NBA releases 2025-26 schedule, all teams getting at least two national TV games

NEW YORK (AP) — Every NBA team will have at least two national TV games this season, the league confirmed Thursday as part of its full schedule unveiling for 2025-26. The reason: There simply are more national games than ever, now that the league's new 11-year, $76 billion agreements with ABC-ESPN, NBC-Peacock and Amazon Prime Video are about to formally begin. There will be 247 games scheduled on those networks this season, up from 172 last season between ABC, ESPN and TNT. Other notes from this season's schedule release: Election Day The NBA, which did not play on Election Day in 2022, 2023 or 2024, will have games on that date this season. It falls on Nov. 4. The NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder play the Los Angeles Clippers as part of the six-game slate on that date. There is one special election to fill a congressional seat on that date this year, along with two gubernatorial races and numerous state and local races. The NBA still plans to not have games on Election Days during midterm and Presidential election years, which would mean no games on those dates in 2026 or 2028. NCAA championship There will be games this season on April 6, the day of the NCAA men's basketball national championship game in Indianapolis. Atlanta, Orlando, Memphis, San Antonio and Denver all host games on that date. The Knicks at Atlanta is the Peacock game. There were two games on NCAA title day last season, breaking the unofficial tradition of the league not playing on that night. The last day The final day of the regular season is April 12, and all 30 teams will be playing. But the league is rolling back the start times; all games were at either 1 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. Eastern last season, and it'll be either 6 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. this season. One advantage to that: All games will end, and some will be played in their entirety, after the final putt drops in the final round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club that same day. The Masters typically ends around 7 p.m. Eastern. All 30 teams also will play on Friday, April 10. There are no games on Saturday, April 11. The play-in tournament begins on April 14. Marquee game protection The league tried again this season to minimize back-to-backs (the average is just under 15 of those per team) in an effort to keep teams as rested as possible. That rule also will apply to marquee games. No team will play the day before having games during opening week, the NBA Cup tournament, Christmas Day (nobody plays on Dec. 24), the four games on Peacock or NBC on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the 10-game ABC Saturday schedule, the eight-game ABC Sunday schedule or the 11-game NBC Sunday schedule. 80 games, for now As usual, all teams will play 82 regular-season games. The schedules released this week only list 80, since the two remaining slots will be filled depending on how teams fare in round-robin play during the NBA Cup. The NBA Cup championship game in Las Vegas will once again not count in the schedule for those teams, since it technically would push their season total to 83 games. Luka in Dallas Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers will face his former team, the Dallas Mavericks, four times this season. The games at Dallas are Jan. 24 (on ABC) and April 5 (on NBC/Peacock). The games in Los Angeles are Nov. 28 (on Prime) and Feb. 12 (on Prime). Finals rematches Oklahoma City and Indiana won't wait long for a rematch of last season's NBA Finals. The Thunder go to Indianapolis on Oct. 23. The Pacers go back to Oklahoma City on Jan. 23. New TV deals For the most part, the NBA's 2025-26 national telecast schedule generally will feature Mondays on Peacock, Tuesdays on NBC, Wednesdays on ESPN, Thursdays on Prime Video, Fridays on Prime Video and ESPN, Saturdays on Prime Video in the afternoon and ABC at night, and Sundays on ABC in the afternoon and NBC at night. The league also is unveiling a new digital feature to make watching live games easier, as fans get used to new homes for games. The feature will direct fans to where they can find national telecasts or streams.