The leaks were all true. The NBA officially announced its opening night and Christmas Day matchups Tuesday, and they won’t come as a surprise to those who have been paying attention.

The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder will kick off the 2025-26 NBA season on opening night in a matchup against Kevin Durant’s Houston Rockets on Oct. 21. That game will take place at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Later that night, the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors will square off to open their seasons.

In addition to the notable matchups and players involved in the opening-night festivities, history will also be made once the Lakers get underway. Once LeBron James takes the court, he’ll pass Vince Carter for the most seasons played in NBA history. James, 40, is set to start his 23rd NBA season.

All four of those teams will also play on Christmas Day, which features a full, five-game slate. Here’s the complete league schedule for Dec. 25:

• Cleveland Cavaliers vs. New York Knicks at 12 p.m. ET

• San Antonio Spurs vs. Oklahoma City Thunder at 2:30 p.m. ET

• Dallas Mavericks vs. Golden State Warriors at 5:00 p.m. ET

• Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Lakers at 8:00 p.m. ET

• Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Denver Nuggets at 10:30 p.m. ET

NBA fans paying close attention to the news shouldn’t be surprised by those matchups, which were leaked by ESPN’s Shams Charania on Friday. In addition to those games, however, the NBA also revealed a four-game slate on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and confirmed a few more marquee early-season matchups.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day gets four-game slate

The NBA has scheduled games on Martin Luther King Jr. Day since it became a holiday in 1986. The Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks will kick off a four-game slate on MLK Day this season. The contest will start at 1 p.m. ET.

They will be followed by the Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers at 2:30 p.m. ET, the Mavericks and Knicks at 5 p.m. ET and the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons at 8 p.m. ET.

NBA confirms early marquee matchups, Cooper Flagg’s first game

Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg will kick off his NBA career with a historic matchup. His first game will come against the San Antonio Spurs, which held the No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.

It will mark just the second time in league history that the No. 1 overall pick will face the No. 2 overall pick to open the season. Flagg, who the Mavericks selected No. 1 overall, will take on Dylan Harper, who went No. 2 overall, on Oct. 22 on ESPN.

The Cavaliers and Knicks will also play on ESPN on Oct. 22. 

The following day, the Thunder and Indiana Pacers will square off on the network. They’ll be followed by the Nuggets and Warriors. 

Peacock will stream games on Mondays throughout the NBA regular season. The league announced the first set of those games Tuesday, which will start with the Cavaliers and Pistons on Oct. 27. That contest will begin at 7 p.m. ET.

The Nuggets and Timberwolves will meet at 9:30 p.m. ET later that evening.

NBA Cup games announced

On Wednesday, the league announced 15 group play for the Emirates NBA Cup. Those contests will be spread across multiple days between Oct. 31 and Nov. 28.

Those games will air on either Prime Video, NBC and Peacock or ESPN.

The New York Mets have a new home run king. 

Pete Alonso hit a two-run blast off Atlanta Braves starter Spencer Strider on Tuesday, extending New York’s lead to 5-1 in the bottom of the third inning. 

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The home run was the 253rd of Alonso’s career, moving him past a tie with franchise great Darryl Strawberry for the most in Mets history. Alonso broke the record in front of an appreciative Citi Field home crowd that celebrated the achievement with a standing ovation.

The home run helped spark a 13-5 Mets win. And Alonso wasn’t done. 

He hit another one in the sixth inning. 

The solo shot off reliever Austin Cox extended New York’s lead again, this time to 11-5. It also extended Alonso’s new Mets franchise record to 254 home runs.

His second home run of the night again sent Citi Field into a frenzy.

Strawberry tallied a total of 335 home runs in a career that also included stints with the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees. His 252 blasts with the Mets previously stood as the franchise record. 

Alonso, 30, re-signed with the Mets on a two-year, $54 million contract in the offseason and will presumably have plenty of opportunities to add to his now-franchise-record home run tally.

Alonso led the NL with 53 home runs in his rookie campaign in 2019. In the years since then, he has remained one of baseball’s premier sluggers, with 34-plus home runs in each season that wasn’t shortened by COVID-19. 

Tuesday’s home runs were Alonso’s 27th and 28th of the season in his 118th game, putting him well on pace to eclipse 30 home runs again, with 43 games remaining on New York’s schedule. The Mets will need all they can get from Alonso as they fight for a spot in the playoffs. 

