NBA-ийн 2026-27 оны улирлын хуваарь зарлагдаж, онцлох тоглолтууд тодорлоо

It is mid-August, which means we’re desperate for NBA content, which means the league dropped its schedule into our lap on Thursday afternoon, and now we get to pick it apart, choosing the very best games of a schedule featuring 1,230 contests.

While the NBA already dropped its opening night, holiday and in-season tournament schedules this week, it announced the full slate Thursday. So, now, not only do we know when the New York Knicks will get their championship rings and when Jaylen Brown and LeBron James will make their Philadelphia 76ers debuts (all at the same game, by the way!), we know when a number of stars will be making their returns to former homes, when Tyrese Haliburton will debut —when everyone plays everyone.

We know it all, and yet we know nothing about what will actually happen in any of these games. That is the beauty of sport. It’s going to be another long season. So, we’ve run a highlighter through it: The 23(!) best games of the 2026-27 NBA season.

(Or one man’s opinion on the NBA schedule. Either way, this is supposed to be fun.)

All times Eastern

76ers at Knicks, Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m. (NBC)

The New York Knicks will unveil their championship banner and receive their championship rings on opening night, which is a real sentence. The Knicks won the title for the first time since 1973 and did so in dramatic fashion, winning 13 straight playoff games and completing one of the greatest comebacks in sports history en route to a five-game series victory over Victor Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs.

It will be a celebration inside Madison Square Garden unlike many we’ve ever seen.

And then they will have to play an actual basketball game —against their No. 1 challenger, a revamped Philadelphia 76ers team that added both Jaylen Brown and LeBron James to a core that boasted Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecombe.

It is the debut of the league’s newest superteam — of LeBron’s latest superteam — and what a show that will be. How the heck do all of those high-usage players share one basketball? Sixers coach Nick Nurse has his hands full. And while his roster may be full of talent, Philly’s chemistry will be put to an early test by the Knicks’ continuity.

(Fun fact: If the Knicks hadn’t won the title, LeBron would’ve joined them. But they did. And now they get to celebrate. Before hosting James and his new-look 76ers.)

Then, on that same opening night, …

Thunder at Spurs, Oct. 20, 9:30 p.m. (NBC)

We get to see the West’s top two contenders —the NBA’s title favorites, according to oddsmakers — in a rematch of last season’s epic seven-game conference finals.

It is Wembanyama vs. Chet Holmgren in the always entertaining battle between wiry 7-foot-something dudes, a matchup the French phenomenon dominated in Game 7.

It is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and a stacked Thunder rotation, which will feature a new cast of characters at its end. Gone are Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe, replaced by a cast of untested newcomers (Nikola Topic, Thomas Sorber, Aday Mara and Bennett Stirtz). Is Oklahoma City still the deepest team in the league?

Or is it San Antonio? The Spurs feature De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, easily the NBA’s most talented guard trio. Harper is the odds-on favorite to win Sixth Man of the Year, ahead of last year’s winner, teammate Keldon Johnson. Add Tobias Harris to a talented cast of wings and swings, and the Spurs are loaded.

The East may be deeper for the first time in a long time, but these two teams will have their say on opening night about through which conference the title will run.

Pacers at Pelicans, Oct. 21, 8 p.m. (League Pass)

When last we saw Tyrese Haliburton on a basketball court in earnest, he was writing one of the great non-title-winning chapters in NBA history, an underdog story about the Indiana Pacers, who made Game 7 of the 2025 Finals as a No. 4 seed. They might have won the championship, too, had Haliburton not torn his Achilles in the contest.

Now, nearly 18 months removed from surgery, Haliburton is presumably healthy and ready to reascend the league’s player rankings. If Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum’s return from Achilles surgery is any indication, we may see something special from Haliburton in short order, so it will be fascinating to see how he looks in a debut.

Meanwhile, the Pacers have retooled around Haliburton, most notably adding Ivica Zubac from the Los Angeles Clippers. The All-Defensive center played five games for Indiana following its trade-deadline acquisition of him. So, the Pacers’ opening night game isn’t just the reintroduction of a star but a reintroduction of a contender.

