{"id":810604,"date":"2026-08-13T09:21:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T09:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/810604\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T09:21:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T09:21:24","slug":"a-troubling-nba-scheduling-trend-is-emerging-for-sleep-deprived-spurs-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/810604\/","title":{"rendered":"A troubling NBA scheduling trend is emerging for sleep-deprived Spurs fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the slow trickle of NBA games continues to barely quench fans’ thirst for anything basketball-related during the league’s yearly hibernation, an inconvenient picture is beginning to take shape for the Spurs. The good news is that, if this trend holds, San Antonio is going to get a bunch of nationally televised games. That’s cool. The bad news comes when you see how many seem to be later at night.<\/a><\/p>\n

All confirmed Spurs games for 2026-27 so far (ET):<\/p>\n

Preseason
10\/8 vs. ATL – 8 p.m.
10\/10 @ PHX – 10 p.m.
10\/12 @ UTA – 9 p.m.
10\/14 vs. PHX – 8 p.m.
10\/16 vs. SAC – 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

Season
10\/20 vs. OKC – 9:30 p.m.
10\/23 vs. HOU (in Austin) – 9:30 p.m.
11\/6 @ SAC (NBA Cup) – 10 p.m.\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/D9InMLBGzL<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Josh Paredes (@Josh810) August 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Out of the 9 regular season games that have been announced so far, six will start at 8:30 pm CT or later. The other three would probably start around the same time if two of them weren’t international games and the other wasn’t the Christmas Day game. <\/a>And the matchup with Sacramento may not be scheduled for a national audience right now, but it’s still an NBA Cup game. <\/p>\n

It would be nice to have a fair number of 6:00 pm or 7:00 pm start times sprinkled into the schedule, and there will probably be a few, but ending up with a higher number of late-night games is more likely. I think there’s a reason for that, but it won’t be one fans care enough about to ignore intrusion into their sleep schedules.<\/p>\n

The NBA has plenty of reasons to put the Spurs in late windows<\/p>\n

Victor Wembanyama has already entered the global superstar realm. That means that no matter what time he plays or what platform he plays on, fans will tune in to see him. On top of that, he plays in the Central Time Zone, so it’s easier to push the tip-off time back on double-header nights for this crowd rather than ask folks on the East Coast.<\/p>\n

Could you imagine if the Spurs landed 35 nationally televised games and half of them didn’t start until 10:30 pm? That’s what we’d be asking fans on the East to tolerate. <\/p>\n

LeBron James and Jaylen Brown joined Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid in Philadelphia. The Knicks just won the title (barf). Tyrese Haliburton is set to return after missing a full year on the heels of an NBA Finals run. Last but not least, Giannis Antetokounmpo joined the Miami Heat. The Eastern Conference is overflowing with intrigue this season, so the NBA will place them front and center.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that puts the Spurs in the backseat. Now, it won’t hurt the viewership numbers by any means because Wembanyama is the biggest draw in the sport. But as for the fans, we may be grabbing an extra cup of coffee in the morning to compensate for the extra hours sacrificed to cheer on the Silver and Black. <\/p>\n

The full NBA schedule drops tomorrow, August 13.\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a>