A month ago, the Bucks unveiled their 2025–26 schedule, and Jackson gave us a 30,000 foot view back then as a quick reaction. But each year when the schedule comes out, I like to do a bit of a deeper dive. Since I was off camping when this schedule dropped, you’ll have to excuse my tardiness. Anywho, you can see the entire schedule here, but like last year, let’s go over some key stretches throughout the season, plus some other minutae. Here’s a loose chronological outline of the year:
For the first time in four years, the regular season will not open against the Philadelphia 76ers. As you may know, the Bucks start the regular season at Fiserv Forum welcoming back Khris Middleton and the Wizards on October 22nd.Soon after, they have an early three-game set of high profile opponents from games three through five: at Cleveland, then at home playing the Knicks and Warriors.Their first back-to-back is on November 3rd and 4th in Indiana—Myles Turner’s return—and Toronto the following evening. A home-road B2B on November 9th and 10th plus a home-home B2B later that week on November 14th and 15th equates to a stretch where the Bucks will play six games in eight days.From November 22–29, they’ll have five in seven, then six in eight again from November 28th to December 6th. After that comes NBA Cup play, where the schedule is TBD.On December 21st, the Bucks embark on a five-game road trip, though the furthest they’ll travel is Charlotte. All of their prior road trips will be no more than two games, and all in Central or Eastern time. They likely can come back to Milwaukee for at least a night or two during that slate, particularly with a jaunt to the United Center among them.Another five-in-seven slate takes us from December 26th to January 2nd. Next up is their first voyage to the West Coast, featuring the Kings, Warriors, Lakers, and Nuggets. They return home briefly to face Minnesota, then head to San Antonio and Atlanta. Upon returning home on January 21st, they’ll have OKC, Denver, and Dallas awaiting them after spending nearly all of January on the road. Not an easy itinerary!Thankfully, there are no back-to-backs in January. They’ll also have two days off twice, and three days off in between the aforementioned Spurs and Hawks games.February begins with their first Celitcs matchup, their only trip to Beantown. They saw Boston three times in their first 22 games last year, and this year they won’t see them until game 48.After a trio of home games in early February that are part of a five-in-seven, they’ll spend some time in Orlando, playing the Magic twice in three days (interesting). The second of those two is the front end of a B2B that will involve them flying to Oklahoma City for the last game before the All-Star break.Milwaukee returns from the break in New Orleans followed by a run of seven Eastern Conference rivals the ensuing two weeks into March.These games are a little packed in, with two five-in-seven periods over their first two weeks back home. All but one of these games are at Fiserv at least, and that lone away date is in Chicago.In fact, the Bucks will be at home for all but two games between February 22nd and March 12th. They’ll also do six in eight from March 7–15.As you might expect, the final month of the season is slightly more travel-heavy, with nine of their final 16 regular season games away from Milwaukee.That period includes their second Western road trip through Utah, Phoenix, Los Angeles (Clippers this time), and Portland. They return home for a B2B with the Spurs and Clippers for the second time in a week to close March.April comes in like a lion in Houston, but it easies (lambs?) up after with home dates against Boston and Memphis. There are seven games in just 12 days, though.Milwaukee closes their regular season first on the road against Brooklyn and Detroit in a road-road B2B, then head back home quickly to face the Nets for the second time that week before game 82 in Philly.
Big Eastern Conference matchups
Here are the season series against some of the projected top contenders in the East:
Cavaliers: in Cleveland on October 26th and November 17th; in Milwaukee on February 25th and March 17thKnicks: in New York on November 28th; in Milwaukee on October 28th and February 27thMagic: in Orlando on February 9th and 11th; in Milwaukee on March 8thHawks: in Atlanta on January 19 and March 14th; in Milwaukee on March 4thPistons: in Detroit on December 6 and April 8th; in Milwaukee on November 22nd and December 3rd
Due to the injuries to Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum, the Pacers and Celtics matchups are probably not as critical as the ones above, but those two are big rivals of the Bucks in spirit, especially with Myles Turner coming to Milwaukee. The Bucks head to Indianapolis on November 3rd and December 23rd, then host the Pacers on February 4th and March 15th. As for the Celtics, the Bucks duel them at TD Garden on February 1st, but will have the Fiserv Forum crowd behind them for the other two contests on March 2nd and April 3rdd.
Teams always face their divisional rivals four times (twice at home and twice on the road), then play the other 10 teams in the conference either three or four times. As usual, I’ll note the intraconference opponents they play four times: this year it’s Charlotte, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Washington. Ergo, they play Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Miami, New York, and Orlando three times each. Of course, they may get one of those five another time due to the NBA Cup, whether it’s part of the tournament or the two normal regular-season games for teams that don’t make the eight-team field (if that comes to pass, hope it’s Brooklyn). In any case, it’s nice to have likely two tankers among the four-timer group, plus two others who disappointed last year and may again in 2025–26.
