The NBA schedule dropped Thursday and there are some interesting revelations for a San Antonio Spurs team looking to return to the NBA Finals.The Spurs’ season opens with a splash, as one of the NBA’s most exciting new rivalries — Spurs vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder — gets the late slot on opening night at 9:30 p.m. ET on NBC. While their matchups were bunched up in December and January last season, the Spurs and Thunder don’t officially face each other again until Feb. 11 and then again on March 14. There is still one home game against the Thunder not on the schedule, so it’s possible they could play again in the NBA Cup flex window in early December if the two teams are eliminated early.The finals rematch will have to wait for Christmas Day, as the Spurs and Knicks will tip-off the biggest day of the regular season with a noon ET start at Madison Square Garden. Their only other matchup of the season will be on March 7 in San Antonio.How the Spurs upended OKC to win the Western ConferenceDan WoikeThe Spurs have a few appearances here and there on national television in the first half of the year and then are on national TV almost every single night in the second half of the season.Twenty-five of their final 41 games are on national television, the most of any team in the league. San Antonio is the only team to have two stretches of four straight national games. The Spurs have 34 national games in total, tied with the defending-champion Knicks, LeBron James and Jaylen Brown’s new team the Philadelphia 76ers and Sandro Mamukelashvili’s new squad, the Los Angeles Lakers.After the Spurs visit Atlanta on Jan. 10, they will fly across the pond for the NBA Global Games. They start in Paris for a matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans on the 14th, then head to Manchester, England, for another matchup against the Pelicans. The Spurs will have their usual Austin pair of games after the All-Star break for the fifth year in a row, hosting the Memphis Grizzlies on Feb. 26 and the Denver Nuggets on Feb. 28 on ABC at noon CT.But there’s a new wrinkle this season that emerges with conspicuous timing.The Spurs will play in Austin three times, hosting the Houston Rockets on Oct. 23 at the University of Texas’ Moody Center, in a game that coincides with F1 weekend. The F1 United States Grand Prix will take place in Austin on Oct. 25, one of the biggest sporting events in the country. Additionally, the University of Texas football team will host Ole Miss that Saturday. So there will be plenty of bigwigs in town, maybe even Matthew McConaughey. It’s a big moment for Texas alum and current Rocket Kevin Durant, who is one of the greatest players in the school’s history.The third Austin game reflects the Spurs’ continued push to build a fanbase in the Texas capital and comes against the backdrop of an effort by San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones to ask residents to reapprove $489 million in funding for the Spurs’ new arena project due to a projected city budget deficit. The San Antonio City Council meets Monday to vote on adding the arena funding reauthorization to November’s ballot. While there is concern that failing to fund the new arena could open the door to the Spurs relocating to Austin, Spurs CEO RC Buford reiterated Thursday that San Antonio is “home.”“We’re looking forward to bringing our community together while reaching audiences in Austin, Paris and Manchester,” Buford said in the Spurs’ schedule release statement. “We’re excited for what this season will bring to our fans and proud to represent San Antonio and share the spirit, culture and community that make our city special everywhere the Spurs take the court.”The Spurs’ NBA Cup schedule will look familiar this season. Last year, they lost to the Warriors at home on Nov. 14 in what was one of the first of many viral moments of Victor Wembanyama’s breakout season, as he and Draymond Green stared each other down after Wemby dropped an epic alley-oop on his head. They’ll meet in the NBA Cup on Nov. 13 this year back in San Antonio, a game that is sure to send more sparks flying. They also face each other on Jan. 30 in an NBA Rivals week quadruple-header, so apparently, that moment was enough to consider this a rivalry.Then the Spurs will visit Portland on Nov. 25, where they beat the Blazers in the cup last year. Wembanyama never faced the Blazers during the regular season, but ended up leading a gentleman’s sweep against Portland in the first round after missing a game due to a concussion. The Spurs wrapped up their group play in Denver last year in a thrilling 139-136 win without Wembanyama, but this year they will host Luka Dončić and the Lakers at home. Making it back to the cup final will be tough, as their group is deep with several solid teams. But they will be the favorite to advance to the knockout stage.San Antonio once again has a brutal road schedule in February, playing just the Magic and Lakers in San Antonio on the 4th and 6th (the Lakers game is an ABC primetime Saturday night matchup). They then embark on a six-game, two-week Rodeo road trip. It starts with an NBC game in Dallas on Tuesday the 9th, then another Thunder game on Prime on the 11th, Orlando on the 13th, a Presidents’ Day NBC matchup against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Heat in Miami on the 15th, a trip to Memphis on the 17th, then a back-to-back the next night against the Timberwolves before heading into the All-Star break.Last year, the Spurs coaching staff went to Los Angeles, as did nearly half the roster, but the staff at least can’t coach the All-Star Game in consecutive years.The Spurs return from the break and head straight to Austin before another road trip to Denver and Houston. So the Spurs have a full month between games in San Antonio, with the Knicks’ return to where they won their title kicking off a brief homestand that ends with LeBron James and the 76ers for on Prime on March 11. That’s followed by another trip to Oklahoma City for a Sunday afternoon ABC showcase, then a trip to Houston.