Last season, the Cleveland Cavaliers surprised many people. They dominated in the regular season and won an Eastern Conference-best 64 games.
However, the Cavs’ magical season ended in the second round against the Indiana Pacers. Now, it’s time for new beginnings.
On Thursday, the NBA announced the 2025-26 schedule, and the Cavs will begin the season on the road in a nationally televised game against the New York Knicks on Oct. 22; Cleveland’s home opener is a few days later on Oct. 25 against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Schedule Notes:
-The Cavs will make 24 national television appearances this upcoming season.
-Cleveland will also participate in the NBA Cup 2025, which will tip off Friday, Oct. 31, and continue through Friday, Nov. 28. Each NBA team will play four designated Group Play games on “Cup Nights”. The Cavaliers are set to compete in East Group A against teams in their pool: Oct. 31 vs. Toronto, Nov. 7 at Washington, Nov. 21 vs. Indiana (Prime), and Nov. 28 at Atlanta. Eight teams (four per conference) will advance to the Knockout Rounds — single-elimination games in the Quarterfinals scheduled for Dec. 9–10 in NBA markets — followed by the Semifinals (Dec. 13) and Championship (Dec. 16) in Las Vegas. All Emirates NBA Cup games will count toward the regular-season standings except the Championship game. On days when Emirates NBA Cup Knockout Round games are not scheduled (Dec. 11–12 and Dec. 14–15), the 22 teams that do not qualify will each play two regular-season games.
-14 sets of back-to-back games, including four home-home sets (Dec. 5-6, Dec. 22-23, March 8-9, March 24-25), seven home-road sets (Oct. 26-27, Nov. 23-24, Nov. 30-Dec. 1, Jan. 23-24, Feb. 19-20, Feb. 24-25, April 5-6), one road-road set (March 30-31) and two road-home sets (Nov. 7-8, Nov. 12-13).
-The Cavaliers’ longest homestand is six games over 11 days (Nov. 13-23), featuring contests versus Toronto (Nov. 13), Memphis (Nov. 15), Milwaukee (Nov. 17 on Peacock), Houston (Nov. 19), Indiana (Nov. 21 on Prime), and the L.A. Clippers (Nov. 23).
-Cleveland will play five straight road games over an 11-day stretch (Jan. 30-Feb. 9). The team also has four three-game road trips (Dec. 25-29, Feb. 21-March 1, March 17-21, and March 30-April 2) and eight two-game road trips (Oct. 22-24, Oct. 27-29, Nov. 10-12, Nov. 24-28, Jan. 6-8, Jan. 14-16, Feb. 20-22, and March 11-13).
-Holiday games include Halloween (Oct. 31 vs. Toronto), Christmas Day (Dec. 25 at New York on ABC/ESPN App & ESPN Radio), New Year’s Eve (Dec. 31 vs. Phoenix), MLK Day (Jan. 19 vs. Oklahoma City on NBC/Peacock), St. Patrick’s Day (March 17 at Milwaukee on NBC/Peacock) and Easter (April 5 vs. Indiana).
-Two of Cleveland’s four NBA Cup games will take place at Rocket Arena (Oct. 31 vs. Toronto and Nov. 21 vs. Indiana on Prime).
-The Cavaliers will play 15 games each in November, January, and March during the 2025-26 season. Cleveland will also play six games in October, 14 games in December, 11 games in February, and six games in April.
-Cleveland will finish the season playing 20 of their last 33 games on the road; The season finale will take place at Rocket Arena, where the Cavaliers face the Washington Wizards on Sunday, April 12.
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