The Denver Broncos defeated the New York Giants 33-32, scoring 33 points in the fourth quarter.
Denver quarterback Bo Nix became the first player in NFL history with two passing and two rushing touchdowns in a single quarter.
The loss puts further pressure on Giants head coach Brian Daboll and his staff.

NFL teams had won 1,602 games when leading by 18 points or more in the final six minutes.

Then the real 2025 New York Giants appeared against the Denver Broncos, who scored 33 points in the final quarter after being shut out for the first three. The Broncos walked away winners, 33-32, on Wil Lutz’s game-winning 39-yard field goal as time expired.

It was a stunning collapse for ‘Big Blue,’ even for their standards of routinely giving away games they should win during the era of head coach Brian Daboll, whose clubs have continued the tradition set in place by his predecessors.

This is the proud professional New York football franchise, mind you.

Daboll, even with his one playoff win during his first season that feels like forever ago (it was three years ago), should join them as the latest failed Giants coaches. Soon.

Only two teams have scored 33 points or more in a quarter since 1991, according to The Associated Press. Teams leading by 19 points, as the Giants did, or more at the start of the fourth quarter had won 108 straight games (playoffs included) before the Broncos rallied for 33-32 win against the Giants. (The last team to do so was the Minnesota Vikings’ comeback against the Indianapolis Colts, coached by Jeff Saturday, in 2022.)

The first move Daboll should make before seeing his own name on a pink slip is hand one to defensive coordinator Shane Bowen. Allowing the Broncos to go 56 yards in four plays with no timeouts and needing to prevent a field-goal attempt is more than fireable – even if his unit looked elite for the first three quarters.

Brian Burns, who had two sacks and is up to 9.0 on the year, was videotaped leaving the field complaining about Bowen’s decision to drop eight into coverage on the first play of the Broncos’ final drive – it was a 29-yard completion that catalyzed the game-winning possession.

Of course, general manager Joe Schoen is not without blame. Kicker Jude McAtamney missed two extra points and was this staff’s choice over Younghoe Koo, who is on the practice squad. Only the Giants are routinely put behind the eight-ball because of personnel choices at the place-kicking position. It’s inexcusable.

The scoring for Denver started auscpiciously, as Troy Franklin somehow reeled in a two-yard touchdown pass from Bo Nix that was deflected at the goal line. The Giants even had their own lucky score on the next possession, with Theo Johnson also catching a deflected pass and taking it 41 yards to the house, to make it 26-8 with 10:14 left. And Denver didn’t score again unitl 5:13 remained.

Rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart delivered a back-breaking interception with a 10-point lead and Nix found RJ Harvey to make it 26-23. A three-and-out from New York left the door open, and Nix capped a drive in which the Broncos only needed a field goal to tie with a touchdown that gave them a 30-26 lead with 1:51 left. That was the first of three lead changes that occurred in the final two minutes.

New York benefitted from a friendly pass-interference (and earlier in the drive, a questionable roughing the passer penalty) call that set up Dart’s one-yard rush that put the Giants back in front. Then McAtamney missed again. Nix, who became the first player in NFL history to have two passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns in one quarter, led the game-winning drive with a pair of perfectly placed passes.

The Giants’ defense collapsed, and Sean Payton and Co. pulled off the most improbable victory of the 2025 season.

The 2025 American League Championship Series is set for a winner-take-all Game 7 in Toronto on Monday between the Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners.

The Blue Jays bounced back to win Game 6 and force the decisive contest, two days after the Mariners seemed to have swung the pendulum of the series with a dramatic comeback in Game 5.

George Kirby starts for Seattle in Game 7 after the right-hander got shelled in his Game 3 start, giving up eight runs in four innings. Shane Bieber takes the mound for Toronto, the former Cy Young winner having picked up the win in Game 3.

Here’s how the USA TODAY Sports baseball staff sees things playing out:

Mariners vs Blue Jays Game 7 predictions

Bob Nightengale: Blue Jays 4, Mariners 3
Gabe Lacques: Blue Jays 6, Mariners 4
Jesse Yomtov: Blue Jays 5, Mariners 1

ALCS Game 7 tickets: Mariners vs Blue Jays

For anyone who grew up in the 1990s and watched basketball, especially Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls teammates systematically dismantle the rest of the NBA on their way to six championships, the first 10 seconds of any game broadcast on NBC were usually accompanied by a recognizable narrative introduction, typically voiced by Bob Costas, Marv Albert or whomever was handling the play-by-play duties that game.

A distinctive sequence of the iconic NBC chimes, followed by a laser-like trace of the network’s Peacock, and then the pulsating beats of ‘Roundball Rock,’ which many consider to be one of the greatest sports themes of all time, got fans ready for two and a half hours of intense basketball drama.

‘Roundball Rock’ is, of course, the brainchild of six-time Emmy Award-winning and two-time Grammy-nominated musician John Tesh. When NBC Universal announced in July 2024 that it had re-acquired the rights to broadcast NBA games after a two-decade absence, the announcement evoked nostalgia for a time when pro basketball teams actually operated inside the 3-point line to achieve most of their scoring.

