NBA 2025-26 Season Preview: Schedule, MVP Favorites & What to Watch

The 2025-26 NBA season, the 80th in history, is set to deliver another year of high-stakes action, franchise drama, and superstar performances. With the defending champions facing new challenges, the third annual NBA Cup, and the All-Star Game heading to the Los Angeles Clippers’ new arena, there are plenty of storylines to follow. Beginning in late October 2025, going all the way to June in 2026, here is your complete guide to this year’s NBA calendar and what’s at stake.

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Key Dates & Locations

• End of Preseason: 17 October, 2025
• Regular Season Start: October 21, 2025
• Emirates NBA Cup (In-Season Tournament): October 31 – December 16, 2025
• NBA All-Star Weekend: February 13 – 15, 2026 in Los Angeles, California
• End of Regular Season: April 12, 2026
• Play-In Tournament: April 14 – 17, 2026
• Playoffs Begin: April 18, 2026
• NBA Finals Start: June 4, 2026 (if required, Game 7 is set for June 21, 2026)

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Tournament Format

The NBA comprises of 30 teams, 15 in the Eastern Conference and 15 in the Western Conference, with each conference split up into 3 division of 5 teams. Here’s how the season’s milestones are split up:

Regular Season: Each team plays 82 games in a season, where each team plays every team in their division and 6 teams in their conference outside their division 4 times, the other 4 teams in their division 3 times, and the teams in the other conference twice. The specific schedule is balanced to ensure varied competition across the league, with games counting toward the NBA Cup noted separately.

Emirates NBA Cup (In-Season Tournament): Group stage games are integrated into the regular season schedule, followed by single-elimination knockout rounds (Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Final) played at neutral sites (typically Las Vegas for the latter stages).

Play-In Tournament: The top 6 seeds in each conference guarantee their spot in the playoffs, but the last 2 spots are up for grabs for the teams that finish 7th through 10th in each conference. These teams compete in a mini-tournament where seeds 7 and 8 play for the 7th playoff spot. Then, the 9th and 10th seeds play against each other, and the winner of this game plays the loser of the 7 v 8 seed matchup with the winner clinching the 8th and final playoff spot.

NBA Playoffs: The 16 qualifying teams, with 8 from each conference, compete in a best-of-seven single-elimination tournament. Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 (if required) are played at the higher seed’s home venue, with games 3, 4, and 6 played at the lower seed’s home venue. The winners of the Eastern and Western Conference Finals advance to the NBA Finals.

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Tickets & Attendance

Where to Buy: Fans can buy tickets are available through Ticketmaster, the NBA’s official ticketing partner and individual team websites.

Average Prices: The average price for a regular-season game ranges from $100 to $200, but this is largely affected by the market size, opponent, and seat location. Prime courtside seats for popular teams like the Lakers, Knicks and Celtics can sell for thousands of dollars.

Playoff Prices: Ticket prices dramatically increase for the NBA Playoffs and Finals, due to high demand and increased entertainment quality, often surpass $200 for entry-level seats and climbing to over $500 for marquee matchups and finals performances.

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Defending Champions

The 2025 NBA Champions are the OKC Thunder, who defeated the Indiana Pacers in the Finals, 4-3. Here is a table showing the past 3 NBA Finals matchups and scores:

Year	Champion	Runner Up	Finals Scoreline
2025	Oklahoma City Thunder	Indiana Pacers	4-3
2024	Boston Celtics	Dallas Mavericks	4-1
2023	Denver Nuggets	Miami Heat	4-1

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Star Players & Notable Absences

The NBA’s stars for the coming season are a great balance of established talents aiming for more silverware with young prospects breaking out and finally receiving the award recognition they dreamt of.

Here is a short insight into the prominent MVP favourites:

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Last year, SGA averaged 32.7 points, 5 rebounds and 6.4 assists with 2.7 stocks (combined steals and blocks) per game on 52% from the field, 37.5% from 3 and almost 90% from the free throw line. The Canadian was the first player to win the NBA title, Regular Season MVP and Finals MVP in the same season since Lebron James in 2013. He also won the scoring title, making his set of accolades last achieved by Shaquille O’Neal in 2000. A historic season, as he also led his team to a 68-win regular season and the largest point differential in NBA history with +12.9 points per game.

Nikola Jokic

Although he was the runner up in MVP voting last year, many thought his statline of 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists along with 2.4 stocks per game on 57.6/41.7/80% shooting splits. He became the third player ever to average a triple double (3 stats in double digits) and the first player ever to have a game with 30 points, 20 rebounds and 20 assists. He surpassed Carmelo Anthony to be third on the Nuggets all time scoring list, and Magic Johnson for third place on the all time triple doubles list. He was named a top-two MVP candidate finisher for the last 5 years.

Luka Dončić

After Luka’s blockbuster trade to the Los Angeles Lakers in February, he averaged 28.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 7.5 assists with 2 stocks on 43.8/37.9/79.1% efficiency. In half of his 28 games as a Laker, he recorded at least 30 points and 10 assists, including his career high of 53 points against the Golden State Warriors. As Luka only played 50 games for the season he was ineligible for awards, but becoming the youngest player to score 12,000 points and cracking the top 10 all-time triple doubles list before turning 27 are surely indicative of an MVP-caliber season to come.

