LOS ANGELES -- The Clippers’ 2026-27 schedule is built for a team in transition, and that may be exactly what this roster needs.
After a 42-40 finish last season and a ninth-place spot in the Western Conference, Los Angeles tore down its veteran core at the deadline and then watched the year end with a play-in loss that helped force the front office into a reset. Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and Ivica Zubac are all gone now, or at least headed out, and the franchise is moving forward with a younger group led by No. 5 overall pick Keaton Wagler and a returning Darius Garland.
The NBA released the full schedule today, and the way it broke for the Clippers looks unusually friendly for a rebuilding team.
It starts right away with a spotlight matchup. The Clippers open on October 21 and finish on April 11 against the Sacramento Kings, so the season bookends with Wagler and Kings guard Darius Acuff Jr. facing each other. Acuff, the seventh pick out of Arkansas, will meet Wagler on opening night and again on the final day of the regular season.
There’s plenty else in the slate that should help a team trying to develop young talent. The Clippers have 13 back-to-backs, down from 15 last season and 17 the year before.
Nine of those end with the team back in Inglewood, while only four are double-road sets and five are double-home stretches. They also avoid playing on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
That kind of scheduling relief matters when the goal is to keep bodies fresh and give young players room to grow.
The homecoming dates for the former stars are also lined up. Leonard, who averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 65 games last season before hypothetically being dealt to Toronto, returns to Intuit Dome on November 2 when the Raptors visit.
Harden, the 11-time All-Star who posted 23.6 points per game across 70 games before being traded to Cleveland at the deadline, comes back on March 11, when the Cavaliers are in town, unless he has been moved again by then. Zubac, dealt to Indiana in the other deadline deal, gets his return game on December 20.
The Clippers are also bringing back the early tip-off. They have two 1:30 p.m. home games scheduled, with Charlotte coming to Inglewood on November 15 and Phoenix visiting on April 4. Those are the earliest Clippers games ever at Intuit Dome, and they come 90 minutes earlier than the team’s previous record.
Even with the roster overhaul, the Clippers still landed eight national television games. That’s not a huge number, but it shows the league still wants a look at this new group, especially with Garland, Wagler, Brandon Ingram and the rest of the roster trying to find their footing together.
This is a very different Clippers team heading into the season. The familiar star power is gone, the lineup has changed dramatically, and the schedule doesn’t punish them for the reset. In a year like this, that’s a pretty useful break.
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