‘It’s tremendous, I am certainly a kid of the 90s, and that was such a big part of my sports viewership, and to have the NBA on NBC back, we couldn’t be more excited,’ said Rick Cordella, NBC Sports president. ‘There are not many times that you can get a new big property, and it’s probably the biggest acquisition we’ve had since the NFL in 2006.’

Cordella said one of the first calls he made after re-acquiring the NBA was to Tesh.

Tesh, for an older generation, is remembered as the co-host of ‘Entertainment Tonight,’ but music has played a significant role for the majority of his life.

Tesh wouldn’t call himself a diehard sports aficionado, although he played soccer and lacrosse at Garden City High School on New York’s Long Island and walked on both teams at North Carolina State.

‘I’ve always been a sports fan, but I’m the kind of fan that sports fans hate,’ Tesh told USA TODAY Sports. ‘So, I show up for the playoffs.’

Tesh often shares the story of how ‘Roundball Rock’ was created: He entered the sports theme business in 1982 after CBS in New York asked him to write a song for the Tour de France while covering the event for the network. In 1990, after 18 years, CBS lost the NBA television rights to NBC, having significantly outbid them. The landscape of professional basketball suddenly shifted, as the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird era, which had been mainly responsible for bringing the league out of its tape-delayed, drug-fueled past, transformed into an Air Jordan-focused, money-making showcase.

There was only one problem: NBC needed a theme song for its new basketball package. And it knew just who to ask.

Tesh was in his hotel room in Megève, France, covering the world’s premier cycling race, and suddenly woke up at 2 a.m. A theme popped into his head, and he figured if he didn’t find a way to jot down the idea, he would go back to sleep and lose it forever.

So, he did what anyone would probably do in his situation, especially when technology wasn’t as prevalent as it is today: He called his answering machine back home and left a message, with his voice articulating the theme.

Once he returned home to the United States and listened to the message, Tesh got right to work, even bringing in friends who were orchestra players to play on the theme.

‘I figured out the chords, figured out what it was, wrote a middle section, and then brought my band in and said, ‘Hey, let’s play this.”

But giving it a second listen, he and NBC agreed that the theme sounded a little ‘slow.’

The finished product finally came alive when Tesh inserted a Betamax tape of highlights featuring Magic and Jordan, setting the tempo to what a fast break might entail. Spending his own money to bring in a small orchestra also helped, and the beats per minute were cranked up to 132.

‘Understanding that the theme not only needs to be catchy, with six or eight notes, but it needs those sections, where Marv can plug in and start talking,’ he said. ‘So, it can’t be bombastic all the way through. It has to be in, what they call in music, a handoff. So yes, the brass comes in and just blasting away, and then you come back with the strings, then maybe it’s a funk section where the bass guitar comes in.’

Two weeks after submitting the fully formed theme, Tesh got a ‘yes’ from NBC.

‘It’s hard to imagine the NBA on NBC without that song,’ Cordella said. ‘That song was part and parcel of our coverage, and it still resonates today.’ The network is also bringing back Jim Fagan, who Cordella says is the ‘Voice of God.’ Fagan, who died in 2017, was an integral part of the pre-game segments, and his narration will continue through the use of artificial intelligence.

NBC Universal is paying a reported $2.5 billion annually to broadcast the NBA after a 23-year hiatus, and ‘Roundball Rock’ will be heavily featured. Grammy-winning musician Lenny Kravitz will perform the opening theme for ‘Sunday Night Basketball’ when it premieres on Feb. 1.

Fox used it for its basketball coverage, much to the chagrin of the ‘get off my lawn’ social media crowd. But NBC brought it back for special occasions, such as the basketball tournament in the Summer Olympics, and even broke it out during a 2017 ‘Sunday Night Football’ telecast, following a basketball-themed touchdown celebration by Atlanta Falcons running back Devonta Freeman.

When Tesh decided to do an updated version of ‘Roundball Rock,’ that same cynical crowd let him have it when he played it on a podcast to get an initial response.

Now 73 years old, Tesh says he often reflects on his legacy. He has re-entered the music scene with the release of ‘Sports’ in September, a 13-track instrumental album – his first original work in more than 20 years – which features a new reimagined ‘shredded’ version of ‘Roundball Rock.’

‘And because there’s YouTube and because there’s Facebook and all the rest of that stuff there, whether it’s your testimony or it’s a piece of music, you can actually have that kind of legacy. And so, I do think about that every day,’ he said.

These days, it’s more than music that gets Tesh up in the morning, considering more than a decade ago, doctors gave him 18 months to live following a prostate cancer diagnosis. But it was the encouragement of his wife, actress Connie Sellecca, to power through despite the grim news and dig deep into his faith.

Tesh also says that it helps that he, without fail, watches ‘Gladiator’ at least once a week and has an affinity for any movie with submarines in them.

‘She said, ‘We’re gonna fight back with this.’ And so I started, and we did. And with medicine and also with the word of God,’ Tesh said. ‘But I was always looking for songs that I could exercise to keep my body still in shape while I was going through chemo and the rest of that. And I kept landing on the Rocky 4 theme (Survivor’s ‘Burning Heart’), so when I went back into the studio to record new music, I thought, you know what? That’s my baseline.’

