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NBA G League Announces Schedule, Expanded Playoffs For 2025/26

September 2nd, 2025 at 12:43pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA G League has officially revealed its schedule for the 2025/26 season, per a press release.

As usual, the regular season won’t begin until late December, with the league holding a separate event in the fall leading up to its Winter Showcase during the week before Christmas. In the past, this 14-game fall event has been known as the Showcase Cup. It was rebranded last year as the Tip-Off Tournament, and that moniker has carried over to 2025/26.

The Tip-Off Tournament, which begins on Friday, November 7, will see the league’s teams split into four regions. Each team will play 14 games and the four clubs with the best winning percentage in each region, along with the next four best teams from any region, will advance to the single-elimination championship tournament at the Winter Showcase in Orlando from December 19-22.

The G League’s regular season will consist of 36 games and will begin at the Winter Showcase, running through Saturday, March 28. For the first time, the top eight teams from each conference will make the postseason and compete in the G League playoffs in the spring — previously, only the top six teams in each conference qualified for the playoffs.

For a second consecutive year, all 30 NBA franchises will have their own G League affiliates. With 31 total teams in the NBAGL, the only unaffiliated club left in the league is the Mexico City Capitanes.

Although there are no new expansion teams for 2025/26, the Pacers‘ affiliate – formerly known as the Indiana Mad Ants – has rebranded as the Noblesville Boom as it moves to a new home (The Arena at Innovation Mile).

Here’s the full list of G League teams for the 2025/26 season:

Atlanta Hawks: College Park Skyhawks
Boston Celtics: Maine Celtics
Brooklyn Nets: Long Island Nets
Charlotte Hornets: Greensboro Swarm
Chicago Bulls: Windy City Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers: Cleveland Charge
Dallas Mavericks: Texas Legends
Denver Nuggets: Grand Rapids Gold
Detroit Pistons: Motor City Cruise
Golden State Warriors: Santa Cruz Warriors
Houston Rockets: Rio Grande Valley Vipers
Indiana Pacers: Noblesville Boom
Los Angeles Clippers: San Diego Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers: South Bay Lakers
Memphis Grizzlies: Memphis Hustle
Miami Heat: Sioux Falls Skyforce
Milwaukee Bucks: Wisconsin Herd
Minnesota Timberwolves: Iowa Wolves
New Orleans Pelicans: Birmingham Squadron
New York Knicks: Westchester Knicks
Oklahoma City Thunder: Oklahoma City Blue
Orlando Magic: Osceola Magic
Philadelphia 76ers: Delaware Blue Coats
Phoenix Suns: Valley Suns
Portland Trail Blazers: Rip City Remix
Sacramento Kings: Stockton Kings
San Antonio Spurs: Austin Spurs
Toronto Raptors: Raptors 905
Utah Jazz: Salt Lake City Stars
Washington Wizards: Capital City Go-Go
No NBA affiliation: Mexico City Capitanes

NBA Teams Average 14.4 Back-To-Backs In 2025/26

August 15th, 2025 at 9:32am CST by Luke Adams

Five NBA teams will play a league-high 16 back-to-back sets during the 2025/26 regular season, while six clubs will have just 13 instances of back-to-back games on their schedules. The remaining 19 teams will play either 14 or 15 back-to-backs.

[RELATED: 2025/26 NBA Schedules By Team]

Those totals – along with an overall average of 14.4 back-to-backs per team – are about what we’ve come to expect in recent years.

Prior to the COVID-shortened seasons of 2019/20 and ’20/21, the NBA’s regular season consisted of 177 days, and the league had made a concerted effort to reduce instances of back-to-backs. When the league announced its initial schedule in ’19/20, its press release boasted that teams were averaging a record-low 12.4 back-to-backs that season, marking the fifth straight year in which that number had reached an all-time low.

