NBA releases 76ers' 2011-12 schedule

The NBA released its 2011-12 season schedule on Tuesday, despite the league's ongoing lockout having no foreseeable conclusion.

The 76ers will open on Nov. 2 at the Toronto Raptors, an opening date nearly a week later than last season's. The team will then open its home schedule two days later, Nov. 4, at the Wells Fargo Center against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Sixers are scheduled to appear on ESPN three times - against the Houston Rockets, Atlanta Hawks, and New York Knicks - on TNT once, and on NBATV seven times.

Of the team's 41 home games, 18 are scheduled for Friday night, four for Saturday, two for Sunday, and one on Martin Luther King's Birthday.

Unlike the 2010-11 season, when the Sixers played 21 sets of back-to-back games, this season they will play only 18 back-to-backs and only three are scheduled before the start of the new year. The Sixers will play the bulk of their back-to-backs - which in the NBA is a difficult turnaround - during a 27-day span from March 13 to April 8.

As has become custom, the team will be away from the Wells Fargo Center over the holidays, playing nine consecutive road games from Dec. 13 to Jan. 4. That will be the team's only road trip spanning more than three games.

The Sixers will finish the season with a brutal road swing: at the Orlando Magic on April 16 and at the Miami Heat on April 18.

Some of the home schedule highlights include hosting the Knicks on Nov. 26, the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 6, the Heat on Feb. 13, and the Boston Celtics on March 7.

Wednesday's proposed schedule comes with the caveat that, should a lockout wipe out some or any of the season, the schedule would be revised to make sure no team played more home games than road, or vice versa.

The NBA released this year's schedule nearly three weeks before it released last year's.