{"id":262434,"date":"2025-09-02T07:58:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T07:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/262434\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T07:58:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T07:58:14","slug":"when-does-nba-preseason-start-key-dates-full-game-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/262434\/","title":{"rendered":"When does NBA preseason start? Key dates, Full game schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Five-time NBA All-Star John Wall retires after 11 seasons<\/p>\n

Former NBA star John Wall has announced that he is retiring from the NBA after 11 seasons.<\/p>\n

unbranded – Sport<\/p>\n

The NBA preseason starts Oct. 2nd with the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks playing in Abu Dhabi.Preseason games will be played internationally in the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Puerto Rico, Vancouver, and Macao.The regular season begins Oct. 21st with the Oklahoma Thunder hosting the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers hosting the Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n

The NBA<\/a> preseason is often overlooked by fans. Sure, it can be an opportunity to see some lesser-known players take the court for your favorite franchise, but until the games start counting toward the win-loss column, the urgency of those games can feel underwhelming.<\/p>\n

Of course, to the diehard fanatics though, the preseason just means that the start of the regular season<\/a> is just around the corner, serving as a bit of an appetizer to the main course. The preseason offers an ability for teams to evaluate new players, try new strategies and get a better understanding of how to put their best foot forward.<\/p>\n

Just last year, the teams at the top of the preseason standings trended toward relevancy once the season rolled around. The Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>, eventual champions, went 4-1. The New York Knicks<\/a>, eventual Eastern Conference finalists, boasted a similarly impressive 4-1 record.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the preseason isn’t just to get players back into basketball shape. It’s an opportunity for fans to get a taste of the great regular season that is to come. Here are the important dates to look out for as we approach the start of the preseason:<\/p>\n

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When does the NBA preseason start?<\/p>\n

The NBA preseason begins on Thursday, Oct. 2 with a matchup between the New York Knicks<\/a> and Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>. The game will take place at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates at 12 p.m. ET. The two teams will play a second preseason game at the stadium just two days later on Oct. 4 at 11 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n

There will be a myriad of international games this preseason. Apart the two Abu Dhabi games, the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> will play two games against NBL teams at Melbourne Park in Australia. The Orlando Magic<\/a> and Miami Heat<\/a> will play their Oct. 4 preseason opener in San Juan, Puerto Rico. There will also be a game in Vancouver between the Denver Nuggets<\/a> and Toronto Raptors<\/a> on Oct. 6. The final international games of the preseason will be the China Series, which will feature two games between the Phoenix Suns<\/a> and Brooklyn Nets<\/a> from The Venetian Arena in Macao.<\/p>\n

The final day of the NBA preseason will be Friday, Oct, 17. There will be eight games played that day with the final being a 10:30 p.m. ET showdown between the Sacramento Kings<\/a> and Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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When does the NBA regular season start?<\/p>\n

The NBA regular season begins on Tuesday, Oct. 21.<\/p>\n

Only two games will be played opening night. To kick things off, the defending NBA champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder will hang their banner before hosting the Houston Rockets<\/a> from Paycom Center at 7:30 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, the Los Angeles Lakers will host the Golden State Warriors in a classic LeBron James vs. Steph Curry matchup. Tip-off for that contest is set for 10 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

