NBA Schedule: Luka's Mavs to Open Season at Wemby's Spurs

Victor Wembanyama will get his NBA introduction by going up against Luka Doncic, as the San Antonio Spurs are scheduled to play the Dallas Mavericks to start the 2023-24 season.

Dalton Trigg | Aug 17, 2023

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Following last weekend’s basketball festivities, which included Team USA taking on Slovenia in a FIBA World Cup preparation game, as well as Dirk Nowitzki and other legends being enshrined at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, NBA reporter Marc Stein dropped an intriguing report about the opening week of the 2023-24 season schedule.

"Victor Wembanyama's first official NBA game is tentatively slated for Oct. 25, league sources say, with Wembanyama's Spurs due to play host to Dallas and Luka Doncic," Stein tweeted. "The NBA's full formal 2023-24 schedule release is expected next week."

That's right, the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs are opening up a brand new chapter in their storied in-state rivalry, as highly-touted No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama will get his NBA feet wet against four-time All-NBA First Teamer Luka Doncic.

Given that the Mavs finished higher than the Spurs did in the standings last season, paired with the fact that Doncic and Kyrie Irving have the experience edge over most Spurs players, it's questionable that the league would choose to have Dallas open up on the road. Regardless, though, this matchup will be must-see TV for not just Mavs and Spurs fans, but basketball fans in general.

The Mavs 12-3 against the Spurs in the 15 games they've played against each other since the 2019-20 season. Dallas had won seven consecutive games against San Antonio before losing last season's finale with Doncic, Irving and other key players sitting in order to secure better draft standing.

The full NBA schedule drops later today, so stay tuned to DallasBasketball.com for more coverage throughout the day.

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Published Aug 17, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.