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We already knew the Thunder’s opening night and Christmas Day slate, but the full 2025-26 schedule was released Thursday afternoon.
Here are the dates and games that caught my eye on first glance:
More: How OKC Thunder's Nikola Topić 'took positives' from missing last season due to injury
Order book on the Thunder's road to NBA title
The Thunder is scheduled to play 34 national TV games, tied with the Lakers, Warriors and Knicks for the most in the NBA.
That’s some big-market company for little ole OKC.
Here’s the breakdown of the Thunder’s 34 national TV games by network:
NBC/Peacock (NBC’s app) and Amazon Prime are new television partners this season for the NBA.
The weekly national schedule, according to the NBA, will generally feature Monday games on Peacock, Tuesday games on NBC/Peacock, Wednesday games on ESPN, Thursday games on Prime, Friday games on Prime and ESPN, Saturday afternoon games on Prime, Saturday evening games on ABC/ESPN, Sunday afternoon games on ABC/ESPN and Sunday night games on NBC/Peacock.
Of the Thunder’s 34 national TV games, 15 of them will be exclusive. All other games will continue to air on FanDuel Sports Network, which is also available for subscription on Amazon Prime.
More: Ranking Thunder's top 50 players in OKC franchise history: Nos. 40-31
NBA “Rivals” Week — I put rivals in quotes, not them — is Jan. 20-24.
The Thunder has two Rivals Week games on national TV: Thunder at Bucks on Jan. 21 (ESPN) and Thunder vs. Pacers on Jan. 23 (Amazon Prime).
I suppose the Thunder is still licking its wounds from that NBA Cup loss to Milwaukee and is out to seek revenge! Everybody remembers that’s a thing that happened, right???
And the Pacers as a rival? Yeah, the two teams just played for the title, but there’s no bad blood there. And even if there was, no Tyrese Haliburton equals no drama.
Neither Milwaukee or Indiana is a rival of OKC. I’d probably put Denver, Houston and San Antonio as OKC’s top rivals in that order. Denver because it’s OKC’s biggest threat, Houston because it's an upstart contender that added Kevin Durant and San Antonio because Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama don’t like each other.
More: NBA offseason report card: Grading every OKC Thunder move since winning title
The Thunder will play five consecutive road games in a nine-day stretch from March 17 to 25.
The trip will start in Orlando, but the next four games will at least make for easy travel: at Brooklyn, at Washington, at Philadelphia and at Boston in that order.
More: Mussatto: What I got right (and mostly wrong) about 2024-25 OKC Thunder season
Upon returning from that long road trip, the Thunder will settle in for its longest homestand of the season.
OKC will host five consecutive games from March 27 to April 5: vs. the Bulls, Knicks, Pistons, Lakers and Jazz in that order.
The Thunder will then head west for three games against the Lakers, Clippers and Nuggets before returning home to close the regular season April 12 against the Suns.
While the five-game homestand is the longest, the Thunder will host seven homestands of at least three games.
More: Ranking Thunder's top 50 players in OKC franchise history: Nos. 50-41
The Thunder will play 13 back-to-backs — three home/home, five road/road, two home/road and three road/home.
Home/home back-to-backs are obviously the easiest, but how about this one-two punch from an entertainment standpoint: Nov. 11 vs. Warriors, Nov. 12 vs. Lakers.
Steph and LeBron are two of the biggest draws from a fan standpoint, and they’ll be in Oklahoma City on back-to-back nights.
More: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander report card: OKC Thunder guard turned in all-time season
The Thunder will host a New Year’s Eve game for the 18th consecutive year.
This time it’ll be the Trail Blazers in town for the annual Dec. 31 clash. The game will tip off at 7 p.m.
And obviously there’s the home Christmas game against the Spurs at 1:30 p.m. on ABC.
Carlson: Making of the Thunder parade: Behind the scenes on 'the greatest single day' in OKC history
It has to be opening night, Oct. 21.
You’ll get to see the Thunder unfurl its championship banner and the players get their rings … and a chance to boo Kevin Durant in his Rockets debut if you so choose.
I can’t imagine a better script for Game 1 of the season.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at [email protected]. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder 2025-26 NBA schedule takeaways: What you need to know
Continue reading...
