Scheduled
Boston Celtics at Detroit Pistons
2026-27 · Regular season
NBA Opening Night tip times in ET and Cairo: Celtics-Pistons, 76ers-Knicks, Thunder-Spurs, and the Bucks’ new 4 p.m. Friday start
Opening Night tips at 3 p.m. ET (10 p.m. Cairo) in Detroit, with the latest injury report for all six teams and the Bucks-Bulls home opener moved to 4 p.m. ET on Friday for the Brewers' World Series Game 1.
In this article
The 2026-27 NBA regular season starts today, Tuesday, October 20, with a tripleheader on NBC and Peacock. The first tip is at 3 p.m. ET in Detroit, which is 10 p.m. in Cairo, and the last game of the night ends in the early hours of Wednesday for anyone watching from Egypt. Below are tonight’s tip times in both time zones, the latest injury report for all six teams and a schedule change that is easy to miss: the Milwaukee Bucks home opener on Friday now starts at 4 p.m. ET.
Tonight’s three games
Cairo is on UTC+3 until the end of October, seven hours ahead of New York.
| Game | Tip (ET) | Tip (Cairo) | US TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Celtics at Detroit Pistons | 3:00 p.m. Tue | 10:00 p.m. Tue | NBC, Peacock |
| Philadelphia 76ers at New York Knicks | 7:00 p.m. Tue | 2:00 a.m. Wed | NBC, Peacock |
| Oklahoma City Thunder at San Antonio Spurs | 9:30 p.m. Tue | 4:30 a.m. Wed | NBC, Peacock |
The Knicks will hand out their championship rings and raise the banner at about 6:30 p.m. ET, which is 1:30 a.m. in Cairo, so viewers who tune in at tip time will miss the ceremony. Our ring night guide has the full timeline.
Celtics at Pistons, 3 p.m. ET
The afternoon opener puts the two best teams in the East from last season on the floor first. It is the first regular-season look at Jayson Tatum alongside Paul George in Boston, while Cade Cunningham leads a Detroit team that finished as the top seed.
The official injury report, last updated at 2 a.m. ET today, lists Devin Carter as out for Boston with an illness; he has been away from the team with mononucleosis. For Detroit, Taurean Prince is questionable for personal reasons. Elijah Harkless is questionable and Isaac Jones and Ugonna Onyenso are out on G League two-way assignments.
76ers at Knicks, 7 p.m. ET
LeBron James and Jaylen Brown make their Philadelphia debuts against Jalen Brunson and the defending champions. New York did not list a single player on the report. Philadelphia’s starters are all clear, but three reserves are questionable: Anfernee Simons (left hamstring tightness), Dean Wade (left ankle sprain) and Adem Bona (left foot sprain). Dominick Barlow (low back stress reaction), Tacko Fall (left quadriceps strain) and Ariel Hukporti (right Achilles tear) are out. Our opening-night injury report has the detail on each case.
Thunder at Spurs, 9:30 p.m. ET
The late game is a rematch of last spring’s Western Conference finals, which San Antonio won in seven games after trailing 3-2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder get Chet Holmgren back after a quadriceps contusion kept him out of the entire preseason; he is not on the report. Otega Oweh, Thomas Sorber and Nikola Topić are out for Oklahoma City. Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs will be without Tobias Harris (left calf strain) and Jayden Quaintance (right knee surgery).
Schedule change: Bucks-Bulls moves to 4 p.m. ET on Friday
Milwaukee moved its home opener against the Chicago Bulls on Friday, October 23, from 7 p.m. to 3 p.m. local time, which is 4 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. in Cairo. The Brewers host Game 1 of the World Series at American Family Field that night, the city’s first World Series game in 44 years, and the Bucks worked with the league to clear the evening. The first 10,000 fans at Fiserv Forum get a custom poster of the 2026-27 schedule.
The league’s schedule now shows the new 4 p.m. ET start, and it also lists the Houston Rockets at the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday, October 24, at 8:30 p.m. ET (3:30 a.m. Sunday in Cairo). Both games were listed without a set time when the opening-week schedule came out. Some Game Center pages on this site may still show the older 8 p.m. placeholder for these two games until the schedule data refreshes; the times in this story are the current ones.
The national TV games through Friday, in Cairo time
| Game | Tip (ET) | Tip (Cairo) | US TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota Timberwolves at Miami Heat | 7:30 p.m. Wed | 2:30 a.m. Thu | ESPN |
| Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Lakers | 10:00 p.m. Wed | 5:00 a.m. Thu | ESPN |
| Cleveland Cavaliers at Philadelphia 76ers | 7:00 p.m. Thu | 2:00 a.m. Fri | ESPN |
| Denver Nuggets at Oklahoma City Thunder | 9:30 p.m. Thu | 4:30 a.m. Fri | ESPN |
| Chicago Bulls at Milwaukee Bucks | 4:00 p.m. Fri | 11:00 p.m. Fri | Local TV |
| New York Knicks at Boston Celtics | 7:00 p.m. Fri | 2:00 a.m. Sat | Prime Video |
| Houston Rockets at San Antonio Spurs | 9:30 p.m. Fri | 4:30 a.m. Sat | Prime Video |
Wednesday is the busiest night of the week, with 11 games, and the earliest tips at 7 p.m. ET land at 2 a.m. Thursday in Cairo. Friday has 12 games, so the Bucks’ afternoon start is the only one that fits into a Cairo evening. The full week, with every Game Center, is in our opening-week schedule.
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