After ending their 2014-15 season in a thrilling six-game series against their nearby rival, the Chicago Bulls, Jason Kidd and the Milwaukee Bucks will have to wait until after the New Year for a shot at revenge.
The NBA released its full 2015-16 season schedule Thursday night, and Coach Kidd and Co. learned that they won’t take on their rival Bulls until Jan. 5, 2016. That game, as well as a Jan. 12 meeting with the Bulls in Milwaukee, will be televised on NBATV. But Bucks fans will have plenty of interesting matchups to hold them over until January.
Milwaukee opens the season with back-to-back games at home: Oct. 28 against the New York Knicks and Oct. 30 against the Washington Wizards. Next up is a trip to Toronto to take on the Raptors on Nov. 1, which will be televised on NBATV.
The Bucks are currently slated to appear on NBATV eight times, TNT once and ESPN three times, which of course is subject to change, particularly late in the year when the playoff race begins to take shape.
Milwaukee has a very intriguing stretch in mid-November, beginning with a Saturday evening date with the odds-on-favorite to raise the Larry O’Brien Trophy, the Cleveland Cavaliers, on 14th at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. Three straight nationally televised events will follow—Tuesday against the Wizards, Thursday again against LeBron James and the Cavs and Saturday against the Indiana Pacers—on NBATV, TNT and NBA TV, respectively. Then on Nov. 23, Milwaukee’s big offseason addition, Greg Monroe, will have his first opportunity to challenge his former team, the Detroit Pistons.
The Bucks also have several early meetings against J-Kidd’s former squads. In early November (2nd, 6th and 7th) the squad travels to the Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden before hosting the Nets. In December, Jason will see the Phoenix Suns on the 20th, and on the 28th, he’ll face the team that not only drafted him in 1994, but one he helped raise a banner for in the 2009-10 season: the Dallas Mavericks. Milwaukee will host Dallas on January 8 and see Brooklyn and Phoenix in March on the 13th and 30th, respectively.
December opens with a meeting with the 2013-14 season’s champions, the San Antonio Spurs on December 2. That matchup sets the West Coast theme for the month. Milwaukee will host the Los Angeles Clippers on the 9th and the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors on the 12th. Then starts a four-game West Coast road trip, highlighted by back-to-back nationally televised tilts at the Staples Center against the Los Angeles Lakers and the Clippers, followed a trip up north to Oakland once again take on the defending champion Warriors.
An NBATV tilt with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder will lead the Bucks into the New Year. January then brings those two big meetings with the Bulls. Then on March 7, the Bucks make another trip down to Chicago, followed by an ESPN Wednesday night contest against the Miami Heat on March 9. Jason and Co. will again be on the Worldwide Leader when they head to Quicken Loans arena to face the Cavs on March 23.
April will bring an end to the regular season, and it’ll bring seven Eastern Conference opponents in seven games, as the playoff seeding race plays out. That span includes trips by the Bulls and the Cavs to the Bradley Center on April 3 and 5. Milwaukee will close the season at home on April 13 against the Indiana Pacers.
To see the Bucks full schedule, and to add it to your own calendar, visit the team’s official website.
