The beginning of the 2011-2012 NBA season promises to remind Jason Kidd and the Dallas Mavericks of their 2011 championship run. That’s because the first two teams Dallas will face are the last two teams they had to go through to become champs.
The Champs open the 2011-2012 regular season on their home floor against the Miami Heat, Christmas Day (Getty Images).
The last time J-Kidd and the Mavs played the Miami Heat, the game ended with the Mavericks raising the Larry O’Brien NBA championship trophy. More than six months later the two teams will renew acquaintances when the NBA opens its shortened season on Christmas Day.
The NBA Finals rematch headlines a five-game slate for the NBA on opening day. The Mavs and Heat will do battle at 1:30 CST on ABC. Prior to the game, the Mavs will raise their championship banner at American Airlines Center. But they will not receive their championship rings.
One consequence of the long NBA lockout was that Mavs owner Mark Cuban has not been able to get feedback from Jason and his teammates on what type of rings they want. Therefore, Cuban will wait until he can officially talk to the veteran members of the Mavs to make a decision and have the rings made.
"Who knows what it’s going to be," Jason Terry said. "I think he is waiting for Dirk and I and J-Kidd to come up with something."
In addition to their Christmas Day opener with the Heat at AAC, the Mavs also announced this week that their preseason slate will consist of two games, a home-and-home with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The last time those two teams met, the Mavs bounced the Thunder out of the Western Conference Finals in five games.
The 2011 preseason will be a West Finals rematch with the OKC Thunder in a home-and-home set (Getty Images).
The first game of the home-and-home between Dallas and Oklahoma City will be on December 18th at American Airlines Center with a 6:30 p.m. CST tip. The return meeting happens December 20th in OKC at 7 p.m. CST.
The rest of the NBA schedule will be released on Tuesday, December 6th.
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