The 2004-05 Sacramento Kings schedule was released. At first look, the beginning of the season will kill the team: two exhibition games against Houston in China, then the Texas triangle with the Mavs (who should be down but still good), Spurs (a title favorite) and the new-look Rockets. I think it's good that the team will be seeing the Rockets for the third time in a couple weeks, even if the first two are exhibitions. They'll get a sense of the offense Jeff Van Gundy is going to run with TMac and Yao.
The longest road trip this year is six games, and it's an easy one. They'll go to Dallas on Feb. 24, then have a back-to-back against Philly and Washington, then a day off followed by a back-to-back against Charlotte and Orlando, then a day off, then a match-up with Shaq and Miami. Not the most daunting stretch I've ever seen, though the bookends could be trouble. The roadie is also in a stretch of 9 road games in 10 days, but the stretch straddles the All-Star break and the other three road games are at Boston, Chicago and New Jersey (three Eastern Conference lottery teams, I'm thinking). The home game in that stretch is the Hawks.
The Kings only meet Minnesota once after January 30, so the early ones in Nov, Dec and January are important. There's an interesting home-and-home with the Lake Show on April 10 and 15 (those 4 days off in between could have been useful last season) near the end of the season that should have play-off implications. And LeBron comes to town January 20.
That just about wraps the NBA up for a few months.
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