The 2025-26 NBA season will begin Tuesday, October 21st and the NBA is blessing basketball fans with two terrific matchups to kick off the season. First will be the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder hosting the new-look Houston Rockets featuring Kevin Durant at 7:30 PT EST. Then, the LeBron James and Luka Doncic-led Los Angeles Lakers will be hosting Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors at 10:00 PM EST. Both of these games will be aired on NBC and Peacock.
Opening Lines
On DraftKings Sportsbook, you can already place wagers on both these exciting opening matchups and below are the opening lines for these contests:
Thunder -6.5 vs. Rockets
Lakers -3.5 vs. Warriors
Early Picks
Despite winning 52 games last season, the Rockets were a first-round exit to the Warriors. Houston clearly lacked playoff pedigree and experience, and the club went out and addressed those flaws by trading for a two-time NBA Finals MVP in Durant. While the forward is now 36 years old, Durant is still an elite scorer who averaged 26.6 PPG last season with the Suns. The addition of the future Hall-of-Famer gives the Rockets one of the most complete rosters in the NBA and Houston carries the second-best odds to win the 2025-26 NBA Championship at +700 on DraftKings Sportsbook.
However, the only team ahead of the Rockets in that market is their opening night opponent in the Thunder and the team is the unanimous favorite to repeat at +260. Oklahoma City had one of the greatest regular seasons in NBA history a year ago, with a 68-14 record and the best point differential of all time. The Thunder hit some speed bumps in the playoffs, like being pushed to seven games in two series, but Oklahoma City ultimately won the NBA Championship, which was well-deserved for this all-time great team. Now, the Thunder will look to defend their title this coming season with nearly the same exact roster. After raising a banner in front of the Oklahoma City faithful, the Thunder should get back to business and cruise to an easy home win over the Rockets on opening night. At home last season, Oklahoma City was a league-best 46-8 and a league-best 37-15-2 ATS.
Pick: Thunder -6.5
After rumblings that the Lakers were going to trade James, the organization instead revamped Los Angeles’ roster to hopefully give James a chance at another NBA title. The Lakers lost Dorian Finney-Smith, but the club signed veterans Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton after both were released by their teams. Additionally, Los Angeles inked Doncic to a massive extension. Smart will bring valuable defensive intensity and playoff experience to this Lakers team while Ayton fills a large void for a Los Angeles team that lacked an interior presence.
On the other side of this matchup, the Warriors have not added any players this offseason and the club lost some reserves to free agency, most notably with Kevon Looney signing with the Pelicans. More importantly, restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga and Golden State have yet to agree to an extension and the forward reportedly has no plans of accepting the Warriors’ current offer. Whether it be trading Kuminga or him continuing to hold out, there is a decent chance that he is not in uniform for the Warriors on opening night.
As it currently stands, Golden State severely lacks depth and the team struggled against the Lakers last season, with Los Angeles winning this season series 3-1. The Lakers were a strong 28-16-0 ATS at home last season and Los Angeles should cover this 3.5-point spread on opening night.
