Heat to play another game in Mexico City this upcoming season. Here are the details

For the third time in franchise history, the Miami Heat will play a regular-season game in Mexico City this upcoming season.

The NBA announced Friday that the NBA Mexico City Game 2024 will feature a regular-season matchup between the Heat and Washington Wizards at the Arena CDMX in Mexico City on Nov. 2. The contest will serve as a home game for the Wizards and a road game for the Heat, so it will not impact the Heat’s total of regular-season home games played in Miami.

But the game in Mexico City will serve as a homecoming for Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. in his second NBA season. Jaquez, who was taken by the Heat with the 18th overall pick in last year’s draft following a four-year college career at UCLA, is only the sixth person with Mexican citizenship to ever play in the NBA.

Jaquez, 23, was born in the Los Angeles area to a mother of Norwegian descent and a father with Mexican roots. His father’s family is from Guadalajara and Jaquez has said he still has “a lot of family there, with Guadalajara about a seven-hour drive from Mexico City.

The Heat won its first two games played in Mexico City — a 101-89 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Dec. 9, 2017, and a 111-101 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Dec. 18, 2022.

The matchup will mark the NBA’s 33rd game in Mexico since 1992 — more than any country outside of the United States and Canada — and coincide with the country’s traditional “Día de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead) celebrations. According to an NBA press release announcing the game, “The ‘Dia de los Muertos’ theme will be showcased as part of a variety of in-arena activations during the game, including a specially themed basketball court, and through the league’s fan engagement initiatives around the game.”

“We are excited to return to Mexico City to bring a little of Miami’s Heat to the passionate fans of such a vibrant city,” Heat president of business operations Eric Woolworth said in a statement. “Participating in these NBA Global Games allows us to engage with a broader basketball-loving community.”

Registration is already open at www.nbamexicocitygame.mx for an exclusive ticket pre-sale that will take place July 10-11. Tickets for the game between the Heat and Wizards in Mexico City go on sale to the public on July 12.

With this early November matchup against the Wizards in Mexico City representing the first Heat game of the 2024-25 regular season revealed, the NBA is expected to release the full 2024-25 regular-season schedule in August.

The Heat announced its three-game home preseason schedule earlier this week: Oct. 10 vs. Atlanta Hawks at 7:30 p.m., Oct. 13 vs. New Orleans Pelicans at 3:30 p.m. and Oct. 15 vs. San Antonio Spurs at 7:30 p.m.

The Heat is scheduled to hold its annual media day on Sept. 30 before opening training camp on Oct. 1 to kick off the 2024-25 season.