Stephen Curry is heading back to Japan, Rui Hachimura is going home and the NBA is planning to take another step toward normalcy.
The NBA announced Monday night that Golden State and Washington will be headed to Saitama, Japan, for the first two games of the 2022 preseason schedule. The Warriors and Wizards will play there on Sept. 30 and Oct. 2.
Those will be the first games for the NBA outside of North America since Jan. 24, 2020, when Milwaukee and Charlotte met in Paris for a regular-season game about six weeks before the global pandemic began.