However, since 2021/22, NBA regular seasons have spanned just 174 days, making it a little more difficult for schedule-makers to avoid back-to-back sets. The average number of back-to-backs per team is still well below where it once was (teams averaged 19.3 in 2024/25), but it’s no longer at a record low.

Here are the back-to-backs by team in 2025/26:

Charlotte Hornets: 16
Denver Nuggets: 16
Philadelphia 76ers: 16
Phoenix Suns: 16
Washington Wizards: 16
Golden State Warriors: 15
Los Angeles Clippers: 15
Miami Heat: 15
New Orleans Pelicans: 15
Portland Trail Blazers: 15
Toronto Raptors: 15
Utah Jazz: 15
Brooklyn Nets: 14
Cleveland Cavaliers: 14
Dallas Mavericks: 14
Detroit Pistons: 14
Houston Rockets: 14
Los Angeles Lakers: 14
Memphis Grizzlies: 14
Milwaukee Bucks: 14
New York Knicks: 14
Orlando Magic: 14
Sacramento Kings: 14
San Antonio Spurs: 14
Atlanta Hawks: 13
Boston Celtics: 13
Chicago Bulls: 13
Indiana Pacers: 13
Minnesota Timberwolves: 13
Oklahoma City Thunder: 13

Warriors, Lakers, Knicks, Thunder Get Most Nationally Televised Games For 2025/26

August 15th, 2025 at 7:51am CST by Luke Adams

Having gone from two national broadcasting partners (ABC/ESPN and TNT) to three (ABC/ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime) ahead of the 2025/26 season, the NBA’s schedule will feature a significant increase in nationally televised games.

When the league unveiled its full regular season schedule on Thursday, it announced 237 nationally televised regular season matchups, along with the seven knockout round NBA Cup games whose participants aren’t yet known, for a total of 244 contests.

As Colin Salao of Front Office Sports writes in a subscriber story, the total number of nationally televised games is up by more than 40% from last season, when the league’s partners nationally broadcasted a total of 172 games.

Salao also points out that beginning in the middle of the season, when the NFL schedule starts winding down, the NBA will have national games every day of the week: Peacock on Monday; NBC/Peacock on Tuesday; ESPN on Wednesday; Amazon on Thursday; Amazon and ESPN on Friday; Amazon and ABC on Saturday; and ABC, NBC, and Peacock on Sunday.

Every team will be featured at least twice on the national TV broadcast schedule, with the Warriors, Lakers, Knicks, and defending champion Thunder leading the way with 34 appearances apiece.

Here’s the full breakdown of nationally televised games by team:

Golden State Warriors: 34
Los Angeles Lakers: 34
New York Knicks: 34
Oklahoma City Thunder: 34
Houston Rockets: 28
Minnesota Timberwolves: 28
Denver Nuggets: 26
Boston Celtics: 25
Cleveland Cavaliers: 24
Dallas Mavericks: 23
San Antonio Spurs: 22
Los Angeles Clippers: 21
Milwaukee Bucks: 18
Detroit Pistons: 16
Orlando Magic: 14
Philadelphia 76ers: 14
Atlanta Hawks: 13
Memphis Grizzlies: 10
Indiana Pacers: 9
Phoenix Suns: 9
Sacramento Kings: 9
Portland Trail Blazers: 8
Miami Heat: 5
Charlotte Hornets: 3
Chicago Bulls: 3
Brooklyn Nets: 2
New Orleans Pelicans: 2
Toronto Raptors: 2
Utah Jazz: 2
Washington Wizards: 2

Since nationally televised matchups are subject to change, there’s no guarantee that every team will ultimately end up being featured multiple times on the national stage.

As Salao points out, all 30 clubs showed up at least once on the national broadcast schedule initially announced for 2024/25, but the Wizards didn’t get any nationally televised games after having their lone contest replaced by a showdown between Cleveland and Oklahoma City.

Additionally, not every team this season will have a game aired on a traditional, non-streaming network — the only games featuring the Raptors or Wizards will air on either Peacock or Amazon Prime.

