We’re still over two months away from the NBA’s 2025-26 regular season tipping off, but the hype train’s left the station with the release of the schedule. Let’s dive into all 82 games and give fans a glimpse of what’s to come for their Brooklyn Nets… 

Key dates

Sept. 29: NBA Training Camp opens for the Brooklyn Nets

Oct. 10 & 12: 2025 Preseason: NBA China Games | Nets vs. Suns | The Venetian Arena in Macao

Oct. 21: Start of the 2025-26 NBA Regular Season – Opening Night

Dec. 9-10: Emirates NBA Cup 2025 – Knockout Rounds (Quarterfinals) 

Dec. 13: Emirates NBA Cup 2025 – Semifinals (Las Vegas, NV) 

Dec. 16: Emirates NBA Cup 2025 – Championship (Las Vegas, NV) 

Feb. 5: NBA Trade Deadline (3 p.m. ET)

Feb. 13-15: 2026 NBA All-Star in Los Angeles, CA

April 12: Regular season ends

Top matchups

Fri. Oct. 10 and Sun. Oct. 12 against the Phoenix Suns – NBA China Games

The borough continues to go global as Brooklyn kicks off its preseason as one of the NBA’s two representatives in their China Games, taking place over two nights in Macao. Just one and a half seasons after their massive blockbuster trade, these two teams meet without the major players they swapped, but with refreshed and intriguing rosters ready to hit the court.

Wed. Oct. 22 @ Charlotte Hornets

The 2025-26 Nets regular season opens on the road as they take on LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller and the upstart Hornets. This should be a winnable and exciting game for Brooklyn against another rebuilding team in the conference.

Fri. Oct. 24 vs Cleveland Cavaliers

Their home opener takes place a couple days later against a much stronger foe, as the reigning top-seeded Cavs led by Donovan Mitchell (and former Net Jarrett Allen) come to town.

Mon. Oct. 27 @ Houston Rockets

The Nets face Kevin Durant in his (latest) new uniform for the first time when they travel south to Houston early in the season. 

Mon. Dec. 29 vs Golden State Warriors

When Stephen Curry visits, you know you’re going to get a show. 

Sun. Jan. 4 vs Denver Nuggets

It’s always special to watch one of the best NBA players of his era come to Barclays to perform, and Nikola Jokic is as generational as they come. The Nets faithful also get to see Cameron Johnson return for the first time in a Denver uniform. 

Tue. Feb. 3 v Los Angeles Lakers

In what could be one of his final visits to Barclays, LeBron James comes to Brooklyn alongside star Luka Doncic. 

Tue. Feb. 24 vs Dallas Mavericks

Number one overall pick Cooper Flagg makes his professional Barclays Center debut, alongside former Net Kyrie Irving, making his second return to Brooklyn.

NBA Cup games

Fri. Nov. 7 vs Detroit Pistons

Fri. Nov. 14 @ Orlando Magic

Fri. Nov. 21 @ Boston Celtics

Fri. Nov. 28 vs Philadelphia 76ers

Easiest stretches

Brooklyn has a pretty soft December, opening it up against Charlotte at home, Chicago on the road, Utah at home and New Orleans at home. They then take off for the NBA Cup Tournament or a mid-season reprieve, to come back and face the Heat and Raptors at home.

The Nets’ best stretch of games comes down the stretch of their season, timely if they’re in the Play-In hunt. Beginning Sun. Mar. 29, they get a six-game home stint featuring Sacramento, Charlotte, Atlanta, Washington, Milwaukee and Indiana.

Toughest stretches

Brooklyn has to suffer through a pretty brutal winter, beginning Dec. 23 when they take on Philly then Minny on the road before going home to play Golden State. 

They then have a back-to-back beginning on New Year’s day against the Rockets and at the Wizards, before playing the Nuggets, Magic and Clippers at home and hitting another back-to-back in Memphis and Dallas.

Not two weeks later, the Nets embark on their longest road trip of the season, visiting the Clippers, Suns, Nuggets and Jazz on a back-to-back before flying out to Detroit. They return home to be greeted by LeBron and the Lakers before taking off to play the Magic in Orlando. 

