Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I wish I could say I was surprised that Little League had to issue a statement urging people not to bet on its games.
In today’s SI:AM:
📅 NBA schedule released
⚽ Premier League predictions
👮 Feds nearing hoops indictments
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Full NBA schedule now live
If you’re a real NBA sicko, you’ve known about some of the biggest matchups on deck for this upcoming season since last Friday, when ESPN’s Shams Charania leaked the opening night and Christmas Day games. If you’ve been enjoying the last few weeks of summer instead of thinking about winter sports, I can’t blame you. But now that the league has announced the full schedule, it’s time to spend at least a few minutes thinking about basketball.
The biggest thing to know about the upcoming NBA season is that the way you’ll watch some games has changed. Turner Sports no longer has any broadcast rights, which means the end of games on TNT (but not the end of Inside the NBA). Instead, national broadcasts will be split between ESPN/ABC, NBC/Peacock and Prime Video.
Liam McKeone already listed seven of the biggest games on the schedule. Here are a few of the ones he picked, plus some more that I’ll be looking forward to.
Rockets at Thunder: Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock
This is the very first game of the season, and it’s a really good one. You’ve got the defending champion Thunder facing off against the team that could be their biggest challenger in the West, the new-look Rockets.
Houston took a big swing this summer in trading for Kevin Durant, and now his first game in his new uniform will be against the franchise with which he started his career. Durant famously left the Thunder for the Warriors after getting within striking distance of a championship several times (four conference finals appearances and one NBA Finals loss). Now he’ll have to sit on the bench and watch as this iteration of the Thunder receives the championship rings he was never able to secure in OKC.
Spurs at Mavericks: Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
Cooper Flagg gets to make his much-anticipated NBA debut at home in Dallas, and he’ll do so against another young phenom: Victor Wembanyama. It’s also a significant game for Wemby, who will be playing his first game since a blood clot prematurely ended his sophomore season on Feb. 12 after just 46 games.
Wembanyama is much farther along in his development than Flagg, but this has the potential to be a great in-state rivalry for years to come.
Thunder at Pacers: Thursday, Oct. 23 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
The league really front-loaded the schedule, huh? Two days after opening the season against one of the greatest players in the history of the game, the Thunder will travel to Indianapolis for an NBA Finals rematch against the Pacers.
Tyrese Haliburton’s Achilles injury puts a major damper on this one, but it’ll still be fun to see these two teams back on the court so soon after the Finals.
Lakers at Knicks: Sunday, Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN
Do you remember what happened the last time the Lakers played at Madison Square Garden? They shocked the world hours later by trading Anthony Davis for Luka Dončić. Bizarrely, that game was also on Feb. 1. That’s too much of a coincidence, right? The schedule makers had to have known what they were doing by making Dončić’s first game in purple and gold at the World’s Most Famous Arena on the anniversary of the blockbuster deal. Maybe they’ll trade LeBron after this one.
Timberwolves at Nuggets: Thursday, Dec. 25 at 10:30 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN
There was a time not too long ago, when these two teams met in the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, that it seemed like this could be a great Western Conference rivalry for years to come. But it’s been rather one-sided of late. Minnesota has won six straight over Denver, dating back to Game 6 of their 2024 second-round playoff series. Most of those games haven’t been close, but the last one was an epic 140–139 double-overtime thriller in which Nikola Jokić had 61 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists (the highest-scoring triple-double in NBA history). Don’t expect a repeat of that performance, but it’s always fun when two teams with a history meet in primetime. What a great way to wrap up your Christmas.
“Rivals Week”: Jan. 20–24
I’m not totally buying this one. This is apparently the fourth annual “Rivals Week”, so maybe I’m a bad fan for not remembering the previous three. But at the same time, some of these “classic and budding rivalries,” as the league puts it, are a real stretch. Sure, you’ve got another Finals rematch with the Pacers traveling to Oklahoma City and a few truly classic rivalries like Lakers vs. Clippers and Knicks vs. Sixers, but some of the rest are pretty bogus. Cavaliers vs. Hornets? Thunder vs. Bucks? They’re calling Rockets vs. Pistons a rivalry because twins Amen and Ausar Thompson will be on opposite sides. O.K., fine. But do the other 28 guys on the two rosters give a damn about that?
The most interesting of the 11 so-called “rivalry” games is the last one: Lakers at Mavericks on Jan. 24 (8:30 p.m. ET on ABC). That’ll be Dončić’s first game back in Dallas this season.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- The English Premier League season begins today with defending champions Liverpool hosting Bournemouth. Our experts made their predictions for who will win the league, who will round out the top four, who will get relegated and more.
- Albert Breer checks in on the Panthers during his cross-country tour of NFL training camps, and here’s what he found out. The SEC enters 2025 with a stacked lineup led by Georgia, Alabama and Texas, all poised to make a run at the College Football Playoff.
- With several other programs capable of crashing the party, the conference is determined to reclaim its spot atop the sport. Notre Dame and Boise State are the headliners, but the Group of 5 and the independent ranks have plenty of promising teams. Bryan Fischer breaks down their 2025 outlook.
- Checking in at No. 6 in SI's preseason Top 25, the Georgia Bulldogs need a big year from first-year starting quarterback Gunner Stockton. Fischer on how Georgia and Kirby Smart look poised for a big 2025.
- The federal investigation into point shaving in college basketball is believed to be heading toward the indictment stage, Michael Rosenberg and Pat Forde report.
- Keegan Bradley wants his Ryder Cup team to play the Procore Championship two weeks before Bethpage. But the PGA Tour may block one member from competing.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. Edouard Julien’s homer against Tarik Skubal. It was the first homer Skubal has allowed to a lefty this season and Julien’s first homer against a lefty in 262 career games.
4. Two great (and nearly identical) defensive plays by George Lombard Jr., the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect.
3. A double off the wall for Ozzie Albies to give the Braves the lead over the Mets. New York has now lost 13 of its last 15.
2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s go-ahead homer in the seventh to give Max Scherzer his third win of the year. Scherzer pitched seven innings and allowed just one run on five hits. It was the first time in exactly two years that Scherzer pitched at least seven innings and did not allow more than one run.
1. Shae O’Rourke’s two goals for Tennessee in an upset victory over defending NCAA women’s soccer champions and No. 1-ranked North Carolina.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Breaking Down the 2025–26 NBA Schedule.