Emilee Chinn via Getty Images

76ers at Celtics, Jan. 21, 7:30 p.m. (Prime)

In a stunning move this summer, the Celtics traded five-time All-Star Jaylen Brown to the Atlantic Division rival Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George and a pair of first-round draft picks. With Boston, Brown reached six Eastern Conference finals, a pair of NBA Finals and won the 2024 championship, capturing conference finals and Finals MVP.

This outing marks not only Brown’s first regular-season game back in Boston (he is scheduled to play there in the preseason) — and a chance for him to play opposite Tatum for the first time outside of practice or the All-Star Game — but a new chapter in a rivalry between James and the Celtics that has spanned every team he’s ever been on. James, of course, chose the Sixers, soon after Brown was traded there, believing they gave him his best chance at truly contributing to a fifth championship.

The Celtics trio of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen sent James home in 2008 and 2010, so he joined forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat, who sent home those same Celtics in the 2012 Eastern Conference finals en route to the first of two titles together. James sent the youngest versions of Brown and Tatum’s Celtics home in the 2017 and 2018 Eastern Conference finals, before moving West, where he joined a Celtics-Lakers rivalry that has simmered since the 1960s.

We haven’t even gotten to Joel Embiid, who has a longstanding rivalry with these C’s, whom he sent home for the first time this past April in a stunning comeback from a 3-1 deficit in a first-round series. Now, he and Brown are teammates. What a world.

Heat at Bucks, Jan. 28, 9:30 p.m. (Prime)

The relationship between the Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo —one that lasted 13 seasons and delivered a championship in 2021 —fractured to the point of no return. When it became clear Giannis would be dealt, the Bucks, by all accounts, chose between two packages: one from the Heat, which was centered around Tyler Herro; and another from the Celtics, who centered their offer around Jaylen Brown.

Milwaukee went with Miami’s offer of Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, Kasparas Jakucionis and the rights to four first-round draft picks. The first of those draft picks became Nate Ament, who will be paired with fellow lottery selection Brayden Burries.

Yeah, the Bucks are going to be bad —a worse version of last season’s Heat — but they at least have a reunion game with Antetokounmpo on their home schedule. He may be the greatest player in franchise history, considering Kareem Abdul-Jabbar only lasted six seasons in Milwaukee, and he should be warmly welcomed to Cream City, regardless of how it ended. He wanted to win, and he no longer could with them.

Heat at Celtics, Dec. 25, 2:30 p.m. (ABC)

Which is why a Heat-Celtics matchup on Christmas Day might hold as much gravity as a tribute video. Remember, Milwaukee rejected Boston’s offer, and the Celtics still traded Brown to the 76ers soon afterward, reshaping their roster around Tatum, George, Mitchell Robinson and a collection of players who contributed to 56 wins last season.

The Celtics should still be good, and these two teams often hold each other up as a measuring stick. They beat each other in the 2022 and 2023 Eastern Conference finals, and now Antetokounmpo breathes new life into a rivalry that had grown stale in the absence of Jimmy Butler. Heat Culture vs. Joe Mazzulla in a steel-cage match!

Spurs at Knicks, Dec. 25, 12 p.m. (ABC)

It’s been months, but we have not forgotten: The 2026 NBA Finals were awesome. There was the wild ending when Wembanyama threw the ball off Stephon Castle in Game 2. Despite losing the first two games of the series at home, the Spurs won Game 3 and built a 29-point lead in Game 4, only to lose it as OG Anunoby touched God. Every night was somehow a comeback. And it all happened in just five games.

This rematch — pitting Wembanyama against the Madison Square Garden crowd and that wonderfully constructed Knicks lineup of Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart — should be equally entertaining.

