The 2026-2027 NBA Regular Season will tip off on Tuesday, October 20. With months still away, the NBA announced the Opening Night games and Christmas Day games matchups.
On Opening Night, the New York Knicks will be at home playing against the Philadelphia 76ers. The Knicks start their season as the defending champions and will get their championship rings as they look to defend their title. For the Sixers, LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, and their bench acquisitions get to make their season debuts for Philadelphia. Going into the 2026-2027 NBA Regular Season, these two teams are the two favorites to win the Eastern Conference and win the NBA Championship.
Both the Knicks and Sixers arguably have two of the best starting fives in the whole NBA. The whole world will get to see these two starting fives go at it. With the Knicks championship lineup of Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, and Karl-Anthony Towns and the Sixers new star studded lineup of Tyrese Maxey, V.J. Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown, LeBron James, and Joel Embiid.
This matchup will be on of the the three games played on opening night as they will play at 7 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock. The first game of the regular season will be the Boston Celtics going up against the Detroit Pistons at 3 p.m. ET and the last game of the tripleheader will be the Oklahoma City Thunder against the San Antonio Spurs at 9:30 p.m. ET.
On Opening Week in the Sixers second game of the season on Thursday, October 22, they will be at home playing against the Cleveland Cavaliers. James, Brown, and the Sixers new acquisitions will make there home debuts on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET. James will also have the opportunity to play against his former team as Cleveland was in the mix for him in free-agency. The Sixers start off the season facing the two teams who made the Eastern Conference Finals last season. Now Philly will have the opportunity to play against other Eastern Conference contenders early in the season.
On Friday, October 23, the Knicks will play on the road against the Boston Celtics in the first Amazon Prime game of the season at 7 p.m. ET. For the Christmas Day Games slate, the Knicks will play against the San Antonio Spurs at home at 12 p.m. ET on ABC/ ESPN to start the first of five games played. This matchup will be a rematch of the 2026 NBA Finals and the 2024 NBA Christmas Game at the Garden. The Knicks get to continue their season defending the title as they won in five games against the young Spurs team who will look to bounce back from the Finals loss.
Later at the 5 p.m. slate, the Sixers will be on the road to play against the Los Angles Lakers. James will return back to LA where he spent the last eight seasons of his career before leaving this offseason for Philly. The “King” will get to play against his former teammate and new Lakers franchise player Luka Dončić as the team now fully builds around him.
The full 2026-2027 NBA regular season schedule will officially be released on Thursday, August 13. The NBA season can’t come soon enough as there are 70 days left until the first regular season game tips off.
