Mark your calendars. Cade Cunningham, the NBA’s top pick, is coming home to face Luka

The Dallas Mavericks will host LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. They will host Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets, and they’ll host the NBA Finals competitors — the world champion Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns. But, for many fans, the most anticipated game of the season may very well be against the Detroit Pistons.

Local basketball fans know that the Pistons selected Arlington’s own Cade Cunningham with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft last month. The game, the only visit Cunningham’s Pistons will make to American Airlines Center, will be on Feb. 8, 2022.

But there’s a lot of basketball to play before then as the NBA, celebrating its 75th anniversary season, returns to a full 82-game season for the first time in two years. The Mavericks open their regular season Oct. 21 versus the Hawks in Atlanta, and they’ll host the Houston Rockets in their home opener on Oct. 26.

The Mavs will host the reigning champion Bucks on Dec. 23 at the American Airlines Center. Other notable home games include LeBron James and the Lakers coming to town twice on Dec. 15 and March 29, and Kevin Durant and the Nets coming in on Dec. 7. Reigning MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets have two games at the AAC on Nov. 15 and Jan. 3.

Another highlight on the schedule is the Mavs playing on Christmas Day for the second consecutive season. They’ll play the Jazz in Utah, the first of two five-game road trips on the schedule.

From Dec. 25 through Jan. 2, the Mavs visit Utah, Portland, Sacramento (two games) and Oklahoma City. From March 11-19, the road games are at Houston, Boston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Charlotte.

The Mavs have a pair of two game series against the Clippers — at Los Angeles on Nov. 21-23 and in Dallas Feb. 10-12. They also have two-game series on the road at Phoenix (Nov. 17-19) as well as a home-and-home with New Orleans (Dec. 1 in Dallas, Dec. 3 in New Orleans) and Minnesota (Dec. 19 in Minnesota, Dec. 21 in Dallas).

Dallas has 12 back-to-back games for the season.

From a national TV broadcast perspective, there are 10 games on ESPN, eight on TNT, six on NBA TV and two on ABC for now. Those games can be added or subtracted as the season goes on.

Dallas Mavericks 2021-22 schedule

Home game in capitals

This story was originally published August 17, 2021 at 5:41 PM.

Stefan Stevenson

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Stefan Stevenson was a sports writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from 1997 to 2022. He covered TCU athletics, the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Cowboys.