The first half of the Spurs regular season schedule has been released

The first half of the 2020-21 season schedule has been released (get ready to enjoy saying the word “twenty” up to four times when pronouncing the NBA season for the next ten years), and the Spurs will kick things off on the road against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, December 23. That means brothers Tyus and Tre Jones won’t have to wait at all for their first game against each other. The Spurs’ first home game will be three days later against the Toronto Raptors.

As a reminder, there will be a lot of unusual quirks with this season’s schedule. You can get reacquainted with all the intricacies of the 72-game format here, but as a reminder each Western Conference team will play each other three times (42), and all the Eastern Conference teams twice (30) for a total of 72 games. That means the Spurs will have a 2-1 homecourt advantage in half of their conference series, and 1-2 disadvantage in the other half. Here are some observations from the first half of the schedule:

• We can already see that the two Southwest Division opponents the Spurs will have homecourt advantage over is the Grizzlies and Rockets; therefore the Pelicans and Mavericks will have homecourt advantage against the Spurs. The Spurs will get two games (a home and away) against the Pelicans out of the way in the first half, as well as their lone home game against the Mavericks.
• Of what’s been released so far, the other West teams we know the Spurs will have homecourt advantage over includes the Warriors and defending champion Lakers, against whom all three matches will be played within the first eight games, including a home-and-home series on either side of the New Year. The Timberwolves and Thunder have the advantage over the Spurs.
• Home-and-home or away-and-away series against the same clubs will be a somewhat frequent occurrence to help reduce travel and exposure. That includes the aforementioned Lakers games in San Antonio, a back-to-back in Minnesota on Jan. 9/10, at home against the Rockets on Jan 16/18, at home against the Grizzlies on Jan. 30/ Feb. 1, and a home back-to-back against the Warriors on Feb. 8/9.
• The Spurs have 19 home and 18 road games in the first half, and it appears that includes the now-dreaded Rodeo Road Trip, as they will play seven straight games away from home from Feb. 12-24. (As of now, the Rodeo is set to go on but in the Freeman Coliseum instead of the AT&T Center from Feb. 11-28). They will then play four straight games at home before the “break”, ending with the Thunder on March 4.

If you haven’t already, you can click here to check out the schedule in it’s entirety. Times and broadcasts have yet to be released.