The Clippers will open their new arena, Intuit Dome, with their first regular-season NBA game on Oct. 23 against the Phoenix Suns and Team USA Olympic gold medal winners Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. The Clippers will be led by stars Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, leaving Crypto.com Arena for a $2-billion state-of-the-art arena in Inglewood built by owner Steve Ballmer.
The Clippers will face Paul George, who after five years with the Clippers spurned them to sign a four-year deal worth $212 million with the 76ers this summer, for the first time on Nov. 6 when Philadelphia visits Intuit Dome.
The rest of the Clippers’ schedule will be released, along with the rest of the NBA, on Thursday.
A few other Clippers schedule details have emerged this week.
The Clippers will be in West “A” Group in the NBA’s Emirates Cup. They will play their first Cup game on Nov. 15 at Houston, their second game at home on No. 22 against Sacramento, their third game on Nov. 29 at Minnesota and their fourth game at home on Dec. 3 against Portland.
The Clippers will play 16 back-to-back games this season.
One of the perks of the Clippers’ new arena is the team will avoid 12:30 p.m. Saturday games at home this season, a time slot they frequently had to accept while sharing Crypto.com Arena with the Lakers and the Kings.
All of the Clippers’ games on Saturday at Intuit Dome will be at 7:30 p.m., and they have only seven games on that day of the week.