NBA Schedule Hands Mavericks and Spurs Marquee Games Despite Missing Playoffs

If there is anything to glean from the 2025-26 NBA schedule, it’s that the flutter of a ping-pong ball inside a vacuum cleaner, while set on reverse, can make you an instant marquee attraction.

Talk about cleaning up.

After near fan mutiny a season ago, the Dallas Mavericks were still invited back to the coveted Christmas Day slate of games this December. So were the San Antonio Spurs. Neither team made the official 16-team playoff field, yet they weren’t exactly the dregs of the NBA either.

It was almost as if the draft lottery process took pity on the Mavericks, who traded away franchise icon Luka Doncic in February, then got the rights to another future star in May when long draft-lottery odds flipped in their favor. Just over a month later, Dallas drafted Cooper Flagg from Duke.

There were 11 teams with worse records than the Mavericks last season and one with an identical 39-43 mark. But Dallas still landed the draft’s biggest prize.

The Spurs struck draft-lottery gold in 2023 and selected their power forward in a center’s body with the No. 1 pick: Victor Wembanyama. Even with Wembanyama reduced to 46 games because of blood clots last season, the Spurs saw a 12-win improvement.

There were eight teams worse than the Spurs last season, yet they landed the No. 2 pick in the draft through the lottery. They turned that selection into Dylan Harper from Rutgers, who brings NBA pedigree to the league after his father Ron turned his all-around game into a career spanning 15 seasons.

The NBA took note.

The Christmas Day slate will have the Spurs taking on the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the second of five games. That will be followed by the Mavericks’ visit to the Golden State Warriors, which will include both Flagg’s Christmas Day debut and another return to the Bay Area for Klay Thompson.

The schedule opens with the Cleveland Cavaliers visiting the New York Knicks and includes the Houston Rockets visiting the Los Angeles Lakers. The full day concludes with the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Denver Nuggets.

Missing from the holiday haul: the Eastern Conference champion Indiana Pacers.

The Thunder edged the Pacers in a seven-game NBA Finals last season, although the deciding game was marred by a first-quarter Achilles tear to Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton.

Already set to miss the entire 2025-26 season, Haliburton’s injury undoubtedly lessened the Pacers’ must-see status. Still, they will be eager to match up with the Thunder, first at home on Oct. 23, then at OKC on Jan. 23. Both are midweek games.

The Thunder will highlight opening night opposite the Houston Rockets on Oct. 21, while they are double billed with the Warriors visiting the Lakers. The first of San Antonio’s four matchups against the Timberwolves, in a set of Western Conference finals rematch games, will take place at home the day before Thanksgiving.

The Lakers and Doncic are set to host his former team, the Mavericks, on Nov. 28. They will travel to Dallas on Jan. 24 in an ABC broadcast. A third game is set for L.A. on Feb. 12 and at Dallas again on April 5.

New York vs. Boston — NBA style — will go down four times: Oct. 24 and April 9 at New York; Dec. 2 and Feb. 10 at Boston. The teams faced off in the Eastern Conference semifinals last season with the Knicks advancing in six games.

Kevin Durant is on the Rockets now and will face his previous team, the Phoenix Suns, for the first time in the desert on Nov. 24.

The Clippers added experience to their backcourt with Chris Paul and Bradley Beal, both of whom were recent members of the Suns but never played together there. They return to Phoenix when the Clippers visit Nov. 6. The teams will meet three times by Nov. 8.

The Clippers also will host NBA All-Star Weekend Feb. 13-15.

Halloween night will mark the start of NBA Cup group play, while the NBA Cup final will take place Dec. 16.

While teams typically are the highlight of the schedule, this year a network also takes center stage. The NBA will return to NBC for the first time since 2002, and John Tesh’s earworm “Roundball Rock” is sure to start playing ad nauseam.

The first games back on the NBC airwaves will be the Oct. 21 season-opening doubleheader. Peacock NBA Monday begins Oct. 27. NBC/Peacock also will broadcast a Martin Luther King Jr. quadrupleheader on Jan. 19.

When the schedule was released, it was clear that some had to get lucky in order to make their way to a marquee game. Others just need the remote control.