2025/26 NBA Schedules By Team

August 14th, 2025 at 2:33pm CST by Earnest Marshall

The NBA announced its complete 2025/26 regular season schedule on Thursday.

The 80th NBA regular season tips off on October 21 with matchups between the Thunder and Rockets, and Warriors and Lakers. The regular season concludes on April 12.

The play-in tournament will take place on April 14, 15 and 17. Meanwhile, each team has two unassigned games due to the in-season tournament, the Emirates NBA Cup 2025, with those games to be played between Dec. 9-15.

Listed below are the links to every team’s full 2025/26 schedule, organized by conference and division. The full team-by-team schedules can be viewed in a single document here, and here is a link to the full schedule sorted by date.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic Division

Central Division

Southeast Division

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Northwest Division

Pacific Division

Southwest Division

League Announces 2025 NBA Cup Schedule

August 13th, 2025 at 1:32pm CST by Luke Adams

After previously announcing the dates and groups for its third annual in-season tournament, the NBA today revealed the schedule for the group play portion of the event. The group play stage of the tournament, which is formally known as the Emirates NBA Cup, will begin on October 31 and run through November 23.

The group play games will take place on five consecutive Fridays, with a handful of games also played on Tuesday, Nov. 25 and Wednesday, Nov. 26. The NBA has published its schedule by date, as well as its schedule by team.

Each Friday will feature a doubleheader on Amazon Prime, while NBC/Peacock will nationally broadcast a doubleheader on Nov. 25 and ESPN will air a tripleheader on Nov. 26. The full schedule of nationally televised NBA Cup games, starting with Celtics at Sixers and Lakers at Grizzlies on Oct. 31, can be found right here (Twitter link).

The NBA Cup quarterfinals will take place on December 9 and 10, with the semifinals to follow on Dec. 13 and the final to be played on Dec. 16. The higher-seeded teams will host the quarterfinal matchups, while the semifinals and final will take place in Las Vegas. Amazon Prime will broadcast all seven games in the knockout round.

West Group C, which includes the Nuggets, Rockets, Warriors, and Spurs, will be the most heavily featured group in nationally televised broadcasts — five of the 15 NBA Cup games on the national broadcast schedule will be matchups from that group, including three apiece for Houston and Golden State.

The Bucks, the champions of last year’s second annual in-season tournament, will be featured on Amazon in a group play game on Nov. 28 vs. the Knicks.

In addition to announcing the NBA Cup schedule, the league also revealed today that Amazon Prime’s first Friday doubleheader of the season, on October 24, will feature a pair of playoff matchups from this past spring (Twitter link). The Celtics will visit the Knicks at 7:30 pm Eastern time, with the Lakers hosting the Timberwolves at 10:00 pm ET.

The full NBA regular season schedule for 2025/26 will be announced on Thursday.

NBA Reveals Opening Week, MLK Day Matchups

August 12th, 2025 at 9:09am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA unveiled a little more of its 2025/26 regular season schedule on Tuesday, two days ahead of the release of the full schedule. In addition to confirming the opening night and Christmas Day matchups previously reported by Shams Charania of ESPN, the league announced several more games from the first week of the season, along with a four-game slate for Martin Luther King Day.

Here are the games officially confirmed by the league so far (via Twitter):

Tuesday, October 21:

Houston Rockets at Oklahoma City Thunder (7:30 pm Eastern time)
Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Lakers (10:00 pm ET)

The NBA will return to NBC and debut on Peacock on Oct. 21 with a pair of star-studded matchups. Kevin Durant will return to Oklahoma City and make his Rockets debut after the Thunder are presented with their championship rings, then Stephen Curry and the Warriors will visit LeBron James and the Lakers as James begins his record-setting 23rd NBA season.

