Most anticipated matchups on 2026-27 NBA schedule
Chris Mannix and Grant Liffmann take a deep dive into the 2026-27 NBA schedule release, discussing the opening day slate on NBC and Peacock, the marquee matchups like Wemby vs. Chet and much more.
Most anticipated matchups on 2026-27 NBA schedule originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Video Transcript
Hey, everyone.
Grant Lithman here alongside Chris Mannix, and we, get to talk about an NBA schedule release.
It is finally here, even though it feels like the finals just ended, and yet we're somehow close to opening night again.
It happens every year it feels like.
And Chris, like, let's just jump straight into it.
Opening night, opening day NBC games, what are your thoughts?
You got a 3:00 PM game.
What are your thoughts on the games with the slate that day?
I have no complaints whatsoever about the opening day slate.
I'm not just being a company man here.
I think it's 10 out of 10 perfect.
All three games make a lot of sense.
Celtics, let's see what they look like in the post Jaylen Brown era against a Pistons team that, as we record this, I have no idea what they're gonna look like.
So what is gonna happen with Jaylen Duren?
They've had some other changes to their roster in the off-season.
I love Sixers-Knicks, r- ring night, banner night, the whole nine yards in New York City.
LeBron James going back to New York, where he's probably gonna be living this off-sea- during the season, playing against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
And then give me as many Oklahoma City against San Antonio games as you possibly can.
And I think that's the first opportunity for us to see if there has been an evolution in Chet Holmgren, 'cause that's what I'm looking for, Grant.
Like, I wanna see if Chet has put in the unseen hours this off-season, doing the work, putting it in to get ready and get better in his match-ups with Victor Wembanyama.
I love all three of these games on opening night.
Absolutely, and I love the 3:00 PM game, too.
Let's get other eyes, eyeballs out there.
I know international audiences can tune in for that as well.
And for me, I look at it and I could not agree more about these games, and each one has such juicy storylines.
Like, every team on opening night has juicy storylines.
Like, just think about y- y- you obviously know Boston well.
Just Jason Tatum, this is his team now, right?
It kinda was his be- team before, but now it's like, "Hey, we traded away Jaylen Brown.
This is your team.
There's no more, Jays."
And then you got Detroit, and we have to By the time the season comes along, either you're gonna have a really upset Duren, or you're gonna have some just, just like a, a, a happy confluence of all these things that just finally came together at the end.
Or it's, there, there could be some awkwardness there.
You got Sixers, obviously you just talked about LeBron, but Jaylen Brown and just the whole, how about the Knicks, who are gonna be the favorites in the East against the Sixers team, who a lot of people are pretty bullish about, potentially challenging them in the East.
You get that right off the bat.
And as you said, OKC and San Antonio.
I think for the first time, it depends on what you think about Denver.
For the first time in the West, it, it, it seems like it's very clear there's two teams at the top, and then the rest.
Denver, I, I understand if you put them in there, and I do.
I'm pretty, I'm pretty high on Denver as well.
But we're talking about the future of this league, the current of this league, everything.
And then finally, Chris, like honestly, at the end of the day, is this the season we start saying Victor Wembanyama is the best player in the NBA?
And opening night he gets a chance to do it against Chet Holmgren.
I, I couldn't be more excited about this one.
Yeah.
I'm, I'm with you there, too.
I, I'd also add one thing about the 3:00 PM game, and I, I, I love it.
Because not only can you potentially appeal to a European audience with some of these games, but you can also appeal to a younger audience.
Like, how many teams during the regular season use one of those, like, Sunday afternoon games to call it Kids Night?
Because you've got a bunch of young kids who are incapable of staying up for a game that is gonna end at 10:30, 11:00, depending on how long the game goes.
Now you've got a 3:00 PM start.
I know it's not ideal for the working crowd, but you could still get 18,000, 19,000 fans to take the day off and come to that game.
You're gonna have a lot of fans, I'm telling you, bringing their young kids.
And the NBA, what do they want more than anything, Grant?
They wanna get younger.
They want a younger demographic.
Well, this is a great way to introduce or reintroduce a young crowd to NBA games.
Completely agree.
But speaking of introducing, let's talk about debut match-ups for some of these players that are gonna be on their new teams.
And I wanna start off with this one.
Obviously we got, we just talked about LeBron and Jaylen Brown going out on opening night.
But how about will LaMelo Ball the next night and his Wolves go and play Giannis in Miami?
Like, talk about a fun debut for both teams right there.
Giannis against LaMelo, and just with the, and just seeing the new vibes of these teams.
Like, that's a fun one to me.
That, that's a really good one.
I mean, like, I think Minnesota had their backs against the wall this off-season.
I think they had to do something to satisfy the need for Anthony Edwards to have this team get better, because over the last couple of years we've seen Minnesota kinda chip away at the foundation of a team that was really good.
