Major Comebacks and Key Matchups in the 2025-26 NBA Season
The 2025-26 NBA regular season promises strong emotions, with several highlighted matches that will mark the calendar. Fans will be able to enjoy key matchups and the return of stars to their former cities, all framed within the league’s new television partnerships.
On November 24th, Kevin Durant will return to Phoenix for the first time as a Houston Rockets player. Four days later, on November 28th, Anthony Davis returns to Los Angeles as the Dallas Mavericks face the Lakers in an NBA Cup game.
The NBA calendar also highlights the league’s new partnerships with NBC/Comcast and Amazon, as part of the 11-year agreement with these broadcasting entities alongside ESPN/ABC, which will retain the NBA Finals.
Durant’s return to Phoenix, the team that traded him to Houston in June, will be broadcast on NBC. Meanwhile, Davis, who was traded for Luka Doncic in February in one of the most impactful trades in NBA history, will return to Los Angeles on Amazon Prime.
The Lakers and Mavericks will face each other three more times this season: January 24 in Dallas, February 12 in Los Angeles, and April 5 in Dallas.
On February 1st, exactly one year after the Lakers played at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks, only for the Doncic trade to happen shortly after the game, those two teams will face each other again at MSG on ABC.
The defending champion, Oklahoma City Thunder, will also have many important matchups, many of them in the second half of the schedule. Durant and the Rockets will visit Oklahoma City for the ring ceremony on opening night (October 21), and Houston will return to OKC on February 7. The Thunder will make their only trip to Houston on January 15.
The Thunder will face the Minnesota Timberwolves for the first time, their rivals from last season’s Western Conference Finals, on November 26 in Oklahoma City, where they will play again on March 15. They will play in Minnesota twice, on December 19 and January 29.
The four matchups between Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was last season’s MVP, and Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, who was a three-time MVP, will take place from February onwards, giving both players a chance to make a late bid for this season’s award. Denver will travel to Oklahoma City on February 27 and March 9, and the Nuggets will host OKC on February 1 and April 10.
That’s not the only possible MVP matchup at the end of the season. The Lakers and Thunder will face each other twice in a short period: in OKC on April 2nd and then in Los Angeles on April 7th.
The Thunder will have four encounters at the end of the season against the favorites of the Eastern Conference, Cleveland, in the Cavs on January 19; in OKC on February 22 and New York, at MSG on March 4; in OKC on March 29.
The Knicks and Cavaliers will play in New York during opening week (October 22) and on Christmas Day before a final matchup in Cleveland on February 24.
New York will also welcome the resurgent Atlanta Hawks and long-time MSG villain Trae Young for the first time this season on January 2nd. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers will host LeBron James in what could be his last game in Cleveland on January 28th.
Other notable returns of star players are on the schedule.
The pivot Myles Turner, who has only played for the Pacers in his first 11 NBA seasons, will return to Indiana on November 3 as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks.
The new Los Angeles Clippers center, Brook Lopez, will make his only return visit to Milwaukee on March 29.
Desmond Bane, who was traded by the Grizzlies to the Orlando Magic in a high-impact deal in June, will visit Memphis on January 18.
In consecutive games at the end of that month, the Boston Celtics will welcome two key contributors from their 2023-24 championship team who were traded this summer. Jrue Holiday and the Portland Trail Blazers will visit Boston on January 26, and Kristaps Porzingis and the Hawks will come to town on January 28.
