The NBA unveiled the full 2025-26 regular-season schedule on Thursday, starting with the Oklahoma City Thunder opening defense of their championship against the Houston Rockets on Oct. 21.
Oklahoma City vs. Houston will be part of an opening-night doubleheader that will be capped off by the latest round of LeBron James and Luka Dončić taking on Stephen Curry when the Los Angeles Lakers play the Golden State Warriors.
Here is a look at the key dates and storylines for the upcoming season now that the schedule is out.
Oct. 31: Emirates NBA Cup group play begins
Dec. 13 and 16: Emirates NBA Cup semifinals and championship
Feb. 5: Trade deadline (3 p.m. ET)
Feb. 13-15: All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles (Intuit Dome)
April 12: Final day of regular season
April 14-17: NBA Play-In Tournament
April 18: NBA playoffs begin
Eastern Conference Schedules
Western Conference Schedules
The gulf between the conferences was already fairly wide, and it appears to have gotten bigger in the offseason.
Oklahoma City is the standard for the entire NBA after winning 68 games and the championship last season. The club responded by giving max extensions to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams.
As the rest of the Western Conference chases the Thunder, several teams responded by making significant moves. The Rockets added Kevin Durant and Dorian Finney-Smith to a team that won 52 games with the hope of upgrading an offense that finished 13th in rating.
The Denver Nuggets, who pushed Oklahoma City to seven games in the conference semifinals, swapped Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson in a trade and brought back Bruce Brown in free agency after he was instrumental in their title run during the 2022-23 season.
While the trio of Oklahoma City, Houston and Denver will likely be regarded as the top three teams in the West, the depth in the conference is absurd. Eight teams won at least 48 games last season.
Having reached the Western Conference Finals in each of the past two years, the Minnesota Timberwolves had a fairly quiet offseason by just retaining their best players.
One team that didn’t hit the 48-win mark was the Dallas Mavericks, who added Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft. They could have a starting five of Flagg, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and Dereck Lively II by the All-Star break depending on how Irving’s recovery from a torn ACL goes.
Oh, by the way, the Lakers will play their first full season with Dončić. They also still have James despite some speculation early in the offseason that he might be plotting an exit.
The San Antonio Spurs could take a huge leap forward if Victor Wembanyama returns to full strength after his 2024-25 season ended prematurely due to a blood clot.
San Antonio added Dylan Harper with the No. 2 pick in the draft. De’Aaron Fox should be settled in with the Spurs now after being acquired in a midseason trade with the Sacramento Kings.
The Warriors are banking on the trio of Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green to carry them. They went 23-7 in 30 games with Butler in the lineup after acquiring him from the Miami Heat.
Two of the perennial contenders in the East—Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers—will likely be without their best players for the entire 2025-26 campaign. Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton both suffered torn Achilles in the postseason.
Both injuries likely altered the trajectory for their clubs. Boston may have looked to cut back on spending even with a healthy Tatum because it was on track to spend $540 million between payroll and tax payments, but his injury gave the front office the impetus to make some drastic changes.
The Celtics wound up trading Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday as part of a series of moves that saved them more than $300 million. The Pacers, who were preparing to pay into the luxury tax to keep their roster intact, opted not to bring back Myles Turner after Haliburton tore his Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
With the Celtics and Pacers likely taking a gap year, teams like the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic pushed a lot of their chips to the center of the table. The Hawks brought in Porziņģis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard to fill out a roster that already had Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson.
The shooting-starved Magic hope they addressed that issue by acquiring Desmond Bane from the Memphis Grizzlies. They also signed Tyus Jones to give them a point guard who can set up the offense when Jalen Suggs is on the bench.
There’s also a lot of hope for the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks, who are arguably the top two teams in the East going into the season with the Celtics and Pacers expected to take a step back.
Cleveland was the top seed in the East last season with 64 wins before injuries decimated the roster in its playoff series against Indiana. New York reached the conference finals last season for the first time in 25 years, but the loss to Indiana prompted the organization to replace head coach Tom Thibodeau with Mike Brown.
The Bucks may have been extremely reckless in waiving Damian Lillard to sign Turner, but they still have Giannis Antetokounmpo on the roster. If one or two things break their way, having the best player in the conference could be enough to carry them to the Finals.
These are all of the storylines to keep track of now, but history has shown there will be 1,000 more that come up once the games start. The countdown for the start of the regular season can officially begin now that we know all of the matchups for all 30 teams.
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