The 2022–23 NBA schedule has just been announced, and let's break some of it down from the point of view of the Miami Heat.

The Heat's 82-game season begins on Oct. 19 against the Chicago Bulls, and on Oct. 21 they host a rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics.

Miami will, in fact, begin the season with four straight home games, culminating in back-to-back meetings against the Toronto Raptors. After that, however, the Heat will make their first trip to the west coast to play the Portland Trail Blazers, defending champion Golden State Warriors, and Sacramento Kings.

The Heat then play six of their following eight games at FTX Arena, hosting the Warriors, Kings, Indiana Pacers, Blazers, Charlotte Hornets (back-to-back), and the Phoenix Suns.

Miami's longest road trip of the year will consist of five games on the West Coast from December 30 to January 6 against the Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns.

Those two away games against the Lakers (Jan. 4) and Suns (Jan. 6) will also make up two of the Heat's 11 total nationally broadcast games.

It's quite an exciting schedule for the Heat, who are looking to return to the top of the East and perhaps even the NBA Finals. To do that, however, they have to hurdle some considerably strong opponents, especially in their home conference. Let's look at some of their marquee matchups arising from their season schedule.

Must-Watch Games on the Heat’s Schedule

vs. Bulls, Oct. 19

The Heat will play their season opener at home for the third time in the last four years. The Heat open their season at home against the Chicago Bulls for the third time in the franchise's 35-year history. Miami is 1-1 against the Bulls in home season openers, including the humiliating 108-66 loss in 2006 after winning the NBA title four months earlier.

Of course, this is a matchup featuring a bona fide East contender (Heat) against a fringe playoff/play-in squad (Bulls). It will be interesting to see how they fare against one another, especially considering the tantalizing wing head-to-head between Jimmy Butler and DeMar DeRozan.

One additional wrinkle in this game is that Goran Dragic and Derrick Jones Jr., both former Heat players, are currently on the Bulls roster.

vs. Celtics, Oct. 22

The Boston Celtics returns to the place where they knocked off the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals. This will be the first of four games versus the Celtics.

On paper, the Celtics seem to be the deeper squad, especially after the additions of Malcolm Brogdon and Danilo Gallinari. As for the Heat, they didn't really add many notable new guys, save perhaps for rookie Nikola Jovic. They, however, lost starting forward P.J. Tucker.

Coach Erik Spoelstra will likely use this as a barometer of where the Heat stand relative to the favorites in the East. Having said that, a win would be huge for the Heat, while a loss might not be the worst thing yet.

vs. Spurs, Dec. 17 (Mexico City)

This will be an interesting game. Both teams may find this particularly challenging since it will be played at a high altitude. For the Heat, this also concludes a four-games-in-seven-days run, which may test the team's conditioning.

Whatever the case, the NBA has a ton of promotional events planned for the global showcase. Fortunately, the Heat only play once more over the following five days and don't travel again until December 30.

As for the matchup itself, this should be a relatively easy win for the Bulls, considering how much talent the Spurs have sacrificed to improve their 2023 draft lottery chances.

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vs. Bucks, Jan. 12 & 14

The four-game regular season series versus the Bucks begins with with back-to-back home games. Afterward, their next two meetings will take place in Milwaukee. The Heat had a 2-2 record against the Bucks last year, which was also the first time in three seasons that the clubs hadn't played each other in the postseason.

This series promises to be among the most explosive of the season, and considering the placement in the calendar, it will likely have major implications going into their playoff positioning strategy moving forward.

at 76ers, Feb. 27

As far as facing a key conference opponent, meeting the 76ers for the first time in Feb. 27 is unusually late. Still, it'll be even more significant.

The two teams will meet for the first time since the Heat defeated the 76ers in the 2022 Eastern Conference Playoffs. Remember that the Sixers pushed the series to six games but just didn't have enough to upend Miami.`

One big reason for that was the presence of P.J. Tucker for the Heat. Ironically, Tucker departed the Heat in free agency and moved to Philadelphia. Needless to say, that'll be an interesting storyline to pay attention to when this game finally tips off.