SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz's upcoming schedule was released Wednesday afternoon, and they indeed will play 41 home games again this year.
Those games, however, will be sandwiched between road games to begin and end the 2015-16 regular season.
The Jazz open the NBA year up on a three-game road trip, with the season-opener taking place Oct. 28 at Detroit. This will mark the first time Utah has ever opened against the Pistons.
Utah also has games in Philadelphia (Oct. 30) and Indiana (Halloween) before Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, Rudy Gobert and Alec Burks make their home debut on Nov. 4 against Portland.
The Jazz close out the season on April 13 at the Staples Center against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Jazz fans won't get too many chances early on to see their up-and-coming squad play in person at EnergySolutions Arena. Utah begins the season with 10 of 14 games on the road, including eight of its first 10.
Interestingly, the Jazz no longer have their traditional pre-Christmas road trip, which dated back to Frank Layden's teams in the 1980s. Utah does play a Dec. 23 game at Golden State, but December is the most home-friendly month of the season with 10 games at ESA.
Other noteworthy tidbits from the 82-game schedule:
— The Jazz have three games scheduled for national TV: Feb. 19 vs. Celtics and April 13 at Lakers (ESPN); and Feb. 25 vs. Spurs (TNT).
— The Jazz play all Western Conference teams four times except for the Clippers, Grizzlies, Mavericks and Kings (three times apiece). They get each Eastern Conference team twice, once at home and one on the road.
— Former University of Utah point guard Delon Wright will play an NBA game in his college state for the first time when Toronto visits on Nov. 18.
— Former BYU point guard Jimmer Fredette will be in town on Feb. 25 and April 5 if he makes the Spurs squad.
— The Jazz are off from Feb. 11-18 for the midseason break. All-Star Weekend will take place Feb. 12-14 in Toronto.
— Overall, the NBA decreased the number of four-games-in-five-nights sets from 90 to 27, but the Jazz still ended up with one of them from Jan. 6-10.
— The Jazz are scheduled for three NBA TV broadcasts — Nov. 7 vs. Memphis, Dec. 8 at Sacramento and March 17 vs. Phoenix.
— Utah has 18 back-to-back sets, including nine on the road.
— The schedule includes four road trips of at least four games, including a five-game swing to Chicago, Milwaukee, Houston, Oklahoma City and Minnesota from March 19-26.
— The reigning NBA champion Warriors will make the first of their two Utah trips on Nov. 30.
— The Cavaliers' Big Three of LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving (plus former Jazz guard Mo Williams) will play in Utah on March 14.
— Fans hoping to greet ex-Jazz center Enes Kanter will get a chance in the preseason and then again on Nov. 23 and Dec. 11.
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