Playoff seeding

If the Nets can find themselves in the Play-In race come the home stretch of the season, their last eight games provide them a decent run at making a play. They have to survive a four-game west coast swing against the Kings, Blazers, Warriors and Lakers first.

Then they go into their late-season home stand mentioned above before closing the year with road games against the Bucks and Raptors. 

We’re still over two months away from the NBA’s 2025-26 regular season tipping off, but the hype train’s left the station with the release of the schedule. Let’s dive into all 82 games and give fans a glimpse of what’s to come for their New York Knicks…

Key dates

Sept. 24: Training Camp opens for the New York Knicks

Oct. 2 & 4: 2025 Preseason: NBA Abu Dhabi Games | Knicks vs. 76ers | Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi

Oct. 21: Start of the 2025-26 NBA Regular Season – Opening Night

Dec. 9-10: Emirates NBA Cup 2025 – Knockout Rounds (Quarterfinals) 

Dec. 13: Emirates NBA Cup 2025 – Semifinals (Las Vegas, NV) 

Dec. 16: Emirates NBA Cup 2025 – Championship (Las Vegas, NV) 

Feb. 5: NBA Trade Deadline (3 p.m. ET)

Feb. 13-15: 2026 NBA All-Star in Los Angeles, CA

April 12: Regular season ends

Top matchups

Thu. Oct 2 and Sat. Oct. 4 against Philadelphia 76ers (Abu Dhabi Games)

It’s been a minute since Knicks fans got to see their team before any others took the court, and this year they’ll have that chance with the team participating in the NBA’s Global Games in Abu Dhabi. 

Not only is it a chance to see the team early, but in a neutral ground site for some fun mid-day action — unfortunately the hiring of Mike Brown might mean more development time for the deep bench and less overexposure of the starters, for those who want to see the stars.

Wed. Oct. 22 vs Cleveland Cavaliers

Opening night at Madison Square Garden against your (most healthy) top rival in the East, what could be better? The Knicks get a true test right out of the gates in what will be a raucous, can’t-miss environment to kick off the highest expectation-laden season in decades.

Thu. Dec. 25 vs Cleveland Cavaliers

Tired of chain snatching Donovan Mitchell? Better be ready to do it twice on a national stage before the New Year’s, as New York gets Cleveland again for their Christmas Day game.

Mon. Jan. 19 vs Dallas Mavericks

The highly-anticipated number one overall pick of this year’s NBA Draft, Cooper Flagg, comes to town in a MLK Day matinee that should make for an awesome matchup.

Sun. Feb. 1 vs Los Angeles Lakers

LeBron James in the Garden – maybe for the final time?

Wed. Feb. 4 vs Denver Nuggets

The Knicks have played one of the NBA’s perennial contenders and best players well over the past few seasons, setting the stage for hopefully another strong outing vs. Nikola Jokic and his new-look Nuggets.

Wed. Mar. 4 vs Oklahoma City Thunder

Unfortunately the Knicks don’t get to test themselves against the reigning NBA champions until late in the season, with their second matchup coming just before April, when load management takes over the locked-in seeds. 

Sun. Mar 15 vs Golden State Warriors

Whenever Stephen Curry comes to the Garden you know it’s going to be a show, and this game adds some real sizzle to the dog days of the season.

NBA Cup games

Fri. Oct. 31 @ Chicago Bulls

Fri. Nov. 14 vs Miami Heat

Wed. Nov. 26 @ Charlotte Hornets

Fri. Nov. 38 vs Milwaukee Bucks

Easiest stretches

The Knicks’ schedule doesn’t pull many punches, perhaps because there’s some front-loading or partially due to the West having a total of one true pushover team. They have a seven-game homestand from November 2 to November 14, and even that includes two back-to-backs.

They face a mix of lottery teams in Chicago, Washington and Brooklyn and tougher teams in Minnesota, Memphis, Orlando and Miami. They don’t have a home stand longer than three games for the rest of the season, with some big West coast trips in between. 

There’s one stretch loaded with middling opponents, once again coming in the early part of the season however. From November 24 to December 5, New York plays Brooklyn, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Toronto, Boston, Charlotte and Utah. 

Toughest stretches

Talk about your brutal holiday travel plans, the Knicks kick off a back-to-back on December 18-19 before playing every other night through New Year’s Eve, which include two road trips and the Christmas Day game. After an NYE bout in San Antonio, they fly back for another back-to-back beginning on January 2, wrapping up 10 games and six cities and in 17 days.

