The Knicks will break a nine-month playing drought when they open their preseason with two games in Detroit Dec. 11 and Dec. 13, the league announced.
The Knicks will play a four-game preseason sked that will also include two home games against the Cavaliers at the Garden – Dec. 16 and Dec. 18. Knicks first-round pick, Obi Toppin, will get to face the Cavaliers quickly after they passed him up with the fifth pick in the draft, allowing him to fall to 8. The Dayton star was pegged to go to Cleveland in mock drafts once the lottery results were revealed in August.
Fans will not be permitted at the Garden because of New York State laws.
Meanwhile, the Nets will have a two-game preseason schedule starting Dec. 13 hosting Washington at Barclays Center. They will then travel to Boston to face the Celtics Dec. 18. Barclays Center also will not permit fans under the same state guidelines.
The last time the Knicks played was March 11 in Atlanta — an overtime victory — before the season was shut down due to the Covid-19 positive test of Rudy Gobert. They were not invited to the Orlando restart in late July.
Training camp starts on Dec. 1 with individual workouts for the first five days. Tom Thibodeau’s first practice is expected to be Dec. 6, pending Covid-19 test results.
