The Lakers will reportedly host two of the league’s elder statesmen in a pair of their 2025-26 marquee matchups.
The Lakers will open the upcoming season by hosting the Golden State Warriors on Opening Night (Oct. 21) and host the Houston Rockets for a Christmas Day matchup, ESPN’s Shams Charania first reported on Friday afternoon.
The game between the Lakers and Warriors will pit longtime on-court rivals LeBron James and Stephen Curry against each other on Opening Night for the third time since the 2021-22 season, with Curry’s Warriors winning both matchups in 2021 and ‘22.
The Lakers-Warriors Opening Night matchup will be nationally televised on the recently revived NBA on NBC broadcast.
In the other Opening Night matchup, the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder will host the Rockets, who were the Western Conference’s No. 2 seed in 2024-25 and acquired 15-time All-Star Kevin Durant in a trade last month.
The Lakers-Rockets matchup on Dec. 25 will be the sixth time that James’ and Durant’s teams will play each other on Christmas:
- In 2012, when James played for the Miami Heat and Durant played for the Thunder in an NBA Finals rematch;
- 2016-17, when James played for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Durant played for the Warriors in Finals rematches;
- 2018 in James’ first season with the Lakers in Durant’s last season in Golden State;
- 2021, in a matchup between the Lakers and Brooklyn Nets that Durant didn’t play in due to the NBA’s health and safety protocols related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NBA’s Christmas Day slate will reportedly feature five games on Disney-owned ABC/ESPN and the league’s biggest stars, as is typically the case.
The Cleveland Cavaliers, who were led to the No. 1 seed in the East in 2024-25 behind All-Stars Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley, will travel to New York to face the Jalen Brunson- and Karl-Anthony Towns-led Knicks.
The Thunder will host Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. The Dallas Mavericks to travel to the Golden State Warriors, while the Denver Nuggets will host the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Lakers and Mavericks were widely expected to play each other in a marquee regular-season matchup between Luka Doncic and his former team that shockingly traded him to Los Angeles in February, but longtime NBA writer Marc Stein reported on Friday that the Mavericks/Lakers regular-season game won’t come until later in November in the NBA Cup Group Play matchup.
The complete regular-season schedule will be released later this month.