NBA Reveals ESPN Opening Week and Historic Peacock-Exclusive Games for 2025 Schedule
The NBA made several announcements Tuesday related to the 2025-26 regular-season schedule, including opening-week games on ESPN and games that will stream exclusively on Peacock.
Opening night for the NBA regular season is Oct. 21, and it will be followed by a pair of ESPN doubleheaders on Oct. 22 and 23. The Oct. 22 slate will feature the Cleveland Cavaliers at New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs at Dallas Mavericks, while Oct. 23 includes the Oklahoma City Thunder at Indiana Pacers and Denver Nuggets at Golden State Warriors:
It was also announced that Peacock will "stream up to three NBA games nationwide on Monday nights throughout the regular season," starting with the Cavs at the Detroit Pistons and the Nuggets at the Minnesota Timberwolves on Oct. 27:
Among the ESPN opening-week games, none is bigger than the NBA Finals rematch between the Thunder and Pacers.
Indiana pushed OKC all the way to a Game 7 in the 2025 NBA Finals, at which point the Thunder overwhelmed the Pacers 103-91 to win their first championship since moving from Seattle to Oklahoma City.
Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton tearing his Achilles during Game 7 played a significant role in the outcome, and the Pacers will be without him for the entire 2025-26 campaign.
In fact, Indiana will look far different in 2025-26 than it did during the 2025 NBA Finals, as it also lost longtime center Myles Turner to the Milwaukee Bucks in free agency.
Meanwhile, the Thunder are returning largely the same roster that won it all last season, led by the trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, all of whom landed new contracts this offseason.
Along with OKC vs. Indiana, opening week on ESPN will feature battles between two of the Eastern Conference's top contenders in the Cavs and Knicks, and two of the Western Conference's best in the Nuggets and Warriors.
Also, an in-state rivalry between the Mavs and Spurs will be renewed with a twist, as it will mark the first NBA meeting between the Nos. 1 and 2 overall picks in the 2025 NBA draft with Cooper Flagg leading Dallas and Dylan Harper leading San Antonio.
The NBA famously partnered with NBC from 1990 to 2002 before NBC lost the broadcasting rights to ESPN, ABC and TNT.
However, last year, NBC reached a new 11-year media rights deal with the NBA, bringing NBA basketball back to NBC, starting with the 2025-26 season.
As part of that deal, many NBA games will either stream exclusively or be simulcast on Peacock, and it starts with the Oct. 27 doubleheader of Detroit vs. Cleveland and Minnesota vs. Denver.
The Monday night NBA games on Peacock will go head-to-head with the NFL's Monday Night Football games for a large chunk of the season, and that includes Oct. 27 when the Kansas City Chiefs host the Washington Commanders on MNF.
