Call your scalper or ticket broker now as a matter of Linsurance. Don’t be a victim of Linaction. It would be completely Lincorrect to think you can walk up and buy a ticket for the Knicks game on Dec. 17. All Lindications say that game quickly will be Lincluded on the list of sold-out contests.
So, guess when Jeremy Lin is scheduled to return to Madison Square Garden to play the Knicks?
The NBA released its 2012-13 schedule last night and in addition to showing the Knicks opening up the Brooklyn Nets’ brand new Barclays Center digs on Nov. 1 in a 7 p.m. nationally televised TNT game, — right, the Nets on national TV! — one of the highlights for the area will be Lin’s first game with the Rockets against the Knicks on Dec. 17. Lin signed a 3-year, $25.1 million offer sheet with Houston and New York declined to match, breaking the hearts of pun-loving headline writers throughout New York.
The Knicks also will face Lin in Houston on Friday, Nov. 23. Linsanity visits Brooklyn for the Nets Friday, Feb. 22. The Nets play the Rockets in Texas Jan. 26.
Both area teams play on Christmas Day when the NBA unleashes five games. Boston visits the Nets in a noontime game on ESPN and the Knicks will be in Los Angeles to face the Lakers at 3 p.m. on ABC. Nothing says Christmas like NBA games.
Joe Johnson, the Nets’ biggest offseason acquisition (aside from their own re-signed guys), will make his Atlanta return on Jan. 16
The seasons starts Tuesday, Oct. 30, with three games, including Boston at Miami. For the Nets, who underwent the most expensive makeover in the league in the offseason — all the talent courtesy of owner Mikhail Prokhorov’s cavernously deep pockets — there will be 12 nationally televised games, a far cry from last year’s total of almost one — as in none. Including the season opener with their bitter cross-East River rivals, the Nets play on TNT (three times) and ESPN (nine times). Additionally, the Nets are on NBA-TV five times. The Knicks play on national TV 25 times, excluding NBA-TV games.
The Battle of the Boroughs also will have installments on Dec. 11 in Brooklyn and Dec. 19 plus Jan. 21 at the Garden.
The world champion Heat play in the Garden twice, only once in Brooklyn — Wednesday, Jan 30 at 8 p.m. (ESPN game). LeBron James and friends can flash their championship rings in front of Knicks fans Nov. 2 and again March 3 in a rematch of the playoff series first round.
The Nets, who open at home for the 22nd time in their 37-season history, are scheduled to face Dwight Howard for the first time in Orlando Friday, Nov. 9. Or rather, the Nets are scheduled to face Orlando for the first time Friday, Nov. 9 because no one even can fathom a guess anymore where Howard will be or wants to be or will be doing. At the rate he’s going, he could drop out, join a commune and raise goats.
Howard and Orlando also are scheduled to bring “Dwightmare” to Brooklyn two days later, Sunday, Nov. 11, in a 3 p.m. start, to the Garden against the Knicks on Jan. 30.
Kobe Bryant and the Lakers make their lone visit to the Garden Dec. 13, to Barclays Center Tuesday, Feb. 5. The Western champ Thunder with Kevin Durant visit Brooklyn Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m. and the Garden March 7.