Overview
- The NBA season will open October 21 on NBC with the Houston Rockets at the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Golden State Warriors at the Los Angeles Lakers.
- On December 25, ABC and ESPN will broadcast five Christmas Day games featuring the Knicks vs. Cavaliers, Spurs vs. Thunder, Lakers vs. Rockets, Warriors vs. Mavericks and Nuggets vs. Timberwolves.
- Only one of the Christmas Day pairings pits two Eastern Conference teams against each other while the remaining four matchups are all-Western Conference showdowns.
- The Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers are absent from both the season opener and Christmas lineup after suffering long-term injuries to Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton.
- Insider Shams Charania broke the schedule via Twitter, with ESPN and other outlets later confirming the matchups.