Your guide to Hornets’ schedule, released Monday, from Steph to LeBron to Dwight

Ten things you should know about the Charlotte Hornets’ 2017-18 schedule, announced Monday:

▪  Mark your calendar: The two biggest home games will be against the NBA champion Golden State Warriors (and former Davidson star Stephen Curry) on Dec. 6 and the Eastern Conference-winning Cleveland Cavaliers (LeBron James) Nov. 15. Those will be two of the Hornets’ three games scheduled for ESPN this season.

▪  A classic night: Wouldn’t that Dec. 6 game be a great occasion to retire franchise career scoring leader Dell Curry’s No. 30? Also, if the teal-and-purple pinstripes and pleats are coming back as an alternate jersey, you’ve got to wear the classics that night.

▪  The great unknown: The Hornets have another home game against the Cavs on March 28, televised on NBATV. Will former Duke point guard Kyrie Irving, who has requested a trade, still be a Cavalier by then?

▪  Eastern divide: The Hornets play three games against four Eastern Conference teams and four each against the others. This season the three-game series are against the Cavs, Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons and Brooklyn Nets. That means they avoid two games against the projected top teams in the conference, but also miss out on a game against the potentially-dreadful Nets.

▪  An early beginning: The new collective bargaining agreement starts the season a little more than a week earlier than last season. (Hornets open on the road against the Pistons Oct. 18). NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s goal was to reduce games on back-to-back nights and eliminate four games in five nights. Hornets have 14 pairs of back-to-backs (down from 16 last season) and no four games in five nights.

▪  Weekend plans: The Hornets generally don’t draw as well on weeknights (Charlotte tends to be an early-to-bed/early-to-rise town). Twenty of the Hornets’ 41 home games are on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. There are five Sunday games at Spectrum Center, and four of those are 1 p.m. tip-offs.

▪  Trippin’: The Hornets’ longest time away from Spectrum center is March 13-21. That is primarily to make the arena available for NCAA men’s basketball tournament games. The longest span at home? Jan. 17-28, with five home games.

▪  Home cookin’: Other attractive home games: vs. the Houston Rockets (James Harden and Chris Paul) on Oct. 27. Celtics’ only game in Charlotte on Dec. 27. San Antonio Spurs’ only visit Nov. 25 (Thanksgiving weekend).

▪  Pre-holiday travel? The Hornets play 19 of their 41 home games before Jan. 1, so they need to get it together quickly, integrating Dwight Howard, Malik Monk, Michael Carter-Williams and Dwayne Bacon into the mix. A key early homestand: Heat, Trail Blazers, Knicks and Raptors over six days in mid-December.

▪  Statement game: Howard has talked a lot about reminding the rest of the league he’s still an impactful player. The Hawks got little in return (Marco Belinelli, plus Miles Plumlee’s awful contract) for moving Howard to Charlotte. That first home game – Hornets-Hawks Oct. 20 – might be a statement on how good Howard can still be.

This story was originally published August 14, 2017 at 4:42 PM with the headline "Your guide to Hornets’ schedule, released Monday, from Steph to LeBron to Dwight."