NBA opening week 2026: all 52 games from October 20 to 26

Opening night of the 2026-27 NBA season is Tuesday, October 20, and the first seven nights bring 52 games. Every team has played at least twice by the following Monday, and half the league has played four times. Below is the week night by night, with the national TV games, the busiest evenings and the teams that face a back-to-back before the first week is out. Times are Eastern, from the schedule as listed by ESPN.

Tuesday, October 20: three games on NBC

Opening night is small on purpose, with all three games on NBC:

• Boston Celtics at Detroit Pistons, 3:00 PM ET.
• Philadelphia 76ers at New York Knicks, 7:00 PM ET, at Madison Square Garden.
• Oklahoma City Thunder at San Antonio Spurs, 9:30 PM ET.

For a viewer in London the late game starts at 2:30 AM on Wednesday. It is one to record or catch the next morning.

Wednesday, October 21: the rest of the league starts

Eleven games follow on Wednesday, so 22 of the 30 teams are in action. Two are on ESPN: Minnesota at Miami (7:30 PM ET), then Golden State at the Lakers (10:00 PM ET). The rest of the night runs from 7:00 PM ET (Atlanta at Orlando, Milwaukee at Washington) to 10:30 PM ET, when Sacramento visits the Clippers at the Intuit Dome. Chicago opens in Toronto at 7:30 PM ET, the only game of the night in Canada.

The other eight teams either played on Tuesday or, in the case of Cleveland and Denver, wait until Thursday.

Thursday, October 22: an ESPN doubleheader

Thursday is the quiet night of the week, with just two games. Cleveland visits Philadelphia at 7:00 PM ET, the Cavaliers' first game and the 76ers' second, and Denver visits Oklahoma City at 9:30 PM ET. Both are on ESPN. The Nuggets are the last team in the league to start their season.

Friday, October 23: twelve games and a night in Austin

Friday is the busiest night of the week. Prime Video has two games. The Knicks visit the Celtics at 7:00 PM ET, and at 9:30 PM ET the Spurs host the Rockets at the Moody Center in Austin, about 80 miles from their usual arena in San Antonio. The night closes with three 10:00 PM ET games in California: Memphis at Golden State, the Clippers at the Lakers, and Portland at Sacramento.

Friday is also the first night of most teams' first back-to-back. Eighteen teams play on two consecutive nights during this opening week, and for 11 of them it is Friday into Saturday.

Saturday, October 24 to Monday, October 26

Saturday has eight games, starting with Miami at Charlotte at 6:00 PM ET. NBA TV carries Milwaukee at Philadelphia (7:30 PM ET) and Golden State at Phoenix (10:00 PM ET).

Sunday has seven, from the Lakers at Utah at 5:00 PM ET to Memphis at Sacramento at 9:00 PM ET, with Toronto at Minnesota on NBA TV at 7:00 PM ET.

Monday, October 26, has nine and closes the first week. Dallas at Miami (7:30 PM ET) is on NBA TV, and Golden State at Denver (10:00 PM ET) closes the seven days.

The week in numbers

Fifteen teams play four games in the first seven days and 14 play three. Portland is the only team with two, Wednesday at home to Phoenix and Friday at Sacramento.

Teams with the heaviest starts

Golden State has one of the most travelled first weeks: at the Lakers on Wednesday, home to Memphis on Friday, at Phoenix on Saturday and at Denver on Monday. That is four games in six days, three of them away, with the Friday and Saturday games on consecutive nights.

Philadelphia also plays four, starting at Madison Square Garden on opening night and then playing three straight at home against Cleveland, Milwaukee and Detroit, the last two on Saturday and Sunday.

The Spurs' week includes two different home arenas and a road game on consecutive nights: the Thunder in San Antonio on Tuesday, the Rockets in Austin on Friday and Dallas away on Saturday.

Teams are usually careful with players coming back from injury in October, and minutes limits are common when a team plays two nights running. If you want to see one particular player, look at the team's injury list that afternoon.

Watching from outside the Eastern time zone

NBA times are set in Eastern Time, and a typical night runs from 7:00 PM to about 10:30 PM ET for the last tip-off. That is 4:00 PM to 7:30 PM on the West Coast, which suits viewers there, and midnight to 3:30 AM in the UK, which mostly does not. The weekend afternoon games are the exceptions to look for if you are in Europe; in opening week the earliest is the Lakers at Utah, 5:00 PM ET on Sunday, which is 9:00 PM in London once the UK clocks have gone back that morning.

On Buffstreams, every one of these games is on the NBA page under its night, with each tip-off converted to your local time, so there is no time-zone sum to do. A game's own page collects its feeds, which tend to appear in the last 30 minutes before tip-off. If you follow hockey too, the NHL plays on most of the same nights, on the NHL page.

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