Queen, Adam Lambert, and Jerry Seinfeld responsible for Warriors’ grueling schedule

The Golden State Warriors have a road-heavy schedule to start the season, playing seven of their first nine games on the road. You can blame Jerry Seinfeld and Adam Lambert for that.

Making an NBA schedule is a complicated process. Schedule makers have to consider travel schedules, national TV broadcasts, holidays, the in-season tournament, and arena availability to piece together a 30-team, 1,230-game jigsaw puzzle. The arena part is why the Warriors are making an early trip for a Houston-New Orleans back-to-back and a brutal OKC-Cleveland-Detroit-Denver six-day trip in the season’s second week.

What’s the deal with all these road games? It’s because the Chase Center is packed at the start of the NBA season. Specifically, there two nights of Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan’s standup tour November 2 and 3, two nights of Queen with Adam Lambert November 8 and 9, plus show from John Mayer, SZA, and a Halloween show from Doja Cat.

So the Warriors are being kicked out of their home, just like when Jerry had to switch apartments with Kramer when a Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant opened across the street from their place. Or when Elaine got evicted for buzzing up a jewel thief on Thanksgiving.

The upside to the early season challenges is that the Warriors will be masters of their domain come December, when they’ll play ten out of eleven games at Chase from December 19 to January 10, leaving home only to visit the Denver Nuggets on Christmas. That’s not a trivial trip, of course. Playing the defending NBA champions at high altitude is almost a tougher road trip than going to see Morty and Helen Seinfeld in Boca Raton - Nikola Jokic will bruise you more than their terrible sofa bed.

They also get a seven-game homestand in November, including a week where they play the Oklahoma City twice in a row, then the Minnesota Timberwolves twice in a row. You could even say they’re double-dipping.

So it could go either way. If the Warriors do well in the early-season road gauntlet, November 9th might not be the last time you hear “We Are The Champions” at the Chase Center this season. But if they stumble out of the gate, the new-look Warriors will definitely be under pressure.