NBA: start of the 2026-27 season on 20 October 2026 with Detroit Pistons - Boston Celtics

The 2026-27 NBA season starts with the game between Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics on Tuesday 20 October 2026 (tip-off at 21:00 CET). It opens the regular season, which ends on 11 April 2027. The play-in follows from Tuesday 13 to Friday 16 April 2027, then the play-offs (from 17 April 2027), which will lead two NBA franchises to the Finals, scheduled for June 2027.

During the regular season, the 30 NBA franchises are split into two conferences, East and West, each made up of three divisions of five teams. Each franchise plays 82 games, a total of 1,230 games over the regular season. At the end of the regular season, the top six teams in each conference qualify directly for the play-offs, while the teams ranked 7^th to 10^th play the play-in to determine the last two qualifiers in each…