Although the 2022-23 NBA schedule will not be released until 3 p.m. Wednesday, several elements already have been leaked from the Miami Heat calendar.
Among them:
— Despite making it within one game of last season’s NBA Finals, the Heat will not be featured on opening night.
The season-opening doubleheader on Oct. 18 will feature the Philadelphia 76ers vs. the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers taking on the defending champion Golden State Warriors.
— The Heat will open defense of their No. 1 Eastern Conference playoff seed at FTX Arena on Oct. 19 against the Chicago Bulls.
— Two nights later, on Oct. 21, the Heat will host the Celtics in the first of four meetings against the team that eliminated them in seven games in last season’s Eastern Conference finals.
— The Heat are not scheduled for a Christmas Day game — the only team to appear in last season’s conference semifinals not scheduled on Dec. 25. Instead, their place has been taken by the New York Knicks.
— The Heat are scheduled to play in Atlanta against the Hawks on Martin Luther King Day in a matinee on Jan. 16.
— No NBA teams will play on Election Day on Nov. 8.
Instead, the NBA announced Tuesday that, “the scheduling decision came out of the NBA family’s focus on promoting nonpartisan civic engagement and encouraging fans to make a plan to vote during midterm elections.”
Radio change
The Heat announced Tuesday that their games will shift this coming season from 790 The Ticket to 560 WQAM.
The exceptions will be games that conflict with Miami Dolphins and Miami Hurricanes football games on WQAM, with those games to shift to 790.
WQAM and 790 The Ticket are both Audacy stations, to continue with similar programming as during previous Heat seasons.
The conflict sets up a Florida Panthers shift from 560.
Heat broadcasts also will be available on the HD radio channel associated with WQAM (99.9 FM HD2).
Heat Weekly will continue to be broadcast on 790 the Ticket.
Heat games were originally broadcast on WQAM-AM during the first five years of the franchise starting in 198 and will be returning to the station for the first time since 1993.
The full NBA schedule will be released Wednesday at 3 p.m.
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