2024 NBA Schedule Release: Predicting who will get Boston Celtics on opening night

Predicting who the NBA will schedule against the Boston Celtics to open the 2024-25 NBA season.

With the 2024 Summer Olympics officially in the books and with less than two months before the start of NBA Training Camps, it's only natural to begin to get excited about the basketball season. The next big shoe to drop in the Association revolves around the official schedule release for the upcoming campaign.

There are whispers that the league could release the schedule this week. At the latest, if recent history is any indication, we can expect the 2024-25 NBA schedule to be released next week, at the latest.

With the NBA Christmas Day slate out, it's only a matter of time until the other key dates of the schedule will be leaked. The league's opening night schedule could be the next matchups to go public. At this point, it's almost a foregone conclusion that the Boston Celtics will get the nod for opening night. It will likely headline the festivities with a nightcap featuring a Western Conference matchup getting the late slot.

The question is, who will the league schedule for the Celtics to open the season against? At least in my mind, there are four reasonable candidates.

Who will the Boston Celtics face on opening night?

Let's start with an old rival, the Miami Heat. On paper, they seem like a natural candidate to get scheduled against the Celtics on opening night. Because of their history, there could be plenty of intrigue surrounding this potential matchup. However, in the end, I'm not sure it's the move the league ends up making because of how much the team has been trending downward over the last year.

A rematch of the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks could also be on the table but maybe the league gives the Mavs the late slot against the Golden State Warriors (a reunion game for Klay Thompson) or gives them a matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder or Minnesota Timberwolves.

The other two options are the new-look Philadelphia 76ers or New York Knicks. Both would be excellent selections for the league to prop up against the Celtics on opening night. If I had to guess, I'd lean toward the Knicks getting the nod.

With how New York ended last season, and with the addition of Mikal Bridges, this is a team that is going to be filled with hype. And if there's any team that will have the talent to take down the Celtics, many are going to view the Knicks as that team. It would make for an intriguing opening night pairing.

At this point, I believe it would be surprising if the Knicks weren't visiting the Celtics on opening night.