Wednesday, October 22:

Cleveland Cavaliers at New York Knicks (7:00 pm ET)
San Antonio Spurs at Dallas Mavericks (9:30 pm ET)

ESPN’s first doubleheader of the season will feature the two teams widely expected to be the top Eastern Conference seeds in 2025/26, along with a matchup between No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg and No. 2 pick Dylan Harper.

According to the NBA (Twitter link), the Spurs/Mavericks game will be just the second time since 1966 that the top two picks in that year’s draft square off against one another in the first regular season contest of their careers. The only other time it happened was in 2015, when Karl-Anthony Towns‘ Timberwolves faced D’Angelo Russell‘s Lakers to open the season.

Thursday, October 23:

Oklahoma City Thunder at Indiana Pacers (7:30 pm ET)
Denver Nuggets at Golden State Warriors (10:00 pm ET)

ESPN’s second consecutive doubleheader will include a rematch of last season’s NBA Finals, followed by a showdown between three-time Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic and two-time MVP Curry.

Monday, October 27:

Cleveland Cavaliers at Detroit Pistons (7:00 pm ET)
Denver Nuggets at Minnesota Timberwolves (9:30 pm ET)

Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, will regularly broadcast up to three games on Monday nights throughout the season. Their first Monday of the 2025/26 campaign will feature a doubleheader consisting of a Central Division battle and a Northwest matchup.

Thursday, December 25:

Cleveland Cavaliers at New York Knicks (12:00 pm ET)
San Antonio Spurs at Oklahoma City Thunder (2:30 pm ET)
Dallas Mavericks at Golden State Warriors (5:00 pm ET)
Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Lakers (8:00 pm ET)
Minnesota Timberwolves at Denver Nuggets (10:30 pm ET)

ABC and ESPN will remain the home of the NBA’s Christmas Day games, which we discussed in greater detail last Friday.

Monday, January 19:

Milwaukee Bucks at Atlanta Hawks (1:00 pm ET)
Oklahoma City Thunder at Cleveland Cavaliers (2:30 pm ET)
Dallas Mavericks at New York Knicks (5:00 pm ET)
Boston Celtics at Detroit Pistons (8:00 pm ET)

The Bucks/Hawks game on Martin Luther King Day will stream on Peacock, while the other three nationally televised MLK Day contests will also be available on NBC. Whereas the NBA’s Christmas Day features eight Western Conference teams and just two Eastern Conference clubs, the MLK Day slate goes the other way, with six of eight teams from the East.

In total, half of the league’s 30 teams are featured in this series of marquee nationally televised games. Notable omissions – based on projected record, star power, and/or market – include the Clippers, Grizzlies, Suns, and Pelicans in the West and the Sixers, Heat, Magic, and Bulls in the East.

NBA To Announce Regular Season Schedule On Thursday

August 11th, 2025 at 9:32am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA will unveil its full schedule for the 2025/26 regular season on Thursday (August 14), according to an announcement from the league (Twitter link).

The NBA typically leaks several marquee games during the week before its full schedule announcement, and that trend has continued this August.

Shams Charania of ESPN reported on Friday that the opening night schedule this fall will consist of Rockets at Thunder and Warriors at Lakers. He also confirmed the five Christmas Day games, which feature four Western Conference showdowns and just a single Eastern Conference matchup.

The league also indicated today that it will provide a sneak peek at a few more notable matchups on Tuesday during Good Morning America (ABC) and The Today Show (NBC). Those games announced on Tuesday will all be airing on ESPN/ABC or NBC/Peacock.

A year ago, the NBA also put out the full schedule for the Emirates NBA Cup a couple days before the rest of the regular season slate was revealed. It’s unclear if that’s the plan again this time around, but if so, that NBA Cup schedule should be released within the next 24-to-48 hours.

Christmas Day Schedule Includes Thunder-Spurs, Rockets-Lakers

August 8th, 2025 at 6:00pm CST by Eli Cohen

The NBA’s highly anticipated Christmas Day schedule has been revealed, courtesy of ESPN’s Shams Charania (via Twitter). The five-game slate is heavy on Western Conference powerhouses, with just one game coming from the Eastern Conference, in a matchup of what is expected to be the top two teams in the Cavaliers and Knicks.

