Before Tip-Off: Your Guide to the 2026-27 NBA Season

Last season ended with one of the biggest stories in NBA history: the New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 in the NBA Finals to win their first championship since 1973 — just the third title in franchise history. They sealed it on the road in Game 5, rallying from 16 points down to close it out 105-95.

The 2026-27 season tips off Tuesday, October 20, with a three-game opening night on NBC: Celtics at Pistons, then the 76ers at the Knicks — where New York raises its championship banner before the ball is even in the air — and a nightcap between the Thunder and Spurs.

A few things worth knowing before you start making NBA picks on MockSport. It's an 82-game season, and lines can be noisy in the first few weeks while rotations, chemistry, and health are still settling in — early results are a smaller sample than they'll feel like in the moment. Star players routinely sit out the second night of a back-to-back or get rested down the stretch, which can swing a line (and a game) with little warning. And basketball is high-scoring and fast-paced, so a slow start or a bad quarter is rarely fatal to a team's chances the way it can be in lower-scoring sports — moneyline favorites get overturned more often than you'd expect.

NBA games can be picked on the winner, the spread (the margin of victory) and the total (the combined score). Spreads and totals show whenever every game on the board has a line, and any of them can go into a parlay.

One more thing to watch for: the NBA Cup, the league's in-season tournament, picks up in November and adds a handful of extra meaningful games to the schedule — worth keeping an eye on if you like watching line movement.

Head to the NBA page once the season's under way for this week's live odds, or check How Odds Work for a refresher on how moneyline odds work.