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In the big picture of the NBA season, the preseason isn’t super important — except as a time marker. Come the following days, as announced by the Raptors this Wednesday afternoon, Toronto’s basketball team will once again be playing professional ball.
The games may not count, but if they present a chance for us to get our first look at a Kawhi Leonard-led Raptors team, I’m sure there will be some excitement around them.
On top of that, the locations! The Raptors will play just one home game (at the, uh, Scotiabank Arena) in the preseason. The balance of the contests will be spent on the road in some normal NBA cities, and some more off-the-grid (re: Canadian) sites.
Here’s the official release:
.@Raptors announced Wednesday a five-game preseason schedule, featuring one contest at Scotiabank Arena. #WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/UM6scxx2mi
— RaptorsMR (@RaptorsMR) August 1, 2018
And the fine print, if you can’t quite make out the details at the bottom of that tweet image:
Sept. 29 vs. the Trail Blazers in Vancouver at 7pm EST
Oct. 2 vs. the Jazz in Utah at 9pm EST
Oct. 5 vs. Melbourne United in Toronto at 7pm EST
Oct. 10 vs. the Nets in Montreal at 7pm EST
Oct. 11 vs. the Pelicans in New Orleans at 8pm EST
So it’s official: starting September 29th, we’ll get to see the Raptors on a basketball once again.