This will be the first Christmas Day game for the Cavaliers in the post-LeBron James era, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Their last December 25 game came in 2017.

Following the Eastern Conference matchup, the Spurs will travel to Oklahoma City to face the Thunder, as Victor Wembanyama squares off against Chet Holmgren, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Jalen Williams.

Kevin Durant and the Rockets will then duel LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and the Lakers in a clash of teams balancing championship aspirations with their Hall-of-Fame veterans and younger future-facing casts. The Rockets last played a Christmas Day game in 2019, writes Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle.

The final two matchups of the night will see the Mavericks face off against the Warriors, and finally, the Timberwolves going up against the retooled Nuggets in a battle of Northwest Division powerhouses.

As Marc Stein notes (via Twitter), between the Christmas Day schedule and the reported opening night schedule, the league has chosen not to highlight a Mavericks-Lakers matchup on either of these two anticipated dates. Instead, Stein reports (via Twitter), the battle of Doncic’s current and former teams will likely occur at the end of November during the NBA Cup.

As Law Murray of the Athletic notes (via Twitter), only three teams that won at least 49 games last season aren’t featured on the Christmas Day slate. Those teams are the Celtics and Pacers, who are expected to take a step back as their stars (Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton) recover from Achilles tears, and the Clippers, who will not play on Christmas for the fifth year in a row.

Rockets/Thunder, Warriors/Lakers To Play On Opening Night

August 8th, 2025 at 4:45pm CST by Eli Cohen

The 2025/26 NBA season will tip off on October 21 with a pair of Western Conference matchups, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania (via Twitter).

The Rockets will go up against the 2024 title-winning Thunder to open the evening, followed by the Warriors at the Lakers.

This means Kevin Durant, on the new-look Rockets, will be heading to Oklahoma City on the night the Thunder receive their championship rings. Meanwhile, Stephen Curry will go up against LeBron James for the 57th time in their careers.

While the Mavericks were not tapped with an opening night game, Marc Stein of the Stein Line reports (via Twitter) that their season will start on October 22 against the Spurs in what is sure to be a much-anticipated showdown between this year’s No. 1 pick, Cooper Flagg and 2023’s top pick Victor Wembanyama, as well as this year’s No. 2 selection Dylan Harper.

Stein also notes (via Twitter) that the league has announced that group play for the NBA Cup will take place between October 31 and November 28 this season.

Las Vegas Summer League Schedule Set

June 27th, 2025 at 12:46pm CST by Arthur Hill

The NBA has announced the schedule for the annual Las Vegas Summer League, which will run from July 10-20. All 76 games will be televised either on one of ESPN’s platforms or on NBA TV, the league stated in a press release.

New Orleans and Minnesota will tip things off with a game starting at 2:30 p.m. CT July 10. The Pelicans have a pair of lottery picks in point guard Jeremiah Fears and big man Derik Queen, while the Timberwolves will feature French center Joan Beringer.

The main attraction in Las Vegas will be No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg, who will make his debut when the Mavericks face the Lakers at 7 p.m. CT July 10. According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link), Flagg is expected to play in Dallas’ first two games, which will include a matchup with No. 2 selection Dylan Harper and the Spurs at 3 p.m. CT July 12.

“I want to put him at point guard,” coach Jason Kidd said. “… I’m excited to give him the ball against the Lakers and see what happens.”

All 30 teams will participate in the Las Vegas tournament, which has become the NBA’s premier summer showcase, both for on-court action and off-court meetings. Established players, agents and team executives gather in the city, and deals often get done during the event.

After each team plays four times, the top four will advance to the playoffs, while the others will be given one more game. ESPN will televise the semifinal doubleheader at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. CT July 19, along with the championship game at 9 p.m. CT July 20.