NBA Opens Tonight: Jokic, Five Serbs and Rajakovic
The 2026/27 season starts Tuesday, October 20, with three games on opening night. Six Serbian players and Toronto's coach represent Serbia, but Jokic's Denver waits until October 22.
The New York Knicks raise their 2026 championship banner at Madison Square Garden tonight, and only then does the NBA’s 81st season get under way. The champions do not open the night, though: the first ball goes up at an unusually early hour in Detroit.
The 2026/27 regular season starts on Tuesday, October 20, and runs through April 11, 2027. Every team plays 82 games. Each club has 80 scheduled at the start, and the remaining two will be set by the results of the group stage of the NBA Cup. On the final day all 30 teams play at once: the Eastern Conference games and one cross-conference game tip off at 6 p.m. Eastern time, and the Western Conference games at 8:30 p.m.
What is on the opening night schedule?
Three games are on the program, all on NBC:
- Boston visits Detroit at 3 p.m. Eastern, which is 9 p.m. in Serbia according to B92
- Philadelphia visits New York at 7 p.m. Eastern
- Oklahoma visits San Antonio at 9:30 p.m. Eastern
By the same time conversion, the second game starts at 1 a.m. Serbian time and the third at 3:30 a.m.
The Detroit game pits the two teams with the best records in the Eastern Conference last season. San Antonio hosts a rematch of the 2026 Western Conference finals between the Thunder and the Spurs. New York is defending the title it won in the 2026 Finals, where it beat San Antonio.
Who are the Serbs in the NBA?
Serbia is represented in the league by six players and one coach:
- Nikola Jokic (Denver)
- Bogdan Bogdanovic (Houston)
- Nikola Jovic (Miami)
- Tristan Vukcevic (Washington)
- Nikola Topic (Oklahoma)
- Bogoljub Markovic (Milwaukee)
- Darko Rajakovic, head coach of Toronto
Topic is the only one of them whose team plays on opening night, in San Antonio. Jokic’s Denver takes the floor two days later.
In its preview, B92 calls Jokic the league’s MVP. Meridiansport notes in its overview that the last two Most Valuable Player awards went to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma, while Jokic won the award in the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2023/24 seasons. Last season he finished second in the voting, ahead of third-placed Victor Wembanyama.
When does Jokic’s Denver play?
Denver opens its season on Thursday, October 22, with a road game in Oklahoma, broadcast by ESPN. That means Jokic and Topic will be on opposite benches. Denver’s first home game is on October 24 against New Orleans at Ball Arena.
We reported earlier on how Bogdanovic reflected on Udoka, Durant and Partizan ahead of the season.
How many international players are in the league?
On opening day the league announced that the 2026/27 rosters include 125 international players from 43 countries and territories. Last season there were 135, a record, while the number of countries matches the 2017/18 season, when the record was set. 70 players come from Europe, for the second straight season and only the second time in league history.
France has the most players with 17, the first time in 13 seasons that a country other than Canada leads this list. Canada has 16, Australia nine, Germany seven, and Serbia and Nigeria six each. Dallas, Miami and Washington have seven international players apiece, which means Jovic and Vukcevic play for two of the three clubs that lead the league by this measure.
Who makes the playoffs?
Each conference has 15 teams. The top six in each go straight to the playoffs, and the teams in seventh through tenth place play in the play-in tournament. The most decorated club is Boston with 18 titles, followed by the Los Angeles Lakers with 17.
The Serbian players and Rajakovic therefore enter the season with one date already known: Denver plays in Oklahoma on October 22.