Big Western Conference matchups
Based on star power and record from last year, here are some select matchups with teams from out west:
Thunder: January 21st home, February 12th away (also preseason on Tuesday, October 14th at home)Rockets: November 9th home, April 1st awayLakers: November 15th home, January 9th awayNuggets: January 13th away, January 23rd homeClippers: March 23rd, March 29th homeTimberwolves: December 21st away, January 13th homeWarriors: November 1st home, January 7th awayMavericks: November 10th away, January 25th homeSpurs: January 15th away, March 28th home
That means you can see Steph Curry in Milwaukee on November 1st, Kevin Durant on November 9th, Luka Doncic and LeBron on November 15th, 2025 MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the reigning champs on January 21st, Nikola Jokic on January 23rd, and Victor Wembanyama on March 28th. Additionally, the Blazers visit Milwaukee on November 24th, and although Damian Lillard will obviously not be playing, he may still make the trip.
You’ll recall the Bucks’ 2-8 start last year, which I highlighted before the season as a potentially hairy period in the schedule. The first ten games this year don’t look nearly as bad, even with two back-to-backs. Some of the other rough times in 2025 were at the end of March as I anticipated, but of the other areas that worried me, the Bucks actually did fine, going at least .500. I didn’t see what ended up as a four-game losing streak from January into February as one of those areas, though. But how about this year? These spots look like trouble:
December 21–26: at Wolves, at Pacers, at Grizzlies, at Bulls (B2B)January 7–23: at Warriors, at Lakers, at Nuggets, Wolves, at Spurs, at Hawks, Thunder, NuggetsFebruary 9–12: at Magic, at Magic, at Thunder (B2B)March 28–April 3: Spurs, Clippers, at Rockets, Celtics
Yes, January looks tricky, but all told, that’s honestly much less intimidating than last year. Part of that’s because the East is so wide open, but also because Milwaukee benefits from having several of their tough opponents followed up by teams like Washington, Brooklyn, and Utah. Interestingly, however, they will face the Cavs and Knicks in consecutive games twice. Those couplets may be revealing.
The NBA Cup (aka the In-Season Tournament)
Jackson ran down the Bucks’ Group C draw last month as they look to defend their NBA Cup title. The knockout stages are from December 9–16 this year, and if they make it in, the quarterfinals would be in home markets on December 9th or 10th. Then things move to Vegas for the semifinals on December 13th and the final on December 16th. Should the Bucks make the knockout round but lose their quarterfinal matchup, they’d add a regular-season game on December 11th or 12th. If they don’t make it at all, they’ll instead be scheduled for two regular-season games: one on December 12th and another on either the 15th or 16th.
The NBA tries to schedule those regular-season games between conference rivals that play each other only three times during the regular season. But the way the numbers shake out, there will be two interconference games among those, so the Bucks could play a Western team thrice. Or they could play an Eastern opponent five times in the regular season: any of the four other teams in their division, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington, or Charlotte. I wouldn’t mind an extra game against one of the latter two.
For the second year running, no Christmas Day game for the Bucks. They will, however, play in Atlanta on Martin Luther King Day (January 19th) at noon CST. And they’ll be at home for another Wizards matchup on New Year’s Eve, plus a road tilt with New York on Black Friday.Milwaukee will be featured in 18 nationally televised broadcasts—actually one more than last year. That ranks 13th, two more than the Pistons and three less than the Clippers (the Warriors, Lakers, Knicks, and Thunder lead all teams with 34 each).That figure of 18 does not include NBA TV, but does include Peacock and Prime Video. Nine of their national games aren’t on a traditional cable network and are instead on either streaming platform.Over the air, the Bucks will be on old/new media partner NBC on Tuesdays four times: October 28th (Knicks), January 13th (Nuggets), January 27th (Sixers), and March 17th (Cavs). Like the last couple years, the team may announce other games that will be simulcast from FanDuel Sports Network on local TV affiliates around the state. That tends to happen in the second half of the year.Here’s one for Giannis, who always needs his pregame nap: their weekend matinees are November 9th (Rockets), February 1st (Celtics on ESPN), February 22nd (Raptors), March 1st (Bulls), March 14th (Hawks), March 15th (Pacers—a day game B2B!), March 28th (Spurs), March 29th (Clippers—another!), and April 5th (Grizzlies).Like last year, their longest road trip is five games. Thankfully, three of those games are in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Indianapolis. They have three four-game road trips, one of which doesn’t go out west.In early March, they have their longest homestand of five games. Last year, they had two four-game home stands; only one this year, but it happens right before the five-gamer I just mentioned.The Bucks have 14 back-to-backs, which is about average compared to the rest of the league. 12 teams have more B2Bs (either 15 or 16 B2Bs), and six teams have fewer (13). Last year, they had 16.Of those B2Bs, four come on the road, five have both ends at home, and the other five feature one end away and the other in Fiserv.For the 10 B2Bs that involve travel, here are the distances the team will have to fly (or bus) after the front end, sorted longest to shortest: Orlando to Oklahoma City, Milwaukee to Dallas, New York to Milwaukee, Atlanta to Milwaukee, Brooklyn to Detroit, Chicago to Memphis, Indiana to Toronto, Milwaukee to Detroit, and Chicago to Milwaukee. The flight time for the longest (Orlando to OKC) is around 2.5 hours; the rest are typically under two hours.The Bucks’ preseason schedule: at Miami on October 6, home versus Detroit on October 9, at Chicago on October 12, then back at home versus OKC on October 14—eight days before the regular season tips off.
That’s more than enough info about the Bucks’ 2025–26 regular season schedule. Anything sticking out to you? Let us know in the comments.