The number of national NBA TV appearances allocated to each team has never been an issue of fairness. Instead, it’s based on the games, and teams, that the league and its national rights-holders believe will draw the most eyeballs.

Often times, the best teams are considered the biggest TV draws, because those teams have many of the league’s neon names.

But that’s not always the case. Exhibit A: The Los Angeles Lakers. They were dreadful last season, and likely won’t be a playoff team this season, and yet their 19 combined ABC/ESPN/TNT appearances are tied with Houston for seventh-most and 15 more than Milwaukee, which is vastly superior but has far fewer fans or even casual followers nationally.

Only nine teams have more ABC/ESPN/TNT appearances than the Heat’s 11.

Three teams --- Philadelphia, Denver and Detroit --- have zero appearances on the big three network rights-holders.

Here’s the breakdown of combined ABC/ESPN/TNT games:

Cleveland and Golden State --- 25 each

Clippers and OKC --- 24 each

Chicago --- 23

San Antonio ---- 21

Lakers and Houston --- 19 each

New Orleans --- 13

Heat ---- 11

Memphis --- 10

Atlanta --- 8

Boston, Dallas, Indiana and New York --- 7 each

Minnesota, Phoenix, Portland, Washington --- 5 each

Milwaukee and Sacramento --- 4 each

Utah --- 3

Toronto --- 2

Orlando, Brooklyn and Charlotte --- 1 each

Philadelphia, Denver, Detroit – 0 each

ABC’S NEW APPROACH

Instead of carrying two games on Christmas and 14 on Sundays, ABC this season instead will carry 8 on Saturday nights and 6 on Sundays, plus Bulls-OKC and Cavs-Warriors on Christmas.

The Heat isn’t included in the Saturday night package. ABC opted for a Warriors-Spurs game instead of a Cavs-at-Heat game on March 19.

Here’s the Saturday night ABC schedule:

NBA Saturday Night on ABC

Date Time (ET) Telecast Network(s) Sat, Jan. 23 8:30 p.m. Chicago Bulls at Cleveland Cavaliers ABC, ESPN Deportes Sat, Jan. 30 8:30 p.m. San Antonio Spurs at Cleveland Cavaliers ABC, ESPN Deportes Sat, Feb. 20 8:30 p.m. Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Clippers ABC, ESPN Deportes Sat, Feb. 27 8:30 p.m. Golden State Warriors at Oklahoma City Thunder ABC, ESPN Deportes Sat, Mar. 5 8:30 p.m. Houston Rockets at Chicago Bulls ABC, ESPN Deportes Sat, Mar. 12 8:30 p.m. Oklahoma City Thunder at San Antonio Spurs ABC, ESPN Deportes Sat, Mar. 19 8:30 p.m. Golden State Warriors at San Antonio Spurs ABC, ESPN Deportes Sat, Apr. 9 8:30 p.m. Cleveland Cavaliers at Chicago Bulls ABC, ESPN Deportes

Here’s the Sunday afternoon ABC schedule, which includes a Heat game on Super Bowl Sunday:

NBA Sunday Showcase

Date Time (ET) Telecast Network(s) Sun, Jan. 31 3:30 p.m. Chicago Bulls at Los Angeles Clippers ABC, ESPN Deportes Sun, Feb. 7 2 p.m. Los Angeles Clippers at Miami Heat ABC, ESPN Deportes Sun, Feb. 21 3:30 p.m. Cleveland Cavaliers at Oklahoma City Thunder ABC, ESPN Deportes Sun, Mar. 6 3:30 p.m. Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Lakers ABC Sun, Mar. 13 3:30 p.m. Cleveland Cavaliers at Los Angeles Clippers ABC Sun, Apr. 3 3:30 p.m. Oklahoma City Thunder at Houston Rockets ABC

And here’s the Christmas schedule:

NBA on Christmas Day – 13 consecutive hours of coverage

Time (ET) Telecast Network(s) 12 p.m. (noon) New Orleans Pelicans at Miami Heat ESPN, ESPN Deportes, WatchESPN 2 p.m. NBA Countdown ABC 2:30 p.m. Chicago Bulls at Oklahoma City Thunder ABC, ESPN Deportes 5 p.m. Cleveland Cavaliers at Golden State Warriors ABC, ESPN Deportes 8 p.m. San Antonio Spurs at Houston Rockets ESPN, ESPN Deportes, WatchESPN 10:30 p.m. Los Angeles Clippers at Los Angeles Lakers ESPN, ESPN Deportes, WatchESPN

Incidentally, the Heat has two TNT games – Dec. 2 vs. OKC and April 11 vs. Chicago.

HEAT NUGGETS

Manny Navarro has a story on the Heat schedule on the home page. Here are some other Heat schedule nuggets, courtesy of excellent Heat PR man Rob Wilson:

### The Heat will play 14 games in the month of November, 10 of which are at home. The 10 games November home games tie the franchise record for home games in the month of November.

### This marks the second consecutive year the Heat will have nine home games in the month of December, equaling the franchise record.

### The 12 road games in the month of January will set the franchise record for road games in any month.

### This marks the second consecutive season Miami will have a 7-game homestand (Dec. 8-23), one shy of the franchise record of eight straight games established from Jan. 30, 1996-Feb. 17, 1996.

### The Heat will play on nine consecutive Fridays this season from Dec. 11-Feb. 5.

### The first team Miami will complete its 2015-16 schedule against is Minnesota on Nov. 17 (10th game of the season). The first Eastern Conference team the Heat will finish a series against this season is Atlanta on Feb. 19 (54th game of the season).

### The Heat and Dolphins play on the same day on four occasions (see below). On none of the four occasions are both at home and only once (Dec. 14) are the games going on at the same time. Here they are:

Nov. 8: Toronto @ Heat-6:00 & Dolphins @ Buffalo-1:00

Dec. 14: Heat @ Atlanta-8:00 & Giants @ Dolphins-8:30

Dec. 20: Portland @ Heat-1:00 & Dolphins @ San Diego-4:25

Jan. 3: Heat @ Washington-6:00 & New England @ Dolphins-1:00

### The Heat and the UM football team will play on the same day on only two occasions (see below) and just once (Nov. 21) are both teams home on the same day. If Miami plays in the ACC Championship game (Dec. 5) it would create a third conflict, but that Heat would be home that night (Cleveland) and the ACC title game is in Charlotte. Here are those potential conflicts:

Nov. 21: Philadelphia @ Heat-7:30 & Georgia Tech @ UM-TBD

Nov. 27: Heat @ New York-7:30 & UM @ Pittsburgh-TBD

### The Panthers and Heat play on the same day 33 times. However, of those 33 occasions only nine times (Nov. 10, Nov. 12, Nov. 19, Nov. 21, Nov. 23, Dec. 20, Dec. 22, Feb. 20 and Mar. 19) are both teams home on the same day.

Twitter: @flasportsbuzz