NBA schedule 2026-27: Full season calendar and UK TV times
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NBA 2026-27
The NBA 2026-27 regular season tips off on October 20, 2026, running through to April 11, 2027, with 30 franchises each playing 82 games before the Play-In Tournament and then the playoffs.
For UK fans, live coverage is split between Sky Sports and Amazon Prime Video following the expiry of TNT Sports' exclusive deal at the end of the 2024-25 season.
The standout UK event of the season is the NBA Manchester Game on January 17, 2027, where the New Orleans Pelicans face the San Antonio Spurs at Co-op Live, the first regular-season NBA game to be held in Manchester.
Below, Sports Mole presents the full 2026-27 NBA schedule with UK-converted tip-off times, broadcaster details and key season dates throughout the campaign.
NBA 2026-27 key dates
The season spans six months of regular-season play before the postseason begins in April 2027.
NBA 2026-27 season calendar
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Date Event
October 20, 2026 Opening Night Season starts
October 30, 2026 NBA Cup group stage begins (in-season tournament)
December 25, 2026 Christmas Day games: Knicks vs Spurs (Finals rematch) headlines five-game slate
January 14, 2027 NBA Paris Game: Pelicans vs Spurs, Accor Arena
January 17, 2027 NBA Manchester Game: Pelicans vs Spurs, Co-op Live UK event
February 11, 2027 Trade Deadline
February 19-21, 2027 NBA All-Star Weekend
April 11, 2027 Regular season ends
April 13-16, 2027 Play-In Tournament
April 17, 2027 Playoffs begin
June 2027 NBA Finals
NBA schedule 2026-27: Full regular season calendar
The full 2026-27 regular season runs from October 20, 2026 through to April 11, 2027, covering all 1,230 games across 30 teams.
Use the month tabs to navigate by month, or type a team name in the filter box to find all their home and away fixtures across the full season at once.
How to watch the NBA in the UK 2026-27
Two broadcasters share live NBA rights in the UK for the 2026-27 season following a restructure of the broadcast landscape ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.
Sky Sports holds the primary rights under an 11-year deal announced in July 2024, running until the end of the 2035-36 season and covering live regular-season games, the playoffs and the NBA Finals.
Amazon Prime Video also broadcasts more than 60 live games per season as part of a separate rights agreement, including the NBA Global Games in Paris (January 14) and Manchester (January 17) in 2027.
NBA League Pass, available directly through the NBA app or via a Sky Sports add-on, provides access to every live game not shown by either broadcaster on a given night.
Both broadcasters allot specific games on a rolling basis, with selections confirmed closer to each broadcast date rather than published as a full schedule at the start of the season.
NBA Global Games UK 2027
Two regular-season games between the New Orleans Pelicans and the San Antonio Spurs are scheduled for Europe in January 2027, with one in Paris and one in Manchester.
The Manchester fixture at Co-op Live on January 17, 2027 is the first time a regular-season NBA game has been staged in the city, and both games are exclusive to Amazon Prime Video in the UK.
Both games will be shown at UK-friendly evening times given the European venues, making them the most accessible fixtures of the season for supporters watching live.
Five NBA games to watch in 2026-27
From LeBron James' debut in a new jersey to the first NBA game ever played in Manchester, the 2026-27 season has a set of landmark fixtures worth circling in the diary.
NBA UK tip-off times 2026-27
Almost all NBA regular-season games tip off between midnight and 5am in the UK, with the exact time depending on the US time zone of the home team.
UK clocks change twice during the 2026-27 season: back one hour on October 25, 2026 (GMT from October 26), and forward one hour again on March 28, 2027 (BST from March 28).
The schedule widget above lists all UK tip-off times already converted, applying BST for games from October 20-25 and from March 28, and GMT for the rest of the season.
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US tip-off (ET) UK time (GMT) Oct 26–Mar 27 UK time (BST) Oct 20–25 & Mar 28+
6:00pm ET 11:00pm 12:00am BST
7:00pm ET 12:00am 1:00am BST
7:30pm ET 12:30am 1:30am BST
8:00pm ET 1:00am 2:00am BST
9:00pm ET 2:00am 3:00am BST
9:30pm ET 2:30am 3:30am BST
10:00pm ET 3:00am 4:00am BST
10:30pm ET 3:30am 4:30am BST
Conference structure 2026-27
The NBA's 30 teams are divided into two conferences and six divisions, three per conference.
The top six teams in each conference at the end of the regular season qualify automatically for the first round of the playoffs.
NBA Play-In Tournament 2027 explained
Teams finishing seventh through tenth in each conference qualify for the Play-In Tournament, which fills the final two playoff spots per conference.
Six games are played across the two conferences: three per conference, with two knockout rounds over roughly four days in mid-April.
About the NBA 2026-27 season
The season covers 30 teams across the Eastern and Western Conferences, each playing 82 games: 41 at home and 41 away.
The top six teams in each conference qualify automatically for the first round of the playoffs, while seeds seven through ten play off in the Play-In Tournament for the remaining two spots per conference.
The NBA Cup, an in-season tournament held in November and December, gives every team a second competition to target during the regular season alongside their conference standing.
The NBA Finals, which decide the league champion, are scheduled for June 2027.