Heat schedule includes early return for Wade and no Christmas game

An early return by Dwyane Wade, a pair of late-season home dates with LeBron James, and a rare day off on Christmas are among the highlights in the Heat’s 2016-2017 schedule released Thursday night.

As previously reported by the Miami Herald, Wade, the franchise’s greatest player and a 12-time All-Star, will make his first and only return in the regular season to AmericanAirlines Arena with the Chicago Bulls on Nov. 10. It’s Miami’s fourth home game overall on the seventh on the slate.

The game, which will be broadcast on TNT, is the first of five ESPN/TNT appearances for the Heat. The others: at home vs. Indiana on Dec. 14 (ESPN); at Chicago Jan. 27 (ESPN); at Dallas on Feb. 27 (TNT) and at Orlando on March 3 (ESPN).

James and the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers will face the Heat four times this season after playing Miami only three times a year ago. The first meeting is Dec. 9 in Cleveland. The other three matchups are after the All-Star break with Miami hosting the Cavs on March 4 and again on April 10, two days before the Heat’s regular season finale at home against the Wizards.

The Heat will face the Raptors, who knocked them out of the playoffs last year, four times including in Toronto on Nov. 4, the fifth game of the season for Miami. The other three meetings with the Raptors will take place over a span of 14 games from March 11 through April 7.

After the All-Star break, the Heat will play 14 of its final 25 games at home. But eight of those final 11 road games are against playoff teams from last year and 14 of the final 24 opponents overall were playoff teams.

Unlike last season when Miami enjoyed being at home a lot early in the year, the Heat will play 14 of its first 25 games on the road.

The team’s longest stretch of consecutive road games is six when from Jan. 3-13 the Heat plays at Pheonix (Jan. 3), Sacramento (Jan. 4), the Los Angeles Lakers (Jan. 6) and Clippers (Jan. 8), at Golden State (Jan. 17) and at Milwaukee. Miami actually plays nine of 11 on the road overall from Dec. 23 to Jan. 23 and 10 of 13 on the road from Nov. 19 to Dec. 10.

The longest stretch of consecutive games for the Heat is Dec. 12 to 22 when Miami hosts six straight against Washington (Dec. 12), Indiana (Dec. 14), the Clippers (Dec. 16), Boston (Dec. 18), Orlando (Dec. 20) and the Lakers (Dec. 22).

Miami plays 15 back-to-backs, down from 17 last season. Five of those back-to-backs are in December and none of them are at home. Seven are road back-to-backs with the other eight home/away or away/home splits.

The four Eastern Conference opponents the Heat are facing only three times this year are the Knicks, Nets, Pacers and Bulls. Last year, Miami faced the Celtics, Cavs, Bucks and 76ers only three times.

The Heat and Dolphins play regular season games on the same day only once — New Year’s Day when the Dolphins host the Patriots at 1 p.m. The Heat host the Pistons later in the day at 6 p.m. It marks the second consecutive year the Heat will play on New Year’s Day. Miami is 6-0 all-time on Jan. 1.

The Heat and Hurricanes play on the same day the final three Saturdays in November. UM is at Virginia and N.C. State on Nov. 12 and No. 19 and then home for Duke on Nov. 26. Kickoff times for those games have not been set.

The Heat, meanwhile, is at home against Utah Nov. 12 with an 8 p.m. tipoff. The Nov. 19 game at the Wizards is a 7 p.m. tipoff and the home game against Memphis on Nov. 26 is an 8 p.m. tip.