Bulls Release 2015-'16 Schedule
By Cody Westerlund--
(CBS) The NBA released the full 2015-'16 league schedule Wednesday evening, and rookie coach Fred Hoiberg and his Bulls will open against LeBron James and the defending Eastern Conference champion Cavaliers on Oct. 27 at the United Center in a 7 p.m. game televised on TNT. It's the first of two games being played on opening night, with the Pelicans and defending champion Warriors also squaring off later that night.
The Cavaliers beat the Bulls in six games in the Eastern Conference semifinals last season, a result that marked the end of Tom Thibodeau's coaching tenure in Chicago. This will mark the second straight year the Bulls' first home game comes against the Cavaliers.
In all, the Bulls are schedule for 32 national TV appearances -- 10 times on TNT, nine times on NBA TV, eight times on ESPN and five times on ABC.
Another highlight on Chicago's schedule is a Christmas Day contest at Oklahoma City, which will be played at 1:30 p.m. and carried on ABC. That game will feature plenty of intrigue and connections. Thunder star Kevin Durant will be front and center in the spotlight after an injuries forced him to miss most of last year. Point guards Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose are often offseason training partners. The game features two rookie coaches in Hoiberg and Billy Donovan, with Bulls center Joakim Noah having played under Donovan in college at Florida, where they teamed up for two national titles.
As usual because of other United Center event commitments, the Bulls will go on several long road trips. They'll go on a four-game trip to the West Coast from Nov. 18-27 and face a seven-game trip that's mostly out West and then ends in Charlotte from Jan. 28-Feb. 8.
The Bulls will also play the Cavaliers on Jan. 23 and Feb. 18 in Cleveland and on April 9 in Chicago.
Chicago has 17 back-to-backs, and how Hoiberg approaches those will be worth monitoring after the Bulls have been injury-ravaged in recent seasons.
Chicago's regular season ends on April 13 at home against Philadelphia. View the full schedule below.
