NBA Schedule 2026-27: Key Dates, TV Partners & Marquee Games
Last updated: October 2026. Dates, game counts and TV details are from the official 2026/27 schedule release.
2026/27 · The Full Calendar
Quick Answer
The 2026/27 NBA schedule runs from opening night on Tuesday, October 20, 2026 to the end of the regular season on Sunday, April 11, 2027: 1,230 games, 82 per team. The load-bearing dates are the NBA Cup final on December 11, the five Christmas Day games, MLK Day on January 18, and All-Star Weekend, February 19–21 in Phoenix. National television carries 237 games across five partners.
Table of Contents
The season’s key dates
Preseason begins: Heat at Raptors in Quebec City.
Opening night: Celtics at Pistons, 76ers at Knicks, Thunder at Spurs.
NBA Cup group play, on designated Cup Nights.
NBA Cup final at Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, on Prime Video.
Christmas Day: five games on ABC and ESPN, from noon ET.
Europe games: Spurs vs Pelicans in Paris, then Manchester.
MLK Day: four national games from noon Eastern.
Print one page from this schedule and it should be this list. Everything else in the 1,230 games is texture; these are the dates the league builds its marketing around, the ones casual fans plan evenings for, and the ones where the national windows stack up. The NBA scores page tracks all of it nightly, and here is the whole season at a glance.
How national TV divides up
Year two of the league’s media deal spreads 237 national games across five homes, and the split tells you where the league thinks its audience lives now:
NBC is the broadcast flagship and carries opening night. Prime Video owns the NBA Cup knockout rounds on top of its weekly package. ABC keeps the biggest stages, including Christmas Day. The star power is concentrated exactly where you would expect: the Knicks, Spurs, Lakers and 76ers carry the maximum 34 national appearances each, the champions, the Wembanyama show, the league’s oldest glamour franchise, and LeBron James in new colours. Follow one of them and most of your season is already national. Follow anyone else and NBA League Pass remains the honest answer, with local broadcasts still carrying the bulk of every schedule.
Marquee games to circle
The first week sets the tone: after opening night, Minnesota at Miami and Golden State at the Lakers land on October 21, and Houston at San Antonio closes the week’s national slate on October 23 with another look at Wembanyama against a contender. MLK Day on January 18 is the schedule’s quiet masterpiece, four games from noon Eastern: Pistons at Cavaliers and 76ers at Hawks on NBC, Timberwolves at Knicks on NBC in the evening window, and Rockets at Grizzlies on Peacock to close it.
January also takes the league overseas: San Antonio and New Orleans play in Paris on January 14 and again in Manchester on January 17, the clearest sign yet that the Wembanyama era is a global product. All-Star Weekend follows on February 19–21 in Phoenix, which doubles as the season’s unofficial halfway audit.
The shape of the season
An NBA season is best understood as four acts. October to December belongs to discovery: who is actually good, which young team arrived early, and how the new rosters fit, with the Cup giving November a genuine stakes-raiser that ends on December 11. January and February are the grind and the showcase: MLK Day, the Europe trip, the trade deadline season and All-Star Weekend carry the league through winter. March is separation, when the top of each conference pulls away or collapses into the Play-In race. April 11 closes the book, and from there the sport becomes a different, better one.
Every night of all four acts, the results gather in one place: yesterday’s finals, today’s games and tonight’s tips on the live NBA scores board.
Questions fans ask
When does the 2026/27 NBA season start and end?
Opening night is Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The regular season ends Sunday, April 11, 2027, with the Play-In tournament and playoffs following.
How many games are in the NBA schedule?
1,230 regular-season games: 82 for each of the 30 teams. 237 of them are national television games.
Which teams are on national TV most?
The Knicks, Spurs, Lakers and 76ers, with the maximum 34 national appearances each. NBC carries 69 national games, Prime Video 60, ESPN 57, Peacock 30 and ABC 21.
When is All-Star Weekend 2027?
February 19–21, 2027, in Phoenix.
When is the NBA Cup final?
Friday, December 11, 2026, at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, on Prime Video.
Conclusion
The whole season on one page: October 20 to April 11, five networks, four acts, and a short list of dates worth planning around. Mark Christmas, mark MLK Day, keep the scores board open nightly, and StreamMatch will walk the schedule with you from opening night to the Finals.
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