NBA Announces Weather-Related Time Change For Sunday’s Magic-Spurs Game
February 1: The starting time has been pushed back a second time, to 9:00 pm ET, after the Spurs had travel issues, per the league (Twitter link). As Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News writes, the Spurs’ plane had a “minor equipment issue,” which forced the team to divert to Atlanta and board a new plane.
January 31: The starting time for Sunday’s game between the Magic and Spurs in San Antonio has been moved from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm ET due to weather issues, the NBA announced (via Twitter).
The Spurs played Saturday afternoon in Charlotte in a game that was moved up three hours because of a major winter storm moving through North Carolina. They were expecting to return home after the game, but were stuck on their private plane for two hours before the airport was shut down.
The team spent the night in Charlotte with hopes of flying back to San Antonio in the morning. Further changes may have to be made if conditions haven’t improved by early Sunday.
The Magic arrived in San Antonio late Saturday afternoon, according to Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (subscription required), and should have a significant rest advantage if the game is able to be played on Sunday.
Two games were postponed last Sunday because of Winter Storm Fern, and two others started early on Monday due to weather conditions. The postponed games — Denver at Memphis and Dallas at Milwaukee — were rescheduled for March, which caused the dates of two other games to be moved.
NBA Announces New Dates For Four Games
The NBA has officially announced new dates for two games that were postponed last weekend due to weather conditions. Sunday’s Nuggets/Grizzlies game in Memphis and Mavericks/Bucks contest in Milwaukee were both affected by a severe winter storm.
The new dates for those games are as follows:
- Nuggets at Grizzlies: Wednesday, March 18 (7:00 pm Central time).
- Mavericks at Bucks: Tuesday, March 31 (7:00 pm CT).
As a result of these schedule adjustments, the NBA has also moved the dates for two additional games involving the Mavericks, Grizzlies, and Knicks. Here are those changes:
- Knicks at Grizzlies: Moved from Wednesday, March 18 to Wednesday, April 1 (7:00 pm CT).
- Mavericks at Grizzlies: Moved from Wednesday, April 1 to Thursday, March 12 (7:00 pm CT).
The Mavericks and Grizzlies both had two days off scheduled for March 11 and 12, so it made sense for the NBA to move one of their matchups against one another to that date in order to accommodate the other changes.
The Knicks had been scheduled for a back-to-back set on March 17 and 18, but will now have a back-to-back on March 31 and April 1 instead. The contest in Memphis will be the fourth and final game in a road trip that otherwise would’ve ended in Houston.
NBA Announces Schedule Updates For Two Monday Games
Monday’s game between the Pacers and Hawks has been moved up to 12:30 pm CT due to inclement weather in Atlanta, the NBA announced on Sunday (via Twitter).
A second game on Monday will be played earlier as well, with the Sixers and Hornets now slated to tip off at 2:00 pm CT due to the weather conditions in Charlotte, per the league.
The NBA postponed two games on Sunday because of Winter Storm Fern.
As Brad Rowland notes (Twitter link), the Pacers-Hawks game was originally scheduled for 6:30 pm CT. The Sixers-Hornets contest was originally set for 6:00 pm, tweets Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer.
NBA Postpones Sunday’s Mavericks-Bucks Game Due To Weather
The Mavericks and Bucks won’t play on Sunday in Milwaukee, the NBA announced (Twitter link). The game will be rescheduled at a future date.
According to Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News, who first reported the news (via Twitter), the Mavericks were stuck on their team plane for multiple hours due to inclement weather in Dallas. The plane was still being de-iced as of 1:30 pm CT, Townsend adds (Twitter link).
Although it was floated as an outside possibility, the game will not be rescheduled for Monday, per Grant Afseth of DallasHoopsJournal.com (Twitter link). Townsend hears the most likely date for the rescheduled game is February 19.
The Mavericks are now deplaning in Dallas after the game was postponed, tweets Marc Stein of The Stein Line, who confirms the game is likely to be rescheduled after the All-Star break.
The Mavs-Bucks contest is the second game the league has rescheduled on Sunday due to the major storm in North America. The first was the Nuggets-Grizzlies matchup in Memphis.
Sunday’s Nuggets-Grizzlies Game Postponed Due To Weather
Sunday’s game between the Nuggets and Grizzlies has been postponed due to inclement weather in the Memphis area, the NBA announced (via Twitter).
The game will be rescheduled, though the date has yet to be determined, per the league.
A major winter storm has been impacting a large portion of North America since Saturday night and is expected to continue through Monday. The Mavericks originally planned to fly to Milwaukee after Saturday’s game against the Lakers but were unable to due to the weather in Dallas.
According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link), the Mavericks are still on the team plane awaiting clearance to travel ahead of a 6:00 pm CT tipoff time against the Bucks. Depending on what happens in the next couple hours, that game may be postponed as well.
Saturday’s Wolves-Warriors Game Postponed Until Sunday
Saturday’s game between the Timberwolves and Warriors in Minneapolis has been postponed and rescheduled for Sunday at 4:30 pm CT, the NBA announced today (via Twitter).
The decision to postpone the game was made to “prioritize the safety and security of the Minneapolis community,” per the league. The two teams will now have a back-to-back, as they’re also slated to play on Monday.
The news comes in the wake of a man being fatally shot by federal agents in the city on Saturday.
NBA Announces 2026 Finals Schedule
We’re still a few weeks away from the 2026 All-Star break, but the NBA has already announced the schedule for the 2026 Finals, which will tip off on June 3.