Victor Wembanyama

A blood clot unfortunately cut Wembanyama’s season to 46 games last season, where he was still blocked the most shots in the regular season as he averaged 3.8 blocks, the only time since 2000 this statline has been reached. After an offseason working with historic figures such as Kevin Garnett, Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaolin monks, he is now healthy and sharper than ever and poised to become a franchise leader for years to come. His statline of 24.3/11/3.7 last season with his insane block statline and over a steal a game will surely be surpassed in his third year as he contends for MVP and DPOY.

Major Injuries & Absences:

The 2025 NBA season and playoffs saw an alarming and unfortunate surge in Achilles tendon ruptures and ACL tears, resulting in entertaining guards and wings being ruled out for the majority, if not totality of the coming season. Here are some major names affected:

Tyrese Haliburton

Although he was snubbed from the NBA All Star Game averaging 18.6 points and 9.1 assists and bringing the Indiana Pacers to the 4 seed, his playoff run was nothing short of incredible. This team came back from a 15 point deficit late in the game 5 times, resulting in intense last minute comebacks, including Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The Pacers were down by 9 points with less than 3 minutes left, where a comeback from this position hadn’t occured since 1997.

Jayson Tatum

After being awarded All-NBA first team for the fourth-straight season with a statline of 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 6 assists a game, his playoff run was cut short due to an unfortunate Achilles tear. After beating the Orlando Magic in 5 games, and an entertaining first 3 games against the New York Knicks in the conference semifinal, Game 4 at MSG had Tatum drop 42 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists intending to tie the series up at 2-2. With just under 3 minutes left in the game, Tatum went down, a heartbreaking moment for Celtics fans, spelling disaster for their playoff run, with them being knocked out in 6 games.

Damian Lillard

After playing just under 60 games for his new team, the Milwaukee Bucks, averaging 24.9/7.1/4.7 and being selected to his tenth NBA All-Star game, he was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis in his right calf, ruling him out for the rest of the regular season. While facing the Indiana Pacers in game 4 while being down 2-1, he went down with an Achilles injury sidelining him for the remainder of the season and next season as well.

Other players

Notable players not listed here who are sidelined for large parts of the coming season include Kyrie Irving and Fred Vanvleet due to ACL tears, and Dejounte Murray with a torn Achilles.

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Where to Watch

National US Viewers: ESPN, ABC, NBC, and NBA TV are the primary broadcast partners of the NBA, with some games to be shown on various streaming services who signed new deals such as Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Peacock.

Local Broadcasts: Blackout rules remain integral for fans streaming NBA games. Regional and national sports networks determine which games are available in certain areas of the country, meaning that even with a League Pass or other streaming service subscriptions, viewers in a team’s local market may be restricted in an effort to encourage fans to attend games. Nationally televised games are usually exempt from blackouts.

Global Viewers: The NBA League Pass subscription service offers live and on-demand access to all games to fans around the world, as well as regional broadcasters having rights in specific markets such as DAZN in Europe, Sky Sports in the UK and Kayo Sports in Australia.

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Odds & Predictions

Title Favourites: The defending champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder are the favourites to win the NBA title, with their odds at +200, followed closely by the Donovan Mitchell led Cleveland Cavaliers at +650 and the Nikola Jokic led Denver Nuggets at +700.

Regular Season MVP: Experts back Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to win his second consecutive MVP his season, with his odds at +240, followed closely by Nikola Jokic with his improved supporting cast at +250 and Luka Doncic in his first full season with the Lakers at +425. ESPN Bet SportsBook has first time candidate, Victor Wembanyama, predicted to have a breakout season, placing his odds at +800.

Other Awards: Victor Wembanyama headlines the DPOY charge with his odds at -165, after his blood clot last season cut his campaign short after 46 games, marking him ineligible for the award. First overall draft pick Cooper Flagg of the Dallas Mavericks begins the season at -225 odds, with other top picks such as Tre Johnson, Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey rounding out the top 4 with +900, +1300 and +1400.

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What Makes This NBA Season Special?

This is the first season with the 11 year media deal, bringing games back to NBC and beginning a new partnership with Amazon Prime Video. This has resulted in an increase from 172 to 247 nationally televised games which will ensure that more games are more easily accessible to fans. The NBA Cup, in its third year, has affected change in the regular season schedule, properly accomodating the tournament for the first time in its short history. Finally, international fixtures in Mexico City and large European cities such as London, Paris and Berlin aid in the games globalisation.

This season promises some of the most thrilling moments in NBA history, with an exciting set of new draftees, a number of top MVP contenders and aging talent extending their reign. Keep an eye on the NBA standings throughout the season and catch the action live on 365Scores.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

All stats sourced from ESPN, NBA.com, Basketball-Reference, and Transfermarkt. Last verified: October 20, 2025.