The Dallas Mavericks are a little more than six weeks away from kicking off training camp in Vancouver, but they finally have clarity about their regular-season schedule that’ll span from late October to mid-April.
The NBA announced the schedules for the regular seasons for all 30 teams on Thursday afternoon and the Mavericks are the beneficiaries of a favorable amount of nationally televised games.
Here are six takeaways from the Mavericks’ 2025-26 regular season schedule:
Goin’ back-to-back: The Mavericks are slated to play in 14 back-to-backs this season. While that’s one set more than last season’s total of 13, there are five teams with 16 sets of back-to-back games (Charlotte, Denver, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington) and seven teams with 15 (Golden State, LA Clippers, Miami, New Orleans, Portland, Toronto and Utah).
Mavericks
Five of Dallas’ back-to-backs will be played at American Airlines Center and do not require any travel. Five of them begin and end on the road. Two are home-to-road and the other two are road-to-home.
The Mavericks finished with a record of 8-5 in the second game of back-to-backs last season.
Still in the spotlight: The Mavericks are expected to be without Kyrie Irving for multiple months to begin the season as he recovers from ACL surgery. However, that doesn’t mean there will be a lack of exposure for a team that still has Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, Dereck Lively II and No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg.
The Mavericks have the 10th-most national TV games in the NBA this season with 23 games, including eight on NBC/Peacock, five on Amazon’s Prime Video, five on ESPN, three on ABC and two on Peacock alone. The team’s local broadcast schedule is expected to be announced at a later date.
Away for the holidays: The Mavericks had the benefit of spending the majority of the holiday season in Dallas in 2024-25, but that won’t be the case this year.
The Mavericks will spend Halloween abroad as they prepare to face the Detroit Pistons in the 2025 Mexico City Game on Nov. 1. Thanksgiving will also be on the road since they’ll face Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers for the first time on Nov. 28, which falls on Black Friday.
Less than a month later, they’ll spend Christmas Day in the Bay Area as they visit the Golden State Warriors. After spending New Year’s Day in Houston in 2025, the Mavericks will have the luxury of bringing 2026 in from the comfort of their own homes before they host Philadelphia on Jan. 1.
Related:Full Dallas Mavericks’ 2025-26 NBA regular season schedule released
When will Luka return, again? It won’t be nearly as emotional as the first time, but going forward, Doncic’s return to American Airlines Center will be one of the league’s most anticipated games of the year.
Jan. 24 is the day the former Mavericks superstar returns to the place he once called home. It’s one of four games listed on the schedule against the Lakers. Doncic will also return on April 5.
Interesting trends: The Mavericks will start their 45th anniversary season with a five-game homestand, their longest of the season. The first three opponents did not qualify for the playoffs last season, but the other two foes met in last season’s NBA Finals: Oklahoma City and Indiana.
The Mavs’ longest road trip of the season is six games, spanning from Feb. 7 to 24, but it’s broken up into three each because of the All-Star break. The opponents during that stretch: San Antonio, Phoenix, Los Angeles. They’ll come out of the break and visit Minnesota, Indiana and Brooklyn.
The second-longest road trip of the season is a five-game East Coast swing from March 3 to March 10, with opponents including Charlotte, Orlando, Boston, Toronto and Atlanta.
Possible Irving return game?
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when Irving will be healthy enough to return from an ACL tear he suffered in his left leg on March 3. According to the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, where the team announced Irving underwent a successful procedure on March 26, it usually takes 9 to 12 months to recover from ACL surgery.
Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison gave a brief update on Irving on July 14 ahead of the team’s third summer league game.
“Kyrie’s ahead of schedule, but we kind of knew he would be because of the way he attacks his rehab and he’s going [in] two and three times a day,” Harrison said.
Here are a few options for an Irving return based on 9, 10, 11 and 12-month timelines.
The first game after the 9-month mark is a road game on Dec. 27 against the Sacramento Kings. The first game after the 10-month mark is a home game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Jan. 28.
If the Mavericks choose to wait until after the All-Star break, then the first game after the 11-month mark is a home game against the Sacramento Kings.
Either matchup against the Kings would be symbolic because Irving suffered his injury in a home game against the Kings.
If Irving chooses to wait a full 12 months before he returns to the court, then the first game he’d be eligible to play in would fall on March 27 at Portland. That would leave the veteran guard with nine games left in the regular season to ramp up for the playoffs.
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