Looked like a potential championship contender with Kat and some of these other deals that they've made.
I, I'm curious to see what another high usage rate guard in LaMelo Ball looks like opposite of Anthony Edwards.
But I'm gonna give you one kind of outside-the-box, a debut that's not really a debut, but I'm gonna call it a debut for these purposes.
The return of Damian Lillard to Portland.
Like, we forgot about Damian Lillard last year.
Like, he was out all season with the Achilles injury.
Now he's coming back, and he's coming back to a Blazers team that looks pretty damn different.
They go out there and they acquire Ja Morant.
Let's see how that works.
They've got new ownership there that's made some changes, new coach in there in Mike and Nuri.
Now you've got Dame coming back into the mix.
Is he still the all-NBA guard he was prior to his exit, the all-star guard?
Like, I'm very curious to see what in his mid-30s Damian Lillard looks like.
You know, that's such a huge point, because let's not, just two years ago they acquired Damian Lillard to Milwaukee to be the, the one-two punch for Giannis, and then everyone just kinda forgets about Damian Lillard 'cause he gets hurt and he's, and he disappears for a little bit.
Well, this is a Blazers team that really caught a lot of people off-guard last year.
Denny took this huge leap.
A lot of their younger guys got better.
Clingan got better, Toumani.
And all of a sudden you get Ja Morant and potentially a fully healthy Damian Lillard who- I mean, i- are they a sleeper team that no one's fully talking about?
Is there a chance that this team is better than a lot of people are giving them credit for?
I gotta see what Ja Morant looks like opposite Damian Lillard.
Like, I know- That's fair Dame coming back from this injury is not gonna be the 35 minute per game guy that he was prior to the injury.
Same thing probably with Ja Morant, who they're gonna wanna try to keep healthy.
You know, Ja has a history of injuries in addition to the other stuff that's gone on, with him.
But, you know, they're gonna wind up playing a lot of minutes together, and how many shots can Donovan Clingan block back there?
Like, they're gonna, they're gonna need, to figure out how it gets done defensively in that backcourt.
I think they have the potential to be dynamic offensively.
I think Dame is still gonna come back as an elite perimeter shooter, as an elite scorer.
Ja, he's gotta have something to prove.
Two years left on his contract, he's gonna wanna show that he's still a high-level guy.
But can they get enough stops on the defensive end to con- continue this upward trajectory?
I'm gonna need to see that first.
Just make sure Jrue Holiday or Tamika Mara are always on the court when one of them's on the court.
Maybe.
Maybe that's the way to do it.
Hey, here's just another fun little debut one, is the next night is the second night of NBA action.
Jazz at Memphis, you get a little Darren Peterson against, Cam Boozer, and then also the return of JJJ, Triple J, to Memphis.
That's a fun little one, right?
You know, I just wanna throw it.
You get to see- Oh the new look Jazz.
I like that.
I mean, a new look Jazz.
Like, they were hiding this team for most of the second half of last year.
So, look, this is the year Utah's gotta make a big leap.
I know they traded away Walker Kessler.
That takes something away, because they traded him for draft capital and flexibility and all that stuff.
But they have got real weapons there.
Their front line is really good.
I wanna see Jackson play alongside Markkanen.
I wanna see what Darren Peterson has.
I just wanna see what this team looks like fully whole, because I think fully whole, they can compete for a play-in spot in the Western Conference.
I really believe, with the coaching staff they have there, the tal- the experienced talent they have.
They've got a bunch of guys.
Kiante George, fringy all-star guy last year.
Like, they've got the weapons to be a really dynamic offensive team.
I wanna see if they can bring it all together in one season.
I completely agree.
All right, we're talking about some, anticipation we have for those match-ups and debuts, but how about some revenge homecoming?
Now, I wanna get your thoughts on the obvious one, Jaylen Brown at Boston.
I wanna get your thoughts on that, but the one I wanna throw out there as well is just Giannis returning to Milwaukee is gonna be a huge deal.
And somehow, there's so many tr- players got traded or moved teams, that Giannis going to Miami just kinda got brushed under the rug just a little bit.
Like, at that s- point, people were like, "Oh, LeBron and Jaylen Brown and this," and then you're like, "Well, by the way, Giannis left Milwaukee, and he is on Miami."
So, when he goes back to Milwaukee, really it's I mean, Milwaukee's not gonna be a good team, but talk about revenge.
Tyler Herro has some bad blood there.
So, I'm kinda excited to see how that all plays out.
But please walk me through what Jaylen Brown at Boston's gonna look like.
It's big.
Like, the tension is gonna be palpable.
And look, it doesn't happen, I think, till January 21st.
I think that's when he goes back to Boston, so we've got a bit of a wait before we get Jaylen Brown in the Garden once again.