Tuesday’s win snapped a seven-game losing streak and a run of 11 losses in 12 games. They improved to 64-55 with the win, five games behind the first-place Phillies in the NL East. They also kept pace in the wild-card race and maintained a two-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds for the final playoff berth in the National League.

The Houston Astros made a splash last month when they reunited with three-time All-Star Carlos Correa. But the Astros didn’t come away from the trade deadline with a new reliever.

Now they’ve lost their best one to the 15-day IL.

Six-time All-Star Josh Hader, who is tied for third in MLB with 28 saves, will have to recover from a left shoulder strain before he returns to the mound, where he has posted a 2.05 ERA in 48 games this season.

The lefty closer reported shoulder discomfort ahead of Monday’s game against the Boston Red Sox. 

“It’s [a] punch in the gut,” Astros manager Joe Espada said, per The Associated Press. “But … he’s seeing doctors right now. We’re getting more tests done, and hopefully this is not going to be a long-term thing.”

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Hader recorded a season-high 36 pitches across two innings Friday in New York during a 5-3 win against the Yankees that was settled in the 10th frame. That marked his seventh multi-inning appearance of the season.

He also warmed up down the stretch of Sunday’s series finale, but his number wasn’t called while the Astros wrapped up a 7-1 victory in the Bronx.

Hader is in the second year of his five-year, $95 million deal with Houston. He set a franchise record by starting the season 25-for-25 in save opportunities. Entering the week, he was tied for second among AL relievers in strikeouts, according to MLB.com.

With Hader out, Espada isn’t planning to name a replacement closer. Instead, he told reporters that he’ll dispatch relievers from his bullpen depending on matchups.

“I feel good about all those guys,” Espada said.

It’s a group that welcomed back right-handed reliever Shawn Dubin, who was reinstated from the 15-day IL on Tuesday. The Astros also recalled lefty Colton Gordon from Triple-A Sugar Land.

After bouncing back from a 2-8 stretch that started on July 24 and ended on Aug. 3, the 67-52 Astros went into Tuesday with a one-game lead over the Seattle Mariners in the AL West.

Something needs to change for the fading New York Mets. 

On Tuesday, manager Carlos Mendoza announced that change is coming for the pitching staff. Starter Frankie Montas is moving to the bullpen amid struggles that have plagued him since he was called up in late June. 

Mendoza did not name Montas’ replacement for his next scheduled start on Saturday against the Seattle Mariners. “It’s possible” the Mets call up a pitcher from Triple-A Syracuse to take his place, Mendoza said. 

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Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat, both 24, are among the potential prospects to get the call. McLean is the 37th-rated prospect in baseball, per MLB.com. 

But regardless of who’s up, Montas’ stint as a Mets starter is done.

“He’s gonna go to the bullpen,” Mendoza said. “We had that conversation today. He’s going to throw his side, and then the first day that he will be available is Thursday.”

Montas, 32, joined the Mets in the offseason on a two-year, $34 million contract amid hopes that he could add depth to New York’s starting rotation. Montas, who has been a full-time starter since his second MLB season in 2017, has show flashes of upside in his nine-plus-season MLB career but has repeatedly been derailed by injuries. 

From Yahoo Sports’ Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman when the Mets signed Montas:

Cincinnati’s 2024 Opening Day starter, Montas disappointed in his brief Reds tenure before looking a fair bit better after he was traded to Milwaukee at the deadline, albeit still with a below-average ERA. The fact that he stayed healthy enough to make 30 starts is a good sign after he missed almost all of 2023 due to shoulder surgery, but the upside here isn’t nearly as tantalizing as it once was.

Ishika Samant via Getty Images

Montas sustained a lat injury in spring training after signing with the Mets and didn’t make his 2025 debut until a June 24 start against the Atlanta Braves. He didn’t allow a run in five innings that game but has since compiled a career-worst 6.38 ERA in eight appearances, seven of them starts.

Montas made his first appearance out of the bullpen in Saturday’s 7-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. He allowed three runs (one earned), three hits and two walks in three innings of relief.

The Mets are making this move amid a slump in which they’ve lost seven straight games and 11 of their past 12. They’ve fallen to 63-55, which placed them six games behind the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies prior to Tuesday’s games.

New York remains in playoff position, but its hold on that is tenuous. As of Tuesday afternoon, the Mets held a two-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds (62-58) for the final wild-card spot in the National League. 

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After around two years of dating Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift made the podcast appearance heard ’round the world. 

The 14-time Grammy Award winner joined the Kansas City Chiefs tight end on an episode of his “New Heights” podcast with his brother Jason and discussed their relationship, her career and her ongoing football education in an hour-plus discussion first published Wednesday.

