So, the Cavs I think could have been put in a much more difficult position as far as this goes. Um, I think that they really really do have a pretty good break as far as when things are going to be tough for them. That this doesn’t mean the schedule is without tough stretches because it certainly is not, but there are marquee games. I think that the Cavs do have for being the best team in the Eastern Conference where they are going to have a bullseye on their back essentially all season long. I think that they got a pretty good gift from the schedule makers when this one came out. Now, of course, there’s much more to dive into, so we’re going to do that next right here on Locked on Cap. So, some other notes as far as the Cavs schedule goes. The longest home home stand that the Cavs will have is six games over 11 days. It’s early in the season. It’s November 13th through the 23rd with Toronto, Memphis, Milwaukee, Houston, Indiana, and the Clippers all coming to Cleveland for those games. I do think that it is a good thing for the Cavs to have a long home stand over 11 days, six games in 11 days, you know, not some not some just a lot of rest in there, obviously playing more than every other day at that point. But I do think being home early in the season and being able to especially as there are some new faces on this Cavs team, being able to work those guys in with maybe some practice time in Cleveland, I think could be really beneficial. So, I do think that’s another break that the Cavs caught in their schedule. And I also look at this and I think it’s really cool that they play on holidays, they play on Halloween, they play on Christmas, um they play on New Year’s Eve, which nobody in basketball cares about. Um, Martin Luther King Day obviously is a very big deal. They play St. Patrick’s Day, which basketball does not matter. And then they play on Easter as well, which I do think of as a basketball holiday. So, I think it’s cool that the Cavs are going to be in that sort of spotlight as well. And as I look at the schedule, I think that this is I think the most difficult month for the Cavs might be the month of January. Um, and I know March has some really tough opponents, too. That might be the the second most difficult month, but I look at January and the Cavs play Denver, Detroit, two playoff teams. Indiana, who, you know, probably not going to be a finals caliber team, but I don’t think the Pacers are going to stink. Minnesota twice, have gone to back-to-back Western Conference Finals. The Jazz, who will stink. Philadelphia, nobody knows. They have two games against them. They play the Thunder, that’s on MLK day in Cleveland. Charlotte will stink. Sacramento will stink. But then two more games against Orlando, a game against the Lakers. That is a tough month where yes, they have a lot of those games are at home, which is certainly beneficial to the Cavs, but that’s a month where I look at and say there are a lot of really good opponents on the schedule for Cleveland. And I do think some of that is true in March as well. Like Brooklyn not going to be good. Detroit should be pretty good. Boston, I think, will be average. Philadelphia, again, nobody knows. Orlando should be good. Dallas should be good. And maybe Kyrie Irving will be back at that point. Um, Milwaukee will be average. Chicago will be okay. New Orleans will probably not be good. Orlando again, Miami twice, the Jazz who as I said stink. And then the Lakers should be pretty good with Luca Donuch in his second year in Los Angeles. So I look at that and say, okay, that is something that those months are going to be challenging. And I also think the other thing that is worth looking at here, I mentioned the teams that the Cavs only play three times and those are basically the teams. one of those teams, the Cavs, if they do not advance out of the group play stage of the NBA Cup, they will play one of those two or two of those teams, excuse me, with an extra game. So, last year they played Brooklyn and Washington with extra games. if you remember this year. Maybe it’s Boston, maybe it is New York, although I don’t know if the NBA is going to want to put the New York Knicks in and Cleveland Cavaliers if they both don’t advance as like an afterthought prime time game. It’s like, hey, neither of these two teams advanced out of group play, but here’s a game that more people are going to care about than the semi-finals because that probably would be the case depending on which two teams do advance. So, I think that one of those teams being a team that the Cavs could play a fourth time, like maybe that is another gift from the schedule makers, maybe it isn’t. I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but I do think overall there are tough stretches, there are easy stretches. The schedule is what it is. I look at this and the Cavs were always going to play 82 games. They were always going to play every team from the Western Conference twice. They were always going to play most teams from the Eastern Conference four times and a handful of teams three times. And that’s what we’ve learned. Now, we will dig more into this. There’s a lot more to to go on. And of course, there will be twists and turns throughout the season because that’s how the NBA season goes. But I look at this and say, you know what, compared to previous years, especially given the West Coast trips that the Cavs have had later in the season, I don’t think the Cavs are in bad shape whatsoever. I think that this schedule, while maybe not the easiest schedule in the world, and of course the Cavs being on national TV 24 times, should be looked at as a big deal. And it is a big deal. I look at it and say, you know what, the Cavs have earned this. The Cavs are going to be tested. The Eastern Conference is not very strong. So, that leads to a lot of games that the Cavs should be favored to win when that time does arrive. But ultimately, I like that the Cavs are on national TV a lot. I like that all three games against the New York Knicks are going to be games that there are a lot of eyeballs on nationally because those are the three biggest games in my opinion in the Eastern Conference all year long. And I do think that that’s a really cool thing. I like that they have a Peacock exclusive game against the Detroit Pistons. I like that a game in Philadelphia on national TV. And I’m very happy that when LeBron James and the Lakers come to town, that game’s on ESPN. That game should always be nationally televised. Anytime LeBron is in Cleveland, it should be televised until he potentially maybe, I don’t know, plays for the Cavs next year. Then of course, not all 82 going to be televised at that point. But I do think and in speaking to I don’t remember if I wrote about this um I know I wrote about I don’t remember if I talked about it here but a lot of the Western Conference teams that the Cavs play a lot of those games are nationally televised games. Like I said the Lakers at home is a nationally televised game. Um obviously Oklahoma City nationally televised game. They have a nally televised game against the Spurs. Um they have another one against the Warriors. They have both of them obviously against the Thunder. Minnesota is a nationally televised game. Like that makes a lot of sense I think for the NBA because they are highlighting the Cavs a bunch to have some of those Western Conference teams in nationally televised games in Cleveland against the Cavs. But thank you for making today’s edition of Locked on Cavs your first listen. And thank you for making it your first listen every day. You can find the show anywhere you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else. Make sure to drop us a fivestar rating. Leave us a nice review and of course be a friend. Tell a friend about Lockdown Calavs. Make sure you’re subscribed. Make sure a friend is subscribed as well. And if you’re watching the show on YouTube as we get out of here, do us a favor. Hit that thumbs up button for us. Click subscribe and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss the latest lockdown Cavs content. I’ll be back on Monday talking about how the Cavs match up with the New York Knicks.

On this episode of Locked On Cavs, Danny Cunningham (The Inside Shot, Cleveland Magazine, 92.3 The Fan) analyzes the newly released NBA schedule for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ upcoming season. He examines the team’s increased national TV exposure, with 24 games set for broadcast across major networks. Cunningham discusses the “baseball-type” scheduling, where teams play consecutive games against the same opponent, and its potential benefits for playoff preparation. He explores the more favorable March schedule, traditionally a challenging month for the Cavs, and breaks down the West Coast road trips. The podcast covers the 14 back-to-back game sets and identifies January and March as potentially difficult months. Cunningham also highlights key matchups, including the three nationally televised games against the New York Knicks, which he considers the biggest in the Eastern Conference this season.
Check out Danny’s Substack, The Inside Shot: https://theinsideshot.substack.com/
Email the show: LOCavsmailbag@gmail.com

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
Monarch Money
Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first year
Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.
FanDuel
Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.
FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOCavs?sid=YouTube

Locked On NBA League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, WNBA & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA

#Cavs #ClevelandCavaliers #NBA