The first-ever NBA games streamed on Amazon Prime Video will feature the Boston Celtics against the New York Knicks, followed by the Minnesota Timberwolves against the Los Angeles Lakers on Oct. 24, according to the league’s streaming partner.
The NBA is celebrating its new 11-year, $75 billion media rights package with a week-long rollout of the 2025-26 schedule that launched Tuesday on the flagship morning shows of two of the league’s broadcast partners, and continued Wednesday on Amazon Prime’s social media accounts. If you’re scoring at home, the Lakers are on NBC when the season opens Oct. 21, and the Knicks are a part of ESPN’s first national doubleheader the following night.
The league’s complete schedule will be released Thursday afternoon.
Amazon, which already carries NFL games during the regular and postseasons, will stream 66 regular-season NBA games, the knockout rounds of the NBA Cup and all the Play-In Tournament games before the start of the playoffs.
According to the Amazon streaming schedule released Wednesday, the Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers, and then the Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies, will play their first NBA Cup group stage games on Amazon on Halloween, beginning a streak of four consecutive Fridays in which NBA Cup games are shared by the streaming giant.
On Tuesday, in separate segments on NBC’s “Today Show” and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the NBA’s opening night and Christmas Day slates were formally announced, as were marquee games on the two networks and their subsidiaries (ABC has ESPN; NBC has Peacock) for the league’s first week and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
While ABC and ESPN have been broadcast partners of the NBA for years, NBC has not aired an NBA game since 2002.
Game on. 🎮 NBA Tip-Off, October 21st on NBC and Peacock. pic.twitter.com/AALohb2D0a
— NBA on NBC and Peacock (@NBAonNBC) August 12, 2025
As reported last week by ESPN and confirmed by The Athletic, the first NBA game on NBC in 23 years will feature the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder against the Houston Rockets and Kevin Durant on opening night (Oct. 21), followed by the Golden State Warriors at the Lakers.
The Cleveland Cavaliers will open their season against the Knicks on Oct. 22 on ESPN, followed by No. 1 draft pick Cooper Flagg’s NBA debut with the Dallas Mavericks against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. This will be the third consecutive season the Spurs and Mavericks play each other in their season openers.
On Oct. 23, also on ESPN, the Indiana Pacers will host the Thunder in a rematch of the finals, and the Denver Nuggets will play the Warriors.
Additionally, as previously reported, the NBA’s traditional slate of Christmas games on ESPN and ABC features the Cavaliers at Knicks, the Spurs at the Thunder, the Rockets at the Lakers, the Mavericks at the Warriors and the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Denver Nuggets.
The Celtics won the NBA championship in 2023 and are the most decorated franchise in league history. But their main star, Jayson Tatum, tore his Achilles in the playoffs last season and is expected to miss the entire campaign — and the league and its national broadcast partners responded accordingly.
The 76ers, who will help the Celtics kick off Amazon’s NBA season, are loaded with stars, namely Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George, but injuries and poor play doomed Philadelphia last season and prevented the Sixers from reaching the playoffs.
NBC will debut “Sunday Night Basketball” on Feb. 1, with at least one regular-season game on that day through April 5. The format will begin after NBC’s NFL coverage ends. There will be no games on Feb. 8 and Feb. 15 due to the Super Bowl, the NBA All-Star Game and the Winter Olympics.
Below is a breakdown of what we know of the league’s schedule so far.
Opening night
The Thunder will receive their championship rings and see their banner hoisted to the rafters inside PayCom Center before hosting the Rockets in the first NBA game of the season. Breaking a 29-year tradition, that ceremony and subsequent game will not air on TNT, which is not part of the NBA’s new media rights deal.
The last time an NBA game that counted aired on NBC (June 12, 2002), Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant led the Lakers in a sweep of the New Jersey Nets in the finals.
The return to NBC marks the first game that reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and the Thunder have played since outlasting the Pacers in Game 7 in June.
In NBC’s nightcap, the network will air the marquee matchup of LeBron James versus Steph Curry. This one will feature a svelte Luka Dončić, and Deandre Ayton will make his Lakers debut. Will Jonathan Kuminga and Al Horford be in Warriors uniforms?
Christmas Day
The Cavaliers last played on Christmas in 2017. This season, they’re headed to Madison Square Garden to take on former Cavs coach and new Knicks boss Mike Brown. The Knicks reached Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals last season before falling to the Pacers. New York will be one of the favorites to win the conference this season.
Cleveland is returning most of its rotation from a team that won the most games in the East last season before losing in the conference semifinals against the Pacers.