KOBE BRYANT TRIBUTES: How Lakers legend was remembered on Mamba Day<\/a><\/p>\n

Full 2025 NBA preseason schedule<\/p>\n

All times listed are Eastern<\/p>\n

Thursday, Oct. 2Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks, 12 p.m. (at Abu Dhabi, UAE)Friday, Oct. 3Phoenix Suns at Los Angeles Lakers, 10 p.m.Saturday, Oct. 4New York Knicks vs. Philadelphia 76ers, 11 a.m. (at Abu Dhabi, UAE)Orlando Magic vs. Miami Heat, 8 p.m. (at San Juan, Puerto Rico)Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> at Denver Nuggets, 9 p.m.Sunday, Oct. 5Oklahoma City Thunder at Charlotte Hornets, 5 p.m.Los Angeles Lakers at Golden State Warriors, 8:30 p.m.Monday, Oct. 6Milwaukee Bucks at Miami Heat, 7:30 p.m.Detroit Pistons<\/a> at Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>, 8 p.m.Atlanta Hawks at Houston Rockets, 8 p.m.Oklahoma City Thunder at Dallas Mavericks, 8:30 p.m.Denver Nuggets vs. Toronto Raptors, 10 p.m. (at Vancouver)Tuesday, Oct. 7Wednesday, Oct. 8San Antonio Spurs<\/a> at Miami Heat, 7:30 p.m.Utah Jazz<\/a> at Houston Rockets, 8 p.m.Boston Celtics at Memphis Grizzlies, 8 p.m.Toronto Raptors at Sacramento Kings, 10 p.m.Portland Trail Blazers at Golden State Warriors, 10 p.m.Thursday, Oct. 9Minnesota Timberwolves at New York Knicks, 7:30 p.m.Cleveland Cavaliers at Chicago Bulls, 8 p.m.Detroit Pistons at Milwaukee Bucks, 8 p.m.Charlotte Hornets at Oklahoma City Thunder, 8 p.m.Friday, Oct. 10Phoenix Suns vs. Brooklyn Nets, 8 a.m. (at Macao, China)Boston Celtics at Toronto Raptors, 7 p.m.Orlando Magic at Philadelphia 76ers, 7 p.m.Utah Jazz at San Antonio Spurs, 8 p.m.Sacramento Kings at Portland Trail Blazers, 10 p.m.Saturday, Oct. 11Oklahoma City Thunder at Indiana Pacers, 7 p.m.Atlanta Hawks at Memphis Grizzlies, 8 p.m.Charlotte Hornets at Dallas Mavericks, 8:30 p.m.Sunday, Oct. 12Brooklyn Nets vs. Phoenix Suns, 7 a.m. (at Macao, China)Toronto Raptors at Washington Wizards<\/a>, 3 p.m.Miami Heat at Orlando Magic, 6 p.m.Milwaukee Bucks at Chicago Bulls, 7 p.m.Cleveland Cavaliers at Boston Celtics, 7 p.m.Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Lakers, 9:30 p.m.Denver Nuggets at Los Angeles Clippers, 9:30 p.m.Monday, Oct. 13Miami Heat at Atlanta Hawks, 6 p.m.San Antonio Spurs at Indiana Pacers, 7 p.m.Washington Wizards at New York Knicks, 7:30 p.m.Dallas Mavericks at Utah Jazz, 9 p.m.Tuesday, Oct. 14Detroit Pistons at Cleveland Cavaliers, 7 p.m.Oklahoma City Thunder at Milwaukee Bucks, 8 p.m.Houston Rockets at New Orleans Pelicans, 8 p.m.Chicago Bulls at Denver Nuggets, 9 p.m.Los Angeles Lakers at Phoenix Suns, 10 p.m.Golden State Warriors at Portland Trail Blazers, 10 p.m.Wednesday, Oct. 15Memphis Grizzlies at Charlotte Hornets, 7 p.m.Toronto Raptors at Boston Celtics, 7:30 p.m.Los Angeles Clippers at Sacramento Kings, 10 p.m.Dallas Mavericks at Los Angeles Lakers, 10:30 p.m.Thursday, Oct.Washington Wizards at Detroit Pistons, 7 p.m.New Orleans Pelicans at Orlando Magic, 7 p.m.Houston Rockets at Atlanta Hawks, 7:30 p.m.Minnesota Timberwolves at Chicago Bulls, 8 p.m.Portland Trail Blazers at Utah Jazz, 9 p.m.Friday, Oct.Brooklyn Nets at Toronto Raptors, 7 p.m.Minnesota Timberwolves at Philadelphia 76ers, 7 p.m.Charlotte Hornets at New York Knicks, 7:30 p.m.Indiana Pacers at San Antonio Spurs, 8 p.m.Denver Nuggets at Oklahoma City Thunder, 8 p.m.Memphis Grizzlies at Miami Heat, 8 p.m.Los Angeles Clippers at Golden State Warriors, 10 p.m.Sacramento Kings at Los Angeles Lakers, 10:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news \u2014 fast.\u00a0Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five-time NBA All-Star John Wall retires after 11 seasons Former NBA star John Wall has announced that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[679,2126,299,673,7,670,247,920,919,329,301,187,296,188,2127,294,144,2125,292,194,113,126,423,4056,304,300,298,150,48,293,177,295,189,307,152,54,79,70,85,6,671,62,239,470,1136,191,67,3810,3806,53,302,47,76,674,61,81,114,675,678,207,2065,472,297,681,211,986,477,672,474,66,83,534,55,2128,604,308,680,476,422,427,682,468,683,303],"class_list":{"0":"post-262434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-angeles","11":"tag-antonio","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-brooklyn","14":"tag-brooklyn-nets","15":"tag-bulls","16":"tag-chicago","17":"tag-chicago-bulls","18":"tag-denver","19":"tag-denver-nuggets","20":"tag-detroit","21":"tag-detroit-pistons","22":"tag-enabled","23":"tag-grizzlies","24":"tag-heat","25":"tag-highlights","26":"tag-houston","27":"tag-houston-rockets","28":"tag-indiana","29":"tag-indiana-pacers","30":"tag-jazz","31":"tag-kings","32":"tag-knicks","33":"tag-lakers","34":"tag-los","35":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","36":"tag-magic","37":"tag-memphis","38":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","39":"tag-miami","40":"tag-miami-heat","41":"tag-minnesota","42":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","43":"tag-modular","44":"tag-modular-story","45":"tag-national","46":"tag-national-sports","47":"tag-nba","48":"tag-nets","49":"tag-neutral","50":"tag-new","51":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","52":"tag-new-york","53":"tag-new-york-knicks","54":"tag-news","55":"tag-newyork","56":"tag-newyorkknicks","57":"tag-now","58":"tag-nuggets","59":"tag-orlando","60":"tag-orlando-magic","61":"tag-orleans","62":"tag-overall","63":"tag-overall-neutral","64":"tag-pacers","65":"tag-pelicans","66":"tag-philadelphia","67":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","68":"tag-phoenix","69":"tag-phoenix-suns","70":"tag-pistons","71":"tag-raptors","72":"tag-rockets","73":"tag-sacramento","74":"tag-sacramento-kings","75":"tag-san","76":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","77":"tag-sports","78":"tag-sports-news","79":"tag-spurs","80":"tag-story","81":"tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","82":"tag-suns","83":"tag-timberwolves","84":"tag-toronto","85":"tag-toronto-raptors","86":"tag-utah","87":"tag-utah-jazz","88":"tag-washington","89":"tag-washington-wizards","90":"tag-wizards","91":"tag-york"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}