NBA News August 12: LeBron-Lakers, Giannis and the Jokic dream

The NBA has revealed the first marquee matchups of the 2026-27 season: LeBron James will make his Philadelphia debut against the Knicks and return to Los Angeles on Christmas Day to face the Lakers. Meanwhile, Giannis will miss Greece and Jokic remains a Panathinaikos dream.

The NBA has already started putting the first dates to circle on the calendar and wasted no time.

While we wait for the full 2026-27 schedule, which will be released Thursday, we already know the matchups for Opening Night and, above all, Christmas Day.

And inevitably, LeBron James is already at the center of it all.

LeBron vs. the Lakers: Christmas Day appointment

The return to Los Angeles will come much sooner than expected.

On December 25, the Philadelphia 76ers will visit the Los Angeles Lakers, giving Christmas Day what is already, on paper, one of the most anticipated games of the entire Regular Season.

For LeBron, this will be no ordinary road game. After the end of his long run in purple and gold and his move to Philadelphia this summer, James will return to Los Angeles for the first time as an opponent. A game that will inevitably go far beyond the final score.

The reception from the crowd, the matchup with his former teammates and everything surrounding his return to Crypto.com Arena will make Sixers-Lakers one of the biggest television events of the NBA season.

And the league, not coincidentally, chose Christmas. The rest of the schedule won’t be too bad either: Spurs-Knicks, Heat-Celtics, Thunder-Timberwolves and Nuggets-Warriors will round out the five games on Christmas Day 2026.

NBA Opening Night: LeBron Debuts Against the Knicks

Before thinking about Christmas, though, there will be a debut to deal with.

The NBA season will officially begin on Tuesday, October 20, and LeBron’s first game in a 76ers uniform will come at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks.

Here too, the storyline is practically already written. New York will open the season in front of its home crowd celebrating the NBA title it won just a few months earlier, while Philadelphia will arrive at the Garden with a completely revamped team built to immediately challenge for the Eastern Conference.

Quite a quiet way to start a new chapter.

Opening Night will also feature Celtics-Pistons and Thunder-Spurs, immediately putting some of the most intriguing teams of the new season on the floor.

The full 2026-27 NBA Schedule is coming

What was revealed in recent hours is only the appetizer. The full 2026-27 NBA Regular Season schedule will be announced Thursday, August 13, at 3 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. in Italy.

And there will be plenty of dates to look for immediately.

Along with LeBron’s return to Los Angeles, there will be Jaylen Brown’s return to Boston, the first matchups between the superstars involved in the summer’s biggest moves and, naturally, all the meetings between the top contenders.

The NBA has already announced nine nationally televised games during the first four days of the Regular Season, spread across NBC/Peacock, ESPN and Prime Video.

No Greece for Giannis

Not all of the latest news is about the schedule, however.

Giannis Antetokounmpo will not take part in Greece’s late-August window of the FIBA 2027 World Cup qualifiers.

The Miami Heat’s position is reportedly a major factor in the decision, with the team preferring to carefully manage its new superstar’s workload after a long season.

A new phase in managing his international commitments therefore begins immediately for Giannis. Greece will have to do without its most important player, while Miami wants to avoid any risk before training camp begins.

Jokic-Panathinaikos: the dream isn’t over

On the other side of the Atlantic, the name of Nikola Jokic continues to make headlines.

Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos has made no secret of his desire to eventually try to bring the three-time MVP to Greece.

There has already been an attempt, without success, but the idea does not appear to have been completely abandoned. Today, imagining Jokic away from Denver remains extremely difficult. Imagining him in the EuroLeague even more so.

But when the owner of one of Europe’s most ambitious teams continues to publicly talk about the best player in the world, the story inevitably makes noise.

Washington starts dreaming with Davis and Young

The team that can’t wait for the new season to begin, meanwhile, is the Washington Wizards. After finishing last season with the worst record in the NBA, the atmosphere in the nation’s capital has completely changed.

Trae Young and Anthony Davis have already started working together in Los Angeles, while all eyes are on No. 1 overall pick AJ Dybantsa.

Young, Davis and Dybantsa represent three generations and three completely different player profiles, but above all, they finally give the Wizards something they have been missing for quite some time: expectations.

Figuring out how quickly they can turn those expectations into wins will be one of the most interesting storylines of the new season. And starting tomorrow, we’ll also know all the dates when they can try.

That’s all for today. NBA News by Dunkest returns tomorrow morning with another recap and all the news you won’t want to miss from around the NBA.