They'll play again before that, a- against the 76ers in Philly.
But, like, that game is gonna have such enormous tension, because I think Jaylen Brown i- Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are both going to want to prove that they're the best wings on the floor.
Like, they're gonna be going at it.
Like, these two guys, like- They better guard each other.
They better guard each other.
I think J- I think I'll put it this way.
I think Jaylen Brown will be guarding Jayson Tatum.
I think that's for sure.
I like that.
Yeah.
Now, I think- That's fair.
That's fair will Joe, will Joe Mazzulla mix things up and play Paul George against Jaylen Brown for minutes?
Probably.
They will eventually collide, defensively for both sides.
But I think to start the game we'll see probably more Paul George.
But this is gonna be so intense, because these guys really haven't ratcheted down the speculation that they were frenemies, right?
Like, they were good friends, teammates, but also healthy competition.
Like, Jaylen Brown, his opening press conference with Philadelphia, he was asked point-blank, "Have you talked to Jayson Tatum?"
His answer was, "Not really."
So, like, you know, the, the Everybody's saying, like, there are some issues there.
Like, neither one of these guys has really given us reason to believe, even if it's just nominal or cursory, that there aren't real lingering, some real lingering stuff in there, and I, I think this is gonna be high drama.
We don't get many match-ups like this, where you've got two ex-teammates, both in their prime, coming back.
It's kind of, like, the top of my head, the one thing I could think of is when Durant came back with the Warriors to play against Westbrook.
Like, that A- and you remember the intensity of that game.
Russell Westbrook came out looking like he wanted to put 50 on Kevin Durant that night.
I think that Jaylen Brown, maybe not 50, but he wants to have 30 and he wants to hold Jayson Tatum to 10.
Yeah.
No.
That's I cannot wait for those.
And then, you know, there's so many big games, the slate.
You know, it's just so, so many big Holiday.
You know, you look at the Christmas Day slate and I thought they did a really good job on that one.
San Antonio at New York, that's obviously a finals rematch right there.
That should be a great one.
LeBron going back to LA.
That's, you know, I don't think there's as much of a storyline there, but, you know, that's still interesting.
It's something to look at.
Hey, I think it's kinda cool that Washington plays Utah.
You know, at, at, at some point they should've been on Christmas Day.
I think that would've been more fun.
You know, a little number one verse number two.
Maybe I'm too much into the rookie.
Here's the thing.
We've talked about this rookie class for so long.
It feels like we're getting lost, because again, so many stars moved and all this happened.
It's like, Dobansa, Peterson, Boozer, Caleb Wilson.
Like, I'm excited for these debuts.
So maybe, maybe I was just thinking outside the box.
That could've been a Christmas Day one.
But I think in general, pretty, pretty solid slate for Christmas Day.
I think it's a very solid slate.
I, I would You know, w- eventually we're gonna get to when these young rivalries are worthy of those kind of, of dates.
I am excited for the Dobansa-Peterson first match-up, both those guys believing they should've been the number one pick.
I'm sure Cam Boozer felt the same way.
Caleb Wilson, I'm sure he feels the same.
Like, there's a lot of guys at the top of that draft that, um- Certainly feel like they, they are gonna emerge as the best player in that draft.
But I like the Christmas Day slate.
The only change I might make is give me more Victor Wembanyama versus Chet Holmgren.
Like, give me more of these games.
Like, I want them on every marquee date you've got.
I want them on opening night, I want them on Christmas, I want them playing in the Cup Final.
I want them on Martin Luther King Day when NBC's got the quadruple header.
Like, I want as much Victor versus Chet as I can get, because that is, like, the, the, the match-up that's gonna define these guys for, for years to come.
Like, both these guys are gonna be superstars in their own right, but how they play against each other and who gets the leg up in terms of team success, th- that's gonna be what, what really separates them.
I love it.
I love it.
Just some, let's talk about a c- couple other games maybe you notice on the schedule.
When I was, I was looking through our schedule, the NBC schedule, and there's some just great games.
I'm looking at even just as simple as December 29th, in the holiday spirit, you got You remember LA took down Houston the first round, a big upset.
You got Durant going back to LA.
There's some bad blood there.
They're not, they don't love each other between those teams right there.
So I could see some fun, fun fireworks there.
MLK Day is just loaded.
You mentioned MLK Day.
I love any MLK game o- in Atlanta, as it should be, is awesome.
But then how about you bring back Jaylen Brown, who's from there, Marietta.
He goes there with LeBron James and the crew to Atlanta.
That's a fun game.
President's Day, how about this?
You got LaMelo returning to Charlotte.
Those, I mean, Charlotte's gonna be a fun team to watch again, so I love that, February 15th.
And then I just threw in a little fun one on President's Day as well.
How about Indiana?
People are just forgetting about Indiana.