The Spurs and Wembanyama are back on Christmas for the second straight season, this time against the defending champion Thunder, who are playing on Dec. 25 for the first time since 2018.
LeBron James holds the NBA records for most Christmas games (19), wins (11) and points (507). How many more chances will he get to add to those totals? Probably equal to the number of years he stays in the league. However, just days before his 41st birthday, it’s not out of the question that the Lakers’ Christmas game against Houston could be James’ last. It will also mark Durant’s Christmas debut with the Rockets.
Wembanyama didn’t play on Christmas during his rookie season, but 2025 No. 1 pick Flagg gets the honor. Additionally, Dallas’ Klay Thompson gets to spend Christmas back in the Bay Area, where he starred with the Warriors for 13 seasons.
The Wolves and Nuggets have played each other in the playoffs twice in the last three seasons and feature two of the league’s best players in Anthony Edwards and Nikola Jokić.
MLK Day
The league will have four games on Jan. 19, Martin Luther King Jr. Day — a significant event for the NBA in the regular season. The league has held games on that day every year since 1986, when the day was first observed as a federal holiday.
The Thunder will visit the Cavaliers, the Mavericks will play the Knicks and the Boston Celtics will visit the Detroit Pistons (all on NBC), while the Milwaukee Bucks will play at the Atlanta Hawks on Peacock. The Memphis Grizzlies, which have traditionally played on MLK Day, will play games in London and Berlin that week against the Orlando Magic.
NBA Cup
To be clear, the NBA Cup takes place after opening night but before Christmas, with the championship in Las Vegas on Dec. 16.
As for the group stage games listed below, these are largely based on the following driving forces in the league’s calculus for the success of this tournament.
While ratings can succeed with any number of teams in the final four, only a few can drive in-person attendance in Las Vegas.
From Halloween to Black Friday, 5 straight weeks of Emirates NBA Cup Doubleheaders 🔥
The tournament tips Oct 31 on @PrimeVideo pic.twitter.com/gQFRMxVZ6v
— NBA on Prime (@NBAonPrime) August 13, 2025
Lakers at Grizzlies, West Group B, 9:30 p.m., Oct. 31 (Prime)
The NBA does better in Vegas when the Lakers and their massive fan base out West have a reason to flock to the desert.
The Grizzlies had a tough season by their standards and traded Desmond Bane. They need Ja Morant to stay healthy and out of trouble.
Rockets at Spurs, West Group C, 7:30 p.m., Nov. 7 (Prime)
The Rockets, now loaded with Durant, and the Spurs, with Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox and No. 2 pick Dylan Harper, would make great draws for the league in Vegas in December.
Pacers at Cavs, East Group A, Nov. 21, 7 p.m. (Prime)
Indiana reached the NBA Cup finals in 2023 and lost to the Lakers. As previously mentioned, the Pacers are expected to take a step back this season, just don’t tell that to Andrew Nembhard, Pascal Siakam and coach Rick Carlisle.
Meanwhile, the NBA and its broadcast partners have shown a ton of faith in the Cavs. It would be a nice pass of an early test, and probably a win for the league, if Cleveland makes it to Las Vegas.
Clippers at Lakers, West Group B, Nov. 25, 11 p.m. (NBC)
Oh yeah, the other Los Angeles team. The Clippers are usually mentioned as a Western Conference contender, and added James Harden and Kawhi Leonard to their roster with Bradley Beal, Chris Paul and John Collins. They have the names to go all the way in the Cup, and for the whole season, but their injury history, collective age and general disappointments in the postseason remain challenges they’ll have to solve.
Timberwolves at Thunder, West Group A, Nov. 26, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)
The Thunder reached the Cup final and lost last year to Milwaukee. The Wolves are trying to get past OKC in the playoffs, and like Cleveland, success in the early-season Cup wouldn’t hurt. Maybe a statement game for Edwards against his nemesis?
Bucks at Knicks, East Group C, Nov. 28, 7:30 p.m. (Prime)
The defending Cup champs don’t have Damian Lillard anymore, but they did sign center Myles Turner to play alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo. This game marks a good chance to get a look at this version of the Bucks on a national stage, with (perhaps) something riding on the outcome.
Mavericks at Lakers, West Group B, Nov. 28, 10 p.m. (Prime)
If nothing else, we have Anthony Davis headed back to Crypto.com Arena to face his old team, and yeah, Luka Dončić is a Laker now who will probably be fired up when he plays against Dallas for years to come.
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(Photo: Brad Penner / Imagn Images)