RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The NBA schedule has dropped, and we've laid out the must-watch games and let you know what’s happening on some of the biggest dates of the year, like Opening Night and Christmas Day.
But there is a lot more to the schedule: Who is on national television most often? Which teams have the most back-to-backs? Who is getting the most rest? Let's break down the numbers from the NBA's 2026-27 schedule.
Nationally televised games
Maybe the most notable thing in the 2026-27 NBA schedule is that, for all the talk of games exclusively on streaming services (Peacock and Prime Video), the NBA and its partners are leaning hard into games on traditional broadcast television: NBC and ABC are combining to show 90 games , a healthy increase from 79 last season.
Across all platforms, five teams are tied for the most nationally televised games with 34: The New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers. Next in line are the Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets with 28 each.
A few other schedule notes:
• All 30 teams have at least two nationally televised games.
• The five teams with just two games are: The Milwaukee Bucks, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings, Brooklyn Nets and New Orleans Pelicans. (It's a little surprising to see Memphis with rookie Carlos Boozer on that list. It also speaks to Zion Williamson's current star power that New Orleans is in that group.)
• Eight teams will appear a maximum of 11 times on NBC and Peacock: Denver, Golden State, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Lakers, and Houston. Boston, Minnesota and Dallas will be on NBC/Peacock 10 times, while Detroit and Miami will be on 9 times each.
• Interesting note via The Athletic: The San Antonio Spurs have 60% of their nationally televised games in the second half of the season — 25 of their last 41. That includes four straight nationally televised games on two occasions. That said, because the league wants teams relatively fresh for those games, the Spurs also have a lot of off days baked into the schedule.
Back-to-backs, rest
If you want to know what teams care most about when they look at the schedule, it's this.
The NBA has worked in recent years to reduce the number of back-to-backs and four-games-in-five-days, a challenge with the introduction of the NBA Cup. This season, it made some progress.
Teams will average 14.2 back-to-backs this season, the lowest number since the advent of the NBA Cup. There are 59 back-to-backs involving more than 750 miles of travel, down from 74 a season ago. Also, 47 of those back-to-backs end with a nationally televised game, which is when star players are more likely to sit out (that number is down from 66 last season).
The teams with the most back-to-backs: The Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans, each of whom have 16. The Pelicans have two back-to-backs in their first five games, which is a brutal way to start the season.
Some other schedule notes, many from a fantastic story from Raphielle Johnson here at NBC Sports on how the schedule impacts fantasy basketball:
• The 76ers have the fewest three-games-in-four-night stretches in the league this season, which is good news for a team with LeBron James and Joel Embiid.
• The San Antonio Spurs have 94 rest days in this year's schedule, tied for the most of any team.
• In total, NBA teams are poised to travel an estimated 42.5K miles over the course of the season, which is near an all-time low.
• Longest home stand: Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies each have eight games in a row at home at one point this season.
• Longest road trip: The New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans all have seven-game road trips at one point (for the Lakers, that is the annual Grammy trip in February when the music awards show takes over their arena).
• San Antonio has five neutral site games, the most in the league. That includes two games in Europe against New Orleans, one in Paris on Jan. 14 and one in Manchester, England, on Jan. 17.
• When are the rematches of last playoff's seven-game series?
The 2026 NBA Playoffs presented by Google featured five Game 7s, tying the record for the most in a single postseason. Here are the 2026-27 NBA regular-season dates for each of those five matchups. ⬇️ NBA Schedule Release presented by @Ticketmaster pic.twitter.com/w1uFrotrK0
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) August 13, 2026
• Interesting note from The Athletic: The NBA Cup Final takes place in Indianapolis on Dec. 11. The next night, Dec. 12, 16 NBA teams are scheduled to play, including teams one can make a legitimate case for to appear in those Finals — Minnesota, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Miami, New York, Atlanta and Denver. If one of those teams makes the Cup Finals, the league is rescheduling the game on the 12th, right?
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