More than 1.3 million people were watching concurrently at one point in the episode, in which Swift unveiled the cover art of her new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” which comes out Oct. 3.

The appearance was a long time coming as the relationship’s beginnings were documented on the same podcast, which has seen enough crossover attention to garner a nine-figure deal with Amazon’s Wondery network.

Or as Swift said:

“This podcast has done a lot for me. I owe a lot to this podcast. This podcast got me a boyfriend, ever since Travis decided to use it as his personal dating app about two years ago.”

There was plenty more we learned from Wednesday.

Travis Kelce did no logistical work whatsoever to meet Taylor Swift

Most fans will know the Swift-Kelce relationship began with a friendship bracelet, with Kelce publicly saying he was interested and unsuccessfully attempting to offer her a friendship bracelet. It turns out Swift was actually quite charmed by his straightforward message of “I WANT TO DATE YOU,” but she was less than impressed with the logistical work he put into setting up a meeting:

“He didn’t even reach out to our management. When this podcast came out, I was like ‘Did he ever reach out to be in the tents or did we know he was in the building?’ He came with Pat [Mahomes] and he thought that cause he knows the elevator lady, he could talk to her about just getting down there.”

“That’s how it works in 1973. He was really like, ‘I know a guy, I can figure this out.'”

Kelce didn’t get his meeting that day, but it obviously worked out.

Taylor Swift’s first football question for Travis Kelce was adorably bad

Swift has been a mainstay at Chiefs games for two seasons now, but she entered the relationship with plenty to learn:

“Jason, on our first date I legitimately asked him what it was like when the Chiefs played the Eagles in the Super Bowl and he looked across the field across the line of scrimmage and saw his brother standing on the other, like five feet in front of him on the field.”

“He didn’t even look at me. Like I now know what an insane question that was … I thought everyone was on the field at the same time. I thought it was like Jared Goff is here and Josh Allen is here and they blow a whistle and they go at each other and they’re like, who’s going to win.”

We all have to start somewhere, and let’s just say Swift has put in the work since then.

Taylor Swift was so, so excited about the Chiefs’ Xavier Worthy pick

Less than a year into their relationship, the Chiefs drafted Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy, famed for being the fastest player in the history of the NFL scouting combine. By that time, Swift was excited enough about Kansas City’s new weapon that her friends sounded a little worried:

“Oh my God I fell in love with it, I became obsessed with it. I became a person who was running through the halls of my house screaming, ‘WE DRAFTED XAVIER WORTHY!’ My friends are like, ‘who bodysnatched you, what do you mean we drafted Xavier Worthy.”

The education is still a work in progress, but Swift expects to get there:

“I’m not ready to be an analyst right now, but give me 16 months.”

Travis Kelce had to help Taylor Swift calm down after she got her masters back

One of the biggest stories of the music industry in the past year has been Swift’s nine-figure deal to re-acquire the masters of her first six studio albums from the private equity firm Shamrock Holdings.

It was a personal thing for Swift, who said “I thought about not owning my music every day.” When she finally got the call that Shamrock had accepted her offer, she quickly went to tell Kelce:

“I just, like, very dramatically hit the floor, for real. I started bawling my eyes out … I’m like ‘Get yourself together, get your s*** together, just go tell Travis in a normal way. I knock on the door, he’s playing video games. I’m trying to say it in a normal way and I’m just like ‘… TRAVIS!’ He puts his headset down, he’s like ‘Guys, gotta go,’ and I think he thought something was wrong.

“You come up and I’m just like “I got all my music back.’ And then just start heaving, dropped, had no power in my legs to support myself.”

Travis Kelce wants an otter

As far as hobbies go, Swift said all of her hobbies go back to the 1700s — sewing, cooking, painting, baking — with sourdough baking a particular obsession recently. She discussed going through countless sourdough blogs and baking loaf after loaf for Kelce to try.

Between that interest and her lack of activity on social media, that led to the following sentence:

“All I really use the internet for is sourdough and when Travis shows me videos of otters on his Instagram algorithm.”

Kelce’s interest in otters apparently goes well beyond just watching videos, though:

“He wants one specifically whose life he saved, who knows that he saved its life … . He doesn’t want to like go up to an otter and take it from its mother. He wants to see an otter and the otter’s like, ‘My paws caught in a shell.’ And he’s like, ‘I got you.’ And then the otter’s like, “Thank you forever.” with its little paws.