Here’s the full schedule, per the league (Twitter link):
- Game 1: Wednesday, June 3
- Game 2: Friday, June 5
- Game 3: Monday, June 8
- Game 4: Wednesday, June 10
- Game 5 (if necessary): Saturday, June 13
- Game 6 (if necessary): Tuesday, June 16
- Game 7 (if necessary): Friday, June 19
Typically, the NBA Finals schedule would be announced later in the year, but the league is making some slight tweaks to its usual format this season due to the fact that the FIFA World Cup will be taking place in North America around that same time, writes Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch.
As Lewis points out, the NBA Finals almost always begin on a Thursday, and the league typically would’ve scheduled Game 4 for Friday, June 12. However, the U.S. soccer team will face Paraguay on the evening of the June 12, so the NBA has opted not to go up against that contest.
The U.S. squad will also be in action on the following Friday (June 19), but that match vs. Australia will be a day game, so it wouldn’t overlap with a potential Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
According to Lewis, this will be the first time since 1970 that the NBA Finals schedule doesn’t include any Sunday games. Saturday matchups, like this year’s Game 5, are also rare — only one has occurred since 1981, and that was in 2021, when the schedule was affected by a COVID-19 delay, Lewis notes.
Postponed Heat-Bulls Game Rescheduled For January 29th
The Heat–Bulls game that was postponed on January 8 has been rescheduled for Jan. 29 at 8:00 p.m. ET, the NBA announced (via Twitter). Additionally, a Chicago at Miami game, previously scheduled for Jan. 30, has been rescheduled to Jan. 31 at 8 p.m. ET.
The Jan. 8 game was called off due to moisture on the court at the United Center. The game was delayed and eventually postponed after several players noticed slick spots on the court during warmups. The NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, who also compete at the United Center, played the previous night and unseasonably warm (mid-50s Fahrenheit) and rainy conditions in Chicago the next day led to the excess moisture on the court.
The Heat and Bulls will now in fact play three consecutive games against each other. Chicago was already scheduled to visit Miami for a Feb. 1 contest, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald tweets. So they’ll play on Jan. 29 in Chicago, Jan. 31 in Miami, and Feb. 1 in Miami.
Both clubs will also play on Jan. 28, so each team will wind up taking the court for four games in five nights, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network notes (Twitter link). Chicago has a road game against the Pacers on the 28th, while Miami will host the Magic on that night.
Heat-Bulls Game Postponed Due To Court Conditions
8:55 pm: As expected, the game has been postponed after the court was deemed unplayable due to moisture, the NBA announced (via Twitter). The date for the rescheduled game is to be determined and will be announced in the future, per the league.
8:49 pm: The start of Thursday’s Heat–Bulls game in Chicago was delayed due to moisture on the court at the United Center, per The Associated Press.
Tip-off was originally scheduled for 7:00 pm CT, but the game was delayed after several players noticed slick spots on the court during warmups, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, which also compete at the United Center, played on Wednesday and the ice is below the court. It’s unseasonably warm (mid-50s Fahrenheit) in Chicago and raining heavily as well, which contributed to the excess moisture on the court.
According to Joel Lorenzi and Joe Vardon of The Athletic, the ice beneath the court is actually melting, with humidity inside the arena nearly double its typical percentage for a basketball game as of 7:30 pm CT.
Maintenance personnel at the United Center attempted to dry the court with towels and mops, but it seemed to have no effect. It has been nearly two hours and the game seems likely to be postponed.
NBA Responds To Criticism Of Early-Season Schedule
Last week, John Hollinger wondered in an article for The Athletic whether the crunch of the early-season schedule, which has been tweaked in recent years to designate several days in December exclusively for NBA Cup knockout games, was having a material impact on teams and leading to an uptick in soft-tissue injuries.
Nine days after that story was published, the NBA has responded via its official communications account on Twitter, referring to Hollinger’s suggestion as “inaccurate and misleading.”
“John Hollinger’s premise that the NBA Cup has led to a denser schedule resulting in more player injuries is simply not supported by the data,” league spokesperson Mike Bass said in a statement. “Hollinger wonders if ‘the league turned the early-season travel dial a little too high’ and posits that teams are facing ‘an unnaturally heavy schedule cycle.’ The reality is the NBA played roughly the same number of games through 42 days this season (308) as last season (307).
“Further, those numbers are consistent with pre-Cup years (308 games in 2022 and 313 games in 2021). The Cup has objectively not led to a denser league-wide schedule in the early part of the season.
“Hollinger additionally claims the NBA is seeing an ‘uptick in early-season soft-tissue injuries’ and that ‘the league keeps getting worse at keeping those stars healthy.’ Through the season’s first six weeks, the number of injuries forcing star players to miss games is the lowest in the past six seasons, down more than 25 percent year-over-year. While several star players have not played this season due to injuries sustained last season, the suggestion that any increase in games missed this season is related to the schedule’s first six weeks is patently misleading.”
While the NBA accused Hollinger of a “misleading” narrative, it’s worth noting that the league’s own statement doesn’t address all aspects of his story. Hollinger also pointed out that several teams have been repeatedly forced to play one-game home stands before going back on the road due in part to the need to accommodate Cup matchups. A simple analysis of games played through a certain number of days doesn’t tell us anything about potentially heavier travel schedules.
Additionally, while the NBA said that the number of injuries affecting stars are down this season, the league didn’t specifically cite data regarding the sort of soft-tissue injuries (affecting the calf, hamstring, quad, etc.) that Hollinger was referring to.
Either way, it’s unusual to see the NBA use its official PR platform to publish a lengthy counter-point to a specific article that most of its fans likely didn’t read when it was published (“Big win for the Streisand Effect today,” Hollinger quipped on Bluesky). The NBA’s response suggests the league is sensitive to criticism regarding to the NBA Cup and the way in which the schedule has been adjusted to fit the in-season tournament.