Jazz open on road in Warriors rematch

For just the second time in the last 10 years, the Utah Jazz will open the season on the road, going back to the scene of their most-recent playoff series conquest, starting the 2007-08 campaign at the home of the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, Oct. 30, which is also opening night for the NBA's 62nd season.

Utah won the Western Conference semifinals last May against the Warriors and went on to lose in the conference finals to the San Antonio Spurs in perhaps an overachieving postseason.

The Utah and NBA schedules were released Thursday. Training camps open Oct. 1.

Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Andrei Kirilenko and friends will open their home season on Thursday, Nov. 1, against the Houston Rockets, who were also their first home opponent in the 2006-07 season.

Golden State will be Utah's next home opponent on Saturday, Nov. 3, and LeBron James and Cleveland are to make their only appearance in Salt Lake in the third home game, Nov. 7.

Oddly, Golden State and Houston are two of the four Western Conference teams the Jazz will face only three times. They will play all the other teams in the West four times and meet each Eastern Conference team twice, home-and-home.

Utah's first test with the NBA-champion Spurs comes Dec. 7 at the AT&T Center as the middle part of a three-game trip to Sacramento (Dec. 4) and Dallas (Dec. 8). The Spurs don't make a Salt Lake appearance until Jan. 28 in an NBATV game. The regular season ends for the Jazz in San Antonio April 16 on ESPN.

Utah fans' first look at No. 1 draft choice Greg Oden and Portland should come Dec. 11, and the first chance to see Danny Ainge's Kevin Garnett-Ray Allen-Paul Pierce Boston Celtics should be Dec. 29 in ESA.

The annual pre-Christmas road trip is just four games this season and starts Dec. 18 in Atlanta and goes to Charlotte Dec. 19, Orlando Dec. 21 and Miami Dec. 22. Dallas is in ESA the day after Christmas. It is the longest trip of the season. The longest homestand is five games in late March, with Toronto March 17, the Los Angeles Lakers March 22, Charlotte March 25 and the Los Angeles Clippers March 28. That's followed by a one-gamer to new-look Minnesota March 30 and three more home games with Washington March 31, Minnesota April 2 and San Antonio April 4.