FOLLOWING the All-Star festivities last weekend, the 2025/26 regular season of the National Basketball Association (NBA) got back to regular programming last night with a slate of 10 games. And with all teams having already played between 53 to 56 games of their 82-game regular season, up to the break last weekend, some interesting developments are already taking shape.

Defending champions Oklahoma City Thunder, who looked so invincible last season, have shown significant chinks in their armour this year. They lost a total of 14 regular season games last year and have already registered that number this year. And, they have looked particularly vulnerable against the San Antonio Spurs, who they went 3-1 against last season but are 1-4 this time around, including a loss in early February during when they were being accused of ‘unethical tanking’ by the NBA. The Thunder (42-14) are currently atop the table in the Western Conference but the Spurs (38-16) are hot on their heels and look like bona fide contenders this season.

On the subject of tanking, the NBA has this season already fined the Utah Jazz and last season’s beaten finalists, the Indiana Pacers, US$500,000 each for deliberately not playing the game to full potential, with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stating, “Overt behaviour like this that prioritises draft position over winning undermines the foundation of NBA competition, and we will respond accordingly to any further actions that compromise the integrity of our games.” The Pacers (15-40) are a shadow of where they were last season, sitting second to last in the Eastern Conference, where play-off ambitions are all but buried.

For the sake of context, resting players (game management) is employed by good teams as a strategy to reduce injuries by resting star players during the season, or when their regular-season results have already confirmed play-off participation, but tanking is when good teams rest their best players to deliberately surrender a game they consider unwinnable or when bad teams that are out of play-off contention intentionally lose games to improve their draft lottery odds.

At the opposite end of the Eastern Conference the Detroit Pistons (40-13) are sitting at the top, ahead of the Boston Celtics (35-19), but were 44-38 last season, and two seasons ago won just 14 games and had a single-season, NBA record, 28-game losing streak. The Philadelphia 76ers also lost 28 consecutive games, but that was across two seasons: 2014/15 and 2015/16.

This weekend there are 26 NBA games on tap, and even though there are only six matchups featuring both teams in the top eight of either conference, the action promises to be enticing, even with all this talk of tanking and/or load management. Of particular interest should be the New York Knicks hosting the Houston Rockets on Saturday night, the Thunder playing host to the Cleveland Cavaliers early Sunday afternoon, and the Los Angeles Lakers renewing their rivalry with the visiting Celtics later the same day.

The Knicks and Rockets are meeting for the first time this season, after they split the four games over the last two seasons evenly, with each team winning one per season. This season, however, with Kevin Durant leaving the Phoenix Suns in the offseason and joining the Rockets in a blockbuster trade involving seven teams and 13 players, the pendulum has been swung significantly in Houston’s favour. That said, the Knicks have defended their home court very well this season, going 21-7 in Madison Square Gardens — the third-best home record going into the All Star break behind the Thunder (22-6) and the Pistons (21-6). The Rockets should win but Jalen Brunson and the Knicks will have their guard up, and it won’t be a walk in the park.

The Thunder will have visitors on Sunday afternoon for a rematch of the January 9th matchup, when the Cavaliers suffered their worst defeat in a regular-season game in nearly two seasons after they lost 104-136. On their rise to the pinnacle last season, Oklahoma City defeated Cleveland while they were looking undefeatable, on the way to claiming the crown. This season, the Cavaliers are not strutting the same bravado and will be up against the team with the best home record in the NBA. And while the Thunder are not looking as impenetrable as they did last season, they are still the best team in the league on any given Sunday and are expected to stave off any charge the Cavaliers can muster this weekend.

The Celtics travel to Los Angeles on Sunday to renew the biggest rivalry the NBA has to offer. These two teams have won the two highest numbers of championships in the NBA: the Celtics have won 18, and the Lakers have won 17 (12 in Los Angeles and five in Minneapolis). However, that history has already been written and the current teams are doing their best to write new chapters. This game, in particular, will be determined by the availability of both Luka Doncic and Deandre Ayton for the Lakers. Doncic, who missed the last three games heading into the All-Star break due to a hamstring injury, played only a few minutes last weekend and his status is still up in the air. Ayton, who missed two games heading into the break, is still nursing a knee injury.

The Lakers have a lot of firepower in their squad, even without those two, but would find the going a lot less difficult if they were available. The hosts should win if both Doncic and Ayton are in game condition, but if not, expect the visitors to leave with a feather in their proverbial cap.

The NBA season is still developing and there is still a lot to watch. The distance between first and eighth place in each conference is still narrow, and placement between them can change in just a few games. The expectation from last season was for the Thunder to create a modern-day dynasty, but not so much now, making parity the order of the day. The real beauty in sports is the possibility of the unexpected — and this NBA season has provided just that. I love this game!

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NBA 2025/26 Champion

Team Odds

Oklahoma City Thunder 2.29

Denver Nuggets 6.00

Cleveland Cavaliers 12.00

New York Knicks 14.00

Boston Celtics 16.00

San Antonio Spurs 16.00

Detroit Pistons 17.00

Houston Rockets 20.00

Minnesota Timberwolves 29.00

Los Angeles Lakers 40.00

*Only top 10 odds shown (see website for full list).

Note: Odds are subject to change.