And it kicks off ABC’s Christmas Day lineup, replete with current and former MVP candidates: Heat at Celtics (Giannis vs. Tatum —again at 2:30 p.m.), 76ers at Lakers (LeBron’s L.A. return at 5 p.m.), Thunder at Timberwolves (SGA vs. Anthony Edwards at 8 p.m.) and Nuggets at Warriors (Nikola Jokić vs. Stephen Curry at 10:30 p.m.).

Better open your presents early.

NBA Cup championship game, Dec. 11, TBD (Prime)

Because, if you’ll recall, last year’s Finals were actually a rematch of the 2025 NBA Cup championship game between the Knicks and Spurs (which the Knicks also won). You never know which of the 1,230 games on the slate will be a preview of this year’s Finals.

Will we see another precursor to the Finals in the NBA Cup title game? Unlikely, but the first few years of the in-season tournament have provided storylines that rippled across seasons. Do we get a repeat champ? A fourth winner in as many years? Could LeBron win a second Cup? As always, it’ll be more fun than if the Cup never existed.

76ers at Lakers, Dec. 25, 5 p.m. (ABC)
Heat at 76ers, Nov. 25, 5 p.m. (ESPN)
76ers at Cavaliers, Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m. (Prime)
76ers at Warriors, March 24, 10 p.m. (ESPN)
76ers at Rockets, Nov. 28, 8:30 p.m. (League Pass)

Who knows if this is LeBron’s retirement tour, but he is still a hell of a player, and the 76ers should be as good as he is this season. With Embiid, James, Brown, Maxey and Edgecombe, they should be a show every night, or at least every night they’re all on the floor. We hope they’re all on the floor for the following matchups:

• LeBron’s return to face the Lakers in Los Angeles on Christmas Day. He spent eight seasons there, delivering the 2020 championship (in a bubble). Where does LeBron rank among the all-time Lakers? Something to consider.

• LeBron’s Sixers against Antetokounmpo’s Heat — in the NBA Cup on Thanksgiving Eve. Get your friends together. Miami was on James’ short list of possible destinations this summer. Now, Antetokounmpo is trying to do what LeBron did in Miami, before LeBron can do it again in Philadelphia.

• While LeBron is minted in Cleveland forever, he did spurn the Cavaliers as well this summer. The Cavs reached the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since LeBron was there. He could’ve pushed them over the top. Now, they, too, meet in the NBA Cup. (Yes, the Cavaliers, 76ers and Heat are all in the same group, along with the Knicks and Pacers. The East is loaded!)

• LeBron vs. Stephen Curry! Who knows how many more times we will see James face his greatest rival — his equal in championships — but we should enjoy each one of them, since the two all-timers are now averaging age 40.

• LeBron vs. Kevin Durant! It feels like some of the luster has come off this rivalry in recent years, but this one has a chance to rekindle the fire. Both James and Durant are flanked by a ton of talent on could-be contenders.

Lakers at Mavericks, Feb. 28, 3:30 p.m. (ABC)

Will Dallas ever get over the Luka Dončić trade? Probably not. And for good reason. Trading an entering-his-prime superstar for a past-his-prime Anthony Davis and a single first-round draft pick, without canvassing the league, is still the worst deal in NBA history, all things considered (even after the Celtics flipped Brown for George).

Now, the Mavericks can debut against the Lakers that first-round pick they got in return for Doncic, the No. 25 overall selection in this June’s draft, Sergio de Larrea.

More exciting: The opportunity for the Mavs’ newest superstar, last year’s No. 1 pick, Cooper Flagg, to face his predecessor, Dončić, in a high-profile setting. Flagg should be flanked by a healthy Kyrie Irving, if that is any consolation for losing Luka Magic.

Timberwolves at Hornets, Feb. 15, 12 p.m. (NBC)
Blazers at Grizzlies, Feb. 6, 5:30 p.m. (Prime)
Wizards at Hawks, Nov. 6, 7 p.m. (League Pass)

The returns of LaMelo Ball to Charlotte, Ja Morant to Memphis and Trae Young to Atlanta. All three of these All-Star point guards are mercurial in nature, either on the court or off, or both, but regardless of what you think of their games —and there are reasons to question their respective fits on the Timberwolves, Blazers and Wizards — each left his organization better than he found it and should be applauded for it.

