Initial Reactions to full Dallas Mavericks 2025-26 schedule

First Thoughts on the Schedule

The important things to look at are the long homestands or road trips, as well as back-to-back games. Dallas has older stars in Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, and Kyrie Irving, when he returns from injury, so those will the stretches to keep an eye on. It wouldn't be surprising to see the Mavs sit Irving on a first or second night of a back-to-back once he returns, either. Dallas would like to avoid as many of those as possible.

Dallas has 14 back-to-back opportunities, but only four of them are coming after the All-Star break, if we're to use that as a hypothetical return for Irving. The initial projection was around January or February, but it's still too soon to know.

The longest road stretch is the five-game stretch from March 3rd to the 10th, starting with a game against the Charlotte Hornets and ending against the Atlanta Hawks. They technically have a longer six games in a row away from home, but three come before the All-Star break and three come after.

In a similar vein, the longest homestand comes in the first five games of the season from October 22nd to the 29th, starting with the San Antonio Spurs and ending against the Eastern Conference champion Indiana Pacers.

The Dallas Mavericks also have a lot of nationally televised games, currently listed with 23. Only three of those come in March and April, though. It'll be a little more special this season, as Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki will be on the studio crew for Amazon with Blake Griffin. NBC has taken over the games from TNT, which will be great to see

The matchups against the Los Angeles Lakers will likely be the most-watched of the season, just due to the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis revenge factor. We already knew one matchup in the NBA Cup, which will be in Los Angeles. The first game in Dallas will be on January 24th, and they'll meet again in LA on February 12th, the last game before the All-Star Break, and finally on April 5th in Dallas. All four of those games are on national TV.