Here are the dates and games that caught my eye on first glance:
More: How OKC Thunder's Nikola Topić 'took positives' from missing last season due to injury
Order book on the Thunder's road to NBA title
Most national TV games
The Thunder is scheduled to play 34 national TV games, tied with the Lakers, Warriors and Knicks for the most in the NBA.
That’s some big-market company for little ole OKC.
Here’s the breakdown of the Thunder’s 34 national TV games by network:
- Amazon Prime: 10
- ESPN: 8
- NBC: 7
- ABC: 5
- Peacock: 4
NBC/Peacock (NBC’s app) and Amazon Prime are new television partners this season for the NBA.
The weekly national schedule, according to the NBA, will generally feature Monday games on Peacock, Tuesday games on NBC/Peacock, Wednesday games on ESPN, Thursday games on Prime, Friday games on Prime and ESPN, Saturday afternoon games on Prime, Saturday evening games on ABC/ESPN, Sunday afternoon games on ABC/ESPN and Sunday night games on NBC/Peacock.
Of the Thunder’s 34 national TV games, 15 of them will be exclusive. All other games will continue to air on FanDuel Sports Network, which is also available for subscription on Amazon Prime.
More: Ranking Thunder's top 50 players in OKC franchise history: Nos. 40-31
Worst rivalries
NBA “Rivals” Week — I put rivals in quotes, not them — is Jan. 20-24.
The Thunder has two Rivals Week games on national TV: Thunder at Bucks on Jan. 21 (ESPN) and Thunder vs. Pacers on Jan. 23 (Amazon Prime).
I suppose the Thunder is still licking its wounds from that NBA Cup loss to Milwaukee and is out to seek revenge! Everybody remembers that’s a thing that happened, right???
And the Pacers as a rival? Yeah, the two teams just played for the title, but there’s no bad blood there. And even if there was, no Tyrese Haliburton equals no drama.
Neither Milwaukee or Indiana is a rival of OKC. I’d probably put Denver, Houston and San Antonio as OKC’s top rivals in that order. Denver because it’s OKC’s biggest threat, Houston because it's an upstart contender that added Kevin Durant and San Antonio because Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama don’t like each other.
More: NBA offseason report card: Grading every OKC Thunder move since winning title
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Thunder longest road trip
The Thunder will play five consecutive road games in a nine-day stretch from March 17 to 25.
The trip will start in Orlando, but the next four games will at least make for easy travel: at Brooklyn, at Washington, at Philadelphia and at Boston in that order.
More: Mussatto: What I got right (and mostly wrong) about 2024-25 OKC Thunder season
Thunder longest home stand
Upon returning from that long road trip, the Thunder will settle in for its longest homestand of the season.
OKC will host five consecutive games from March 27 to April 5: vs. the Bulls, Knicks, Pistons, Lakers and Jazz in that order.
The Thunder will then head west for three games against the Lakers, Clippers and Nuggets before returning home to close the regular season April 12 against the Suns.
While the five-game homestand is the longest, the Thunder will host seven homestands of at least three games.
More: Ranking Thunder's top 50 players in OKC franchise history: Nos. 50-41
Most entertaining back-to-back
The Thunder will play 13 back-to-backs — three home/home, five road/road, two home/road and three road/home.
Home/home back-to-backs are obviously the easiest, but how about this one-two punch from an entertainment standpoint: Nov. 11 vs. Warriors, Nov. 12 vs. Lakers.
Steph and LeBron are two of the biggest draws from a fan standpoint, and they’ll be in Oklahoma City on back-to-back nights.
More: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander report card: OKC Thunder guard turned in all-time season
Best tradition
The Thunder will host a New Year’s Eve game for the 18th consecutive year.
This time it’ll be the Trail Blazers in town for the annual Dec. 31 clash. The game will tip off at 7 p.m.
And obviously there’s the home Christmas game against the Spurs at 1:30 p.m. on ABC.
Carlson: Making of the Thunder parade: Behind the scenes on 'the greatest single day' in OKC history
You must be registered for see images
Hottest ticket
It has to be opening night, Oct. 21.
You’ll get to see the Thunder unfurl its championship banner and the players get their rings … and a chance to boo Kevin Durant in his Rockets debut if you so choose.
I can’t imagine a better script for Game 1 of the season.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at [email protected]. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder 2025-26 NBA schedule takeaways: What you need to know
Continue reading...
