The Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder will air on NBC at 7:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025.

The 2025-26 National Basketball Association (NBA) season gets under way on Tuesday when defending champions Oklahoma City Thunder take on the Houston Rockets in the opening match.

The first two games of the 82-game season will air on NBC and its sister channel Peacock on Oct. 21.

After Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had his potential game-winner blocked, Durant collected the miss. Tied at 115 points with two seconds left, he tried to call a timeout. Multiple times. Except, the Rockets didn't have any timeouts left.

In the end, it was the defensive champion Thunder coming away with a hard-fought 125-124 victory after a back-and-forth affair that set the stage for the season.

"I have an obligation to the game of basketball," Jordan said on his NBC role, noting that he wants to "pay it forward" and "be able to pass on messages of success and dedication to the game."

It's finally arrived. Almost four months after they won the 2025 NBA championship, the Oklahoma City Thunder held a pregame ceremony.

In the injury-ravaged East, the Cleveland Cavaliers return a core -- Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen -- that led them to 64 wins and a No. 1 seed last season. They face off Wednesday night against a Knicks team with Finals-or-bust expectations (7 p.

Cleveland seems best equipped to stop the Thunder from becoming the first team to repeat since the 2018 Golden State Warriors.