They only have a couple larger West Coach swings, but one falls in a bruising stretch. 

They fly from Toronto back home to face Oklahoma City for a back-to-back on March 3-4, before embarking on a five-game, eight-night road trip against Denver, both LA teams, Utah and Indiana, all to play Golden State at home after a day of rest.

Playoff seeding

If the Knicks haven’t locked in a top two seed before the final weeks of the season, something went terribly wrong or the East showed much greater strength than advertised. In the case of either scenario, the home stretch of their season doesn’t look too bad.

New York plays @ Brooklyn on March 20, followed by vs Washington, vs New Orleans, @ Charlotte, @ Oklahoma City, @ Houston, vs Chicago, @ Atlanta, vs Boston, vs Toronto and vs Charlotte. Those are mostly beatable teams with a couple high-level contenders that could be resting up.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are back in first place, and all it took was their bullpen avoiding yet another collapse.

The Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres 3-2 in their series opener on Friday to tie their opponent atop the NL West. The win broke a four-game losing streak for Los Angeles, with three of those losses featuring leads blown in the eighth or ninth inning.

The Dodgers appeared in danger of that again in this game. They entered the late innings with a 3-1 lead thanks to a strong start from Clayton Kershaw (six innings, two hits, one run, three strikeouts), but got into trouble again when reliever Alex Vesia hit two batters and walked another to load the bases with one out.

The Padres cut the deficit to one run on a Luis Arraez sacrifice fly, at which point Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled Vesia for Blake Treinen, who got Manny Machado out on a pop fly with his first pitch.

The Dodgers have been scraping the bottom of the bullpen for weeks and that took the form of former Cincinnati Reds closer Alexis Diaz taking over in the ninth. He entered the game with a 7.71 ERA this season, but looked surprisingly good with two strikeouts while working around a single from Jackson Merrill, who had a great at-bat.

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Roberts once again pulled his reliever to get the final out of the inning, summoning Jack Dreyer to finish the game on a fly ball from Ryan O’Hearn.

That’s what it takes for the Dodgers to win close games these days: an all-hands-on-deck approach in the middle of August, because of their plethora of top relievers on the injured list. On another team, Vesia might have received a lower-pressure assignment after allowing runs in three straight appearances, but Roberts brought him right back into a key spot.

The Dodgers got their runs on a third-inning rally and a seventh-inning homer from the struggling Teoscar Hernández.

With the division once again tied, the Dodgers will send out former Padre Blake Snell against Dylan Cease on Saturday, then Tyler Glasnow against former Dodger Yu Darvish on Sunday. Notably, they can secure the tiebreaker against the Padres with just one more win thanks to their 5-2 record against the team this season.

Baltimore Orioles rookie Brandon Young lost a perfect game in the eighth inning Friday, to a player he shared a clubhouse with a month ago.

On his 24th batter of the game against the Houston Astros, Young allowed an infield hit to infielder Ramón Urías, whom the Orioles traded to Houston at the deadline. Urías hit a soft grounder to Young’s right, just far away enough that he had to make a rushed and off-balance throw that veered wide of first base, allowing the batter to reach second.

The play was ruled a single for Urías plus a throwing error by Young, who was making the 11th start of his career.

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Young had previously been cruising against the Astros, sitting at 87 pitches before Urías derailed his bid. The 26-year-old from Lumberton, Texas — about 100 miles from Houston — recovered by striking out Taylor Trammell to finish his night with eight scoreless innings in a 7-0 Baltimore win.

The Urías trade was one of several the Orioles made as trade deadline sellers, with Houston picking him up to fill a void in its infield at the cost of pitching prospect Twine Palmer.

Had Young finished the job, he would have become the third rookie in MLB history to throw a perfect game and the first since 1922. No Oriole has ever thrown a perfect game, of which there are only 24 in MLB history.

Young actually pulled off a different rare feat earlier this season, throwing an immaculate inning (three strikeouts on nine pitches) in his fifth career start. Only four pitchers —Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, David Cone and Randy Johnson — have thrown both a perfect game and immaculate inning in their careers, with none of them doing both in the same season.

