CELTICS: Warriors, LeBron coming to Garden

Celts will host the champion Golden Warriors Jan. 26 and LeBron James and the Lakers Feb. 7.

A reigning champion comes to town on Jan. 26, the NBA’s greatest rivalry is renewed in earnest on Feb. 7, and a much debated tribute video may be dusted off and pulled out of storage on March 18.

Those dates are among the highlights of the Celtics schedule released on Friday that includes 27 nationally televised games.

Beyond the opening night and Christmas Day home games against the Philadelphia 76ers announced on Wednesday, Celtic fans got a bunch of new dates to circle when the full, 82-game slate was released. The biggest of which are a Jan. 26 Saturday night, prime-time game against the world champion Golden Warriors at TD Garden, the return of LeBron James to Boston with the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 7, and the first chance for Isaiah Thomas to play on the parquet since he led the Celtics to the 2017 Eastern Conference finals when Boston hosts the Denver Nuggets on March 18.

Other notable dates include a Super Bowl Sunday home game against Oklahoma City on ABC at 2 p.m. on Feb. 3, a Sunday showcase game on ABC against the Houston Rockets at TD Garden on March 3, and a trip to face James and the Lakers at Staples Center in Saturday night prime time on March 9.

Gordon Hayward is slated to face his old team for first time since he left Utah for Boston last summer — and subsequently missed all but the first five minutes of the season with a catastrophic ankle injury — twice in eight days early in the year when the Celtics travel to face the Jazz on Nov. 9 and then host the Jazz on Nov. 17.

With no London trip this year, the schedule is more balanced than the heavily fronted slate that took its toll last December. Boston’s two busiest months are January and March with 15 games each. Eleven of the games are at home in January, while eight are on the road in March.

All the national TV appearances also skew a home slate that is traditionally stacked with Wednesday and Friday dates. There are only eight Friday home games this season, with six games on Sunday and four on Saturday — including three in prime time against the Jazz, Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers (Feb. 9).

One other home date that could become one of the hottest tickets of the season depends on what the franchise decides to do with the retirement of Kevin Garnett’s No. 5. There have been strong indications the intent is to one day raise No. 5 to the rafters, with the question being whether the Celtics allow the Minnesota Timberwolves the courtesy of being the first to retire a Garnett jersey.

With Paul Pierce’s No. 34 already in the rafters, they could conceivably have Garnett’s number join it as early as this season. Boston will host the Timberwolves on Jan. 2 at 8 p.m.