Indiana at Golden State, a little Curry, a little Haliburton.
You put Curry on any national TV game, I'm, I'm good to go.
Like, let's, let's watch this.
But those are some games that kind of pop for me.
You're getting a little misty thinking of the LaMelo tribute video back in Charlotte.
Getting ready for that?
Yeah, I know.
That, that's coming.
Yeah, I'm, I'm excited to see Indiana as well.
I mean, Zubac now playing with Haliburton, with some of the core of that team back from last year.
Like, they have a potential to be a sleeper team in the Eastern Conference if Haliburton can come back as Haliburton.
I mean, that guy, he had a hell of a last six months, man.
Like, coming back from the Achilles injury, couple that with the shingles diagnosis.
Like, he's gone through a lot to get back to this point.
But if he can get back to being the guy that was so dominant in the 2025 playoffs, that Indiana team in the Eastern Conference is gonna be a tough one to beat.
I'm gonna throw a different one, though, at you.
I'm, I'm big on the outside the box stuff here, Grant.
I'm gonna identify an NBC game here as well.
On a Monday night, you have got the Orlando Magic visiting the Boston Celtics.
Now, the Orlando Magic- to me are, they're fascinating.
They are one of the most fascinating teams, because I think that team grotesquely underachieved last year.
I think they're so much better than their record indicate and how their season ended.
I think they've got bonafide stars on that, i- in that front court in Wagner and Paolo Banch, Banquero.
They've got good guards in the back court, and they've got a coach now who I think is gonna quickly emerge one of the better coaches in the NBA.
Sean Sweeney is the real deal as an NBA head coach.
There's a reason that teams were tripping over themselves last year to try to get this guy to interview, to try to get this guy to be their head coach.
I think he is going to bring real organic growth to the Orlando Magic.
It's gonna get them back on the track of the 50-win team, or close to 50-win team, that they were a few years ago.
I think they have the potential to be a top three seed in the Eastern Conference.
I think that Celtics game in Boston, November 16th, Monday night, that's the first real test of what the Magic are.
I love it.
I love it.
I was so bullish on Orlando last year.
They made me look so bad.
Orlando.
No, but to be fair, I also called, I did courtside games for their, playoff series against Detroit.
I got a couple of them in Orlando.
And they started looking like the team we thought they were gonna be, and then Franz goes down and they end up losing that series.
But man, I agree with you, that team is talented.
And Sean Sweeney, people are gonna learn a little something about Sean Sweeney.
He's, he's a good coach.
But I'm excited about the season just in general, man.
It just, you look at the, the schedule, I was looking it through, and unlike years in the past, and, and hopefully this is because of some of the lottery reform does help with this, but it just, there's no, there's, not, not no.
There's a few gimme games throughout the year, but not many.
Not many.
Like, you can't just s- put Utah as a gimme or Washington as a gimme.
Like, they, these teams are gonna be better, and it's gonna be hard winning a lot of games this year.
So it's gonna be so interesting.
I, I Maybe w- it'll look different by the end of the season, but I think the beginning of the season, right out the gates, there's gonna be a lot of upsets or we'll actually learn about teams that potentially are better, than we anticipated, Chris.
Well, the, the question really is, like, how many teams are truly entering this season thinking, "We're not going to be competitive for a play-in spot"?
I, I'm looking right now.
The Eastern Conference, Chicago probably saying that.
Uh- Brooklyn Brooklyn probably saying that, though that says a lot about Brooklyn at this point.
So there's maybe two teams in the Eastern Conference.
Sacramento is going to be biblically bad, I think, this year.
I, I think they're the worst team in the Western Conference by a country mile.
Memphis is rebuilding.
Dallas, not competing for a play-in spot, but Zaller- Dallas just gets Richaun Shea, you got year two of Cooper Flagg, you've got a new coach in Dusty Bay.
Like, I think they're gonna try to be competitive- I agree this year.
You know, you, you can probably say there's four to five teams that enter the season thinking that they're, it, it's over.
That, that they're headed towards, you know, frankly, relegation, is the way the NBA's changed the, the lottery rules.
But that means there's 25-ish teams that believe they can be in the postseason.
That's exactly what the NBA want.
That's gonna create so much competition in all these regular season match-ups.
All these games, on NBC, on ESPN, on League Pass, every single night you're gonna get great match-ups because this is the year that, at least for now, tanking is not a thing in the NBA.
You're just gonna have teams that are trying to compete for play-in or playoff spots every night.
Completely agree.
Man, is it, is it October yet?
Or are we You know, okay.
Actually, you know what?
You know, just take a little break.
You get a vacation at some point, Chris.
You know, just, I don't know.
Gotta take it.
Gotta take it.
Yes, s- at some point.
All right.
Thanks for joining us.
I'm Grant, that's Chris.
See you around