Can Brandon Miller, Kon Knueppel and the Hornets continue their ascent in the absence of Ball? Does Ball complement Anthony Edwards in Minnesota? Are the Grizzlies better without Morant? Is Portland better with Morant? Can Young lead the young talent in Washington? Or will the young Hawks continue to thrive in his stead?

These are all questions that need answering, and we may as well attempt to do so while we watch the tribute videos to former franchise faces, rousing ovation or not.

(Another added bonus: Young’s return to Atlanta is an NBA Cup game.)

Wizards at Jazz, , Feb. 27, 3 p.m. (Prime)
Grizzlies at Wizards, Nov. 16, 7 p.m. (League Pass)
Wizards at Bulls, Nov. 20, 8 p.m. (League Pass)

In addition to Young and Anthony Davis, the Wizards now feature this year’s No. 1 overall pick, AJ Dybantsa, as well as a plethora of recent first-round draft picks. I don’t know how good they’re going to be, but there’s at least reason to watch now.

Even more reason: Dybantsa doesn’t just have a high-profile matchup with No. 2 overall pick Darryn Peterson’s Utah Jazz, but the top of this draft featured as many as four future faces of their franchises. No. 3 overall pick Cameron Boozer and No. 4 overall pick Caleb Willson join the Memphis Grizzlies and Chicago Bulls, respectively, setting up a fun series between the lot of them, all with Rookie of the Year on the line.

And, in the case of Dybantsa vs. Wilson 1.0, the NBA Cup is on the line, too.

This may be the rare season in which all four of the top picks have an equal shot at superstardom, and let’s hope they each get there. We could use all the watchable teams we can get, and the Wizards, Jazz, Grizzlies and Bulls are all watchable now.

Raptors at Clippers, Nov. 2, 10 p.m. (League Pass)

The Aspiration Bowl! Will Kawhi Leonard be a member of the Raptors or Clippers come game time? As of now, he and the Clips are under investigation for allegedly circumventing the salary cap after he left the Raptors for L.A. in 2019 free agency.

The Raptors have agreed to trade Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and draft picks back to L.A., pending the outcome of that investigation. They should be good — a fringe contender, even — while the Clippers unveil Darius Garland, Keaton Wagler and a fresh look. Regardless of the outcome (and we do expect Leonard to be a Raptor by season’s start), this game should be entertaining if only for the awkwardness alone.

Nuggets vs. Timberwolves, Dec. 28, 10:30 p.m. (NBC)

The Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves have met 34 times over the past four seasons, including three playoff series, and the Wolves have won 18 of them. Minnesota won two of the three playoff series, too, although, when Denver defeated the Wolves in 2023, the Nuggets went on to win the team’s first NBA championship.

Minnesota is still waiting for its first title. The Wolves have retooled in the offseason, trading Julius Randle and Naz Reid in favor of landing LaMelo Ball. It’s another wrinkle in this rivalry between two superstars — Edwards and Jokić — whose games have little in common other than the fact that they’re both amazing.

Pistons at Magic, Nov. 24, 7 p.m. (League Pass)

Hey, it’s just another NBA Cup game I want to see, OK? Can you give me that?

Entering last season, nobody knew which of the Detroit Pistons or Orlando Magic would be the No. 1 seed, and which would be the No. 8 seed, but there they were — two young teams on the rise — facing off against each other in a first-round series.

And they were fairly evenly matched. Paolo Banchero’s Magic may have upset Cade Cunningham’s 60-win Pistons if Franz Wagner had been healthy for the whole series.

After a tumultuous offseason in Detroit (where they swapped Tobias Harris for John Collins, traded Isaiah Stewart and have yet to re-sign Jalen Duren) and a do-little summer in Orlando (where they reunited with veteran center Nikola Vučević), it will be interesting to see where each stands in an East that has reshaped around them.

There are far more games to enjoy, of course. This is just a taste of the good stuff.