On Aug. 17, the NBA released the 2022-23 regular season schedule.

Notable matchups include Opening Night, the Christmas Day game and the new “Rivals Week.”

The Golden State Warriors campaign to defend their title begins on Oct. 18 vs. the Los Angeles Lakers. With the constant drama surrounding the Lakers and the Warriors fresh off a championship run — it’ll be interesting to see another edition of the Lebron James vs. Stephen Curry rivalry that the NBA has been pushing throughout this decade.

The season starts off with a three-game home stand but the team will be back on the road for a five-game road trip in the early parts of November.

As for the Christmas Day matchup, the Warriors will face the Memphis Grizzlies in a Western Conference Semi-Finals rematch. With all the drama that occurred throughout the series as well as multiple changes to both rosters — it’ll be interesting to see another edition to this growing rivalry.

Speaking of rivals, the NBA will be implementing a “Rivals Week” which includes games from Jan. 24-28th. In this particular stretch, the Warriors will face the Grizzlies yet again as well as the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 27.

It’s not the classic Lakers vs. Celtics rivalry, but it’s interesting to see the NBA consider the Raptors a rival to the Warriors. There hasn’t been any drama surrounding the two teams, even during the 2019 Finals. But with the Eastern Conference becoming stronger every year, it should be interesting to see the Warriors face a young Raptors team.

The NBA has been debating on implementing a mid-season tournament to increase TV viewership as well as generate interest to combat the regular season becoming stale. It seems the NBA has gone in another direction with the “Rivals Week” to spawn interest.

March will be the most challenging month for the defending champions. Most of their games will include playoff teams — but they’ll get breaks with games against the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs.

The Warriors will have multiple six-game road trips in both December and January. But — right after the Eastern Conference road trip in December — the Warriors will start a nice eight-game home stand, starting with the Christmas Day matchup to Jan. 10.

Last season — the Warriors had four back-to-back games to finish out the season. This time around, the Warriors will only have one back-to-back series in the last month of the season.

With the NBA offseason wrapping up and training camp starting in September, the Warriors will have a chance to defend their title starting Oct. 18.

(Photo by Jim Poorten/NBAE via Getty Images)