After two seasons in college at Louisiana Lafayette, Young joined the Orioles as an undrafted free agent following the truncated 2020 MLB Draft and slowly worked his way up through the minor leagues. He made his MLB debut on April 19 and took his first long-term role in the Baltimore rotation in early July.

Cal Raleigh let his bat say a lot on MLB Players’ Weekend, carrying a stick that said “Big butt… bigger bombs” written on it. 

Then the All-Star catcher swung that bat and continued what’s been a dream season for the Seattle Mariners‘ slugger. Raleigh hit his 46th home run of the season off the New York Mets‘ Sean Manaea, a two-run shot in the third inning that put Seattle on top, 4-3. 

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Driving in two runs with the homer also gave Raleigh 100 RBI for the season. That matched his career-high, set last season, and also made Raleigh the first catcher since Mike Piazza in 1999 and 2000 with 100 RBI in consecutive seasons while playing at least 50% of his games behind the plate. (Piazza did it in five consecutive seasons from 1996-2000.) 

Raleigh is the first American League hitter to reach 100 RBI this season and trails only the Philadelphia Phillies‘ Kyle Schwarber, who has 101 after his three-run homer on Friday versus the Washington Nationals. (Raleigh actually got to 100 RBI first before Schwarber overtook him.) 

However, it’s Raleigh’s home run total that media and fans will keep their eyes on through the final six weeks of the season. With homer No. 46, he leapfrogged Johnny Bench into second place for most home runs by a catcher in a single season. He’s now two away from tying Salvador Perez‘s single-season record with 48 homers, set in 2021 with the Kansas City Royals.

And if you don’t know by now what the “big butt” on his Players’ Weekend bat refers to, it’s the reason for his nickname, “The Big Dumper.” Former teammate Jarred Kelenic tagged him with that for his large backside and ability to hit clutch home runs.

Raleigh is also moving up the all-time list for most home runs in a single season by a switch-hitter. His 46th homer moved him ahead of Lance Berkman and Chipper Jones for the third-highest total in a season. Only Mickey Mantle — who hit 52 homers in 1956 and 54 in 1961 — is ahead of him now.

Additionally, Raleigh tied Mantle by hitting 46 home runs in his team’s first 123 games of the season, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs. That will be one record Raleigh doesn’t set this year.

However, the Mariners have 39 games remaining on their schedule after Friday’s 11-9 win over the Mets. He has plenty of opportunity to put himself atop the lists for most home runs by a catcher and by a switch-hitter in a single season. Would anyone dare to bet against him at this point? 

Oh, and Seattle is 0.5 games behind the Houston Astros for first place in the AL West and currently hold the league’s No. 1 wild-card playoff spot. Raleigh is doing all of this in games that matter, his home runs making maximum impact for the Mariners’ fortunes.

It’s going to take more than a seven-run deficit to end the Milwaukee Brewers’ win streak, apparently.

After falling behind 8-1 against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday, the Brewers surged back to win their 13th straight game, tying a franchise record for consecutive wins in a season. At 77-44, they still have the best record in MLB.

Milwaukee fell into a hole due to the shortest start of Jacob Misiorowski’s young career, in his return from the injured list. The Reds pounced on the rookie and reliever DL Hall for eight runs in the first two innings, with the Brewers’ win probability bottomed out at 3.1%.

And then they didn’t allow a hit for the rest of the game. Relievers Nick Mears, Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe, Jared Koenig and Trevor Megill combined for five hitless innings and nine strikeouts, while the Brewers offense — the best in baseball over the past month — got to work.

A five-run third inning, punctuated by another homer from Andrew Vaughn, made it a game again. Christian Yelich, who got Milwaukee on the board with a second-inning solo shot, tied the game with an RBI single in the fourth inning, then got the lead with his second homer of the game in the sixth inning.

Yelich did it all with a Bob Uecker-themed bat, as part of MLB’s Players Weekend.

Per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, it was the largest comeback win to ever save a win streak of 13 games or greater.

The Brewers have already won their fans free burgers, and posted three different win streaks of at least eight games or more. They have a six-game lead for the best record in baseball and a nine-game lead in NL Central. Plenty can happen between now and October, but they are shaping up as the team to watch once the postseason is in full swing.