After offering up the opening-week national TV slate and Christmas Day quintuple-header as appetizers last week, the NBA gave us the full five-course meal on Monday, releasing the whole 2017-18 NBA schedule. As we count down the hours until tipoff on Oct. 17, here are a dozen(ish) games we’ve already circled on our calendars as must-see matchups for one reason or another.

Let’s hear yours in the comments below, on Twitter or on Facebook.

***

1. “The Main Event,” Season 4, Episode 1

Cleveland Cavaliers at Golden State Warriors, Dec. 25, 3 p.m. ET

The Warriors and Cavs have met 24 times over the past three seasons, including each of the past three NBA Finals, with Golden State holding a 15-9 overall edge and 2-1 championship lead in that span. Still, we apparently we can’t get enough. The 2017 Finals were the most watched since Michael Jordan’s final title run, and that set wasn’t even all that great, save for Game 3 — mainly because Kevin Durant transformed a 73-9 team into (arguably) the greatest of all time.

Still, we want to see LeBron James face the Warriors in perpetuity, because one of the best players in history trying to take down a super-team of epic proportions is the good sports stuff. Whether Cleveland will still feature Kyrie Irving when the rivals first meet this year remains in question, but both teams made minor adjustments — the Cavs added Derrick Rose, Jeff Green and Jose Calderon, while the Warriors brought in Omri Casspi and Nick Young — so let’s get to that 25th meeting and see if another entire season is just a precursor to a fourth straight Finals. — Ben Rohrbach

2. Harden and CP3 get their first shot

Houston Rockets at Golden State Warriors, Oct. 17, 10:30 p.m. ET

After his team capped a sterling 55-win season by sputtering out in the second round of the 2017 postseason, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey swung a blockbuster deal for All-World point guard Chris Paul to team with MVP runner-up James Harden and increase Houston’s offensive firepower. He also made lower-wattage moves — signing defensive-minded and versatile wings P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute — aimed at giving the go-go Rockets a better chance of preventing points, too.

Faced with a choice between stepping up or stepping back, the Rockets chose to try to compete. This’ll give us our first look at whether they’ll actually be able to do it. — Dan Devine

3. The C’s take aim at the throne again

Boston Celtics at Cleveland Cavaliers, Oct. 17, 8 p.m. ET

Even if Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge recently said, “We’re not reacting” to the Cavs, that doesn’t mean Boston’s entire offseason wasn’t geared towards closing the gap on the three-time reigning Eastern Conference champions. And while attempts to land both Paul George and Jimmy Butler reportedly fell short this summer, the Celtics did add All-Star Gordon Hayward, Marcus Morris, Aron Baynes and No. 3 overall pick Jayson Tatum to a team that already features All-Stars Isaiah Thomas and Al Horford plus a host of other young talents on the rise. So, it’s time to find out if a Celtics team that won an East-best 53 games and nearly took Cleveland to six games in the conference finals without the injured Thomas last year can actually threaten LeBron’s streak of seven straight Finals appearances this season. — BR

4. Paul George returns to Indianapolis

Oklahoma City Thunder at Indiana Pacers, Dec. 13, 7 p.m. ET

George will play at Bankers Life Fieldhouse wearing a different uniform for the first time in his career. (Well, every Pacer will be wearing a different uniform this time around, I guess. But you know what I mean.) Over the span of seven years, George grew from an enticing reserve swingman out of Fresno State into the linchpin of a Pacers club that made it all the way to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, a four-time All-Star and Olympic gold medalist, and one of the dozen or so best players in the world. He also, however, grew into someone who wanted to play somewhere else.

Whether or not George really was or is “hell-bent” for Los Angeles, new Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard responded by sending George to Oklahoma in exchange for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, in the interest of getting what return he could before his franchise centerpiece could skip town. (Whether he could have gotten more, of course, remains a matter of some debate.) Thunder fans greeted George like a conquering hero; will Pacers fans do likewise in appreciation of all he gave to the franchise, or give PG-13 an R-rated response for the way he worked himself out of town? — DD