“We have discussed maybe carrying around cans of sardines just in case we run into one. It’s better in principle than it is in practice.”

On a related note, Swift also confirmed she was aware of the “I just gave a squirle a peice of bread” tweet. The man is an animal lover.

Jason Kelce wasn’t sure about bringing his beer to meet the Royal Family

We also learned plenty about the impression Jason Kelce has made on Swift, specifically when she asked if he would like to meet the Royal Family with her at the Eras Tour:

“I knew you were serious when I went, ‘Jason, do you want to go meet them.’ I watched him have this moment with his his beer where he was just like, ‘But I want to take it, but I know that I probably should not take it.’ I watched this happen … ‘If I don’t have my beer, what do I do with my hand now?”

Kelce said she was correct:

“I like that you picked up on it, because that’s exactly what was going on in my head.”

Long story short, Kelce did not bring his beer to meet Prince William and his family.

The Golden State Warriors have had over 600 players don the more than 60 jersey numbers used by their players over the more than 75 years of existence the team has enjoyed in its rich and storied history.

Founded in 1946 during the Basketball Association of America (BAA — a precursor league of the NBA) era, the team has called home the cities of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Oakland, and even San Diego.

 To commemorate the players who wore those numbers, Warriors Wire is covering the entire history of jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team. For this article, we begin with the first of 29 players who wore the No. 20 jersey for the Warriors.

That player would be Golden State wing alum Jeff Grayer. After ending his college career at Iowa State, Grayer was picked up with the 13th overall selection of the 1988 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Flint, Michigan native would play the first four seasons of his pro career with the Bucks, ending when he signed with the Dubs in 1992. His stay with the team would span three seasons in two stints separated by time with the Philadelphia 76ers, out of the league, for the Sacramento Kings, and Charlotte Hornets, the second stint his last season in the NBA.

During his time suiting up for the Warriors, Grayer wore only jersey Nos. 44 and 20 and put up 7.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game.

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on Warriors Wire: Warriors jersey history – No. 20 – Jeff Grayer (1997-98)

The Oklahoma City Thunder (and the Seattle Supersonics before them) have 51 jersey numbers worn by the players who have suited up for the franchise since its founding at the start of the 1967-68 season. To commemorate the players who wore those numbers, Thunder Wire is covering the entire history of jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team.

And while those Supersonics jerseys may not remain part of the franchise history should a new team be established in Seattle as was the case with the return of the Charlotte Hornets, they are part of the Thunder’s history today.

For this article, we continue with the 38th jersey number in the series, jersey No. 40, with 11 players in total having donned the jersey in the history of the franchise.

The first of those players who did so in the Seattle SuperSonics era, forward alum Kenny McIntosh. After ending his college career at Eastern Michigan, McIntosh was picked up with the 15th overall selection of the 1971 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls.

In his second season, McIntosh was dealt to Seattle in 1972. His stay with the team would span parts of his final three seasons in the league.

During his time suiting up for the Sonics, McIntosh wore only jersey Nos. 40 and 43 and put up 6.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game.

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Thunder jersey history No. 40 – Kenny McIntosh (1972-75)

The Brooklyn Nets have 52 jersey numbers worn by over 600 different players over the course of their history since the franchise was founded in 1967 as a charter member of the American Basketball Association (ABA), when the team was known as the “New Jersey Americans”.

Since then, that league has been absorbed by the NBA with the team that would later become the New York Nets and New Jersey Nets before settling on the name by which they are known today, bringing their rich player and jersey history with them to the league of today.

To commemorate the players who played for the Nets over the decades wearing those 52 different jersey numbers, Nets Wire is covering the entire history of the franchise’s jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team. The 23rd of those 52 different numbers is jersey No. 22, which has has had a total of 31 players wear the number in the history of the team.

The sixth of those players wearing No. 22 played in the (then) New York (now, Brooklyn) Nets era, guard alum Ollie Taylor. After ending his college career at Houston, Taylor was picked up with the 189th overall selection (there were many more rounds in that era of the draft) of the 1970 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The New Yorker instead signed with the ABA’s New York for the first two seasons of his pro career for his first stint with the team. That ended when he was selected by the (defunct) San Diego Conquistadors in the 1972 ABA expansion draft, and saw him return to New York a season later for eight more games, coming to an end when he was cut in 1973.

During his time suiting up for the Nets, Taylor wore only jersey Nos. 20 and 22 and put up 8.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game.

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets jersey history No. 22 – Ollie Taylor (1971-73)