Whether it’s that Rocky 4 theme, the baseline for his life, or the bassline to ‘Roundball Rock’ rattling through the television for the next decade, Tesh’s musical legacy is all but secured.

‘When you get to a certain age, I’m not sure if this is for everybody, you realize, it’s not going to last forever. I definitely think about it and I think about leaving music behind,’ he said.

‘Who Killed the Montreal Expos?’ premieres on the streaming platform Netflix on Oct. 21.
Directed by Jean-François Poisson, viewers will get a baseball business lecture on how not to run a professional sports team.
The Montreal Expos had the best record in Major League Baseball when the 1994 strike wiped out the rest of the season and World Series.

While the Toronto Blue Jays have captured the imagination of Canadian baseball fans by progressing to this year’s American League Championship Series, another Canada-based Major League Baseball team, albeit a defunct one, is also back in the spotlight.

That team hasn’t been around in more than two decades, but Netflix is ensuring those who had fond memories of the Montreal Expos, the first MLB team based outside the United States, don’t forget.

For Expos fans, the mere mention of the Washington Nationals or watching their 2019 World Series triumph has to feel like adding insult to injury as they just completed their 21st season in D.C. That doesn’t mean there aren’t still hurt feelings about their southern departure, and Netflix tries to explore the hows and whys in its new documentary ‘Who Killed the Montreal Expos?’ premiering Oct. 21 on the streaming platform.

To even attempt to answer that question, you first have to identify the suspects, and there is no shortage of them. So much so that it would put any episode of ‘Law & Order’ or ‘CSI’ to shame.

After 91 minutes of watching the documentary, directed with an uneasy urgency by Jean-François Poisson, you won’t get a definitive resolution. What viewers will get here is a baseball business lecture on how not to run a professional sports team, with the actual baseball being played on the field filling in as a secondary character, as the film spends a mere six minutes discussing the most successful season in the team’s history in 1994. That year, Montreal had the best record in baseball before a strike wiped out the season and the World Series. 

From art dealer Jeffrey Loria, who bought part of the team in 1999, his stepson, executive vice-president David Samson, Major League Baseball, former premier Lucien Bouchard, and even the citizens of Quebec are all put under the microscope, complete with the hurt feelings, finger-pointing, and blame-assigning that are usually reserved for a contentious divorce proceeding.

Lately, documentaries, especially in sports, have adopted the format of ‘The Last Dance,’ where the story’s timeline is thrown out the window, expecting viewers to pay attention and follow the narrative. ‘Who Killed the Montreal Expos?’ also features key players from the team sharing their perspectives on the drama, including Hall of Famers Pedro Martinez, Vladimir Guerrero Sr., Larry Walker, and manager Felipe Alou.

It’s easy to pinpoint when trouble began, and once the 1980s rolled around and the dominoes started to fall, it was just a matter of time before the business of baseball reared its ugly head with new million-dollar salaries, television deals, and team president and principal owner Claude Brochu’s failure to secure the necessary financing for a new stadium to keep the team in Montreal.

But it’s Samson, with his no-nonsense, gregarious personality, that hijacks the film, making it easy to make him public enemy No. 1 in the eyes of many Montrealers. Those interviewed saved their best insults for the now-podcaster, with such zingers as calling him ‘arrogant’ and ‘self-satisfied,’ also saying, ‘I’ve yet to meet someone who likes him,’ and that Samson ‘carried a mirror everywhere he went so he could see himself.’

Samson, for his part, doesn’t care about the name-calling but also denies being the reason for the Expos’ demise. He does, however, admit he understands why people might hate him.

‘The fact of the matter is, baseball in Montreal doesn’t work,’ Samson said.

It certainly didn’t work for Samson and especially Loria, who sold the team for $120 million to a Major League Baseball partnership just three years after acquiring the Expos, and immediately bought the Florida Marlins, taking Samson along with him.

The only thing most people in the film agree on is that money played a big part in the eventual move to Washington, D.C. Even losing millions of dollars every year since playing their first MLB game in 1969 due to blatant business incompetence, a crumbling stadium, a Quebec government that had better things to do than to invest a single dollar in a baseball team, and a post-strike fire sale of players didn’t deter loyal fans, who truly believed (maybe foolishly) the team could be saved.

There is a real heart and suffering shown throughout the documentary, and it is captured beautifully by Poisson. The pain in discussing the loss of a team, as expressed by some of the journalists and fans interviewed for the film, still resonates two decades after the team left. When footage of the Expos’ last home game at Olympic Stadium on Sept. 29, 2004, is shown, tears capture the silent emotion and leave thoughts of what could have been.

Many of the 31,395 fans who showed up that fateful day to watch the Marlins, of all teams, beat the Expos 9-1, probably still hold out hope that an MLB franchise will return to their beloved city. With expansion likely being announced by decade’s end, Montreal doesn’t seem to be in baseball’s immediate future.

‘As good as we are in hockey, Montreal is a baseball city,’ Martinez said.

Trey Yesavage got the win in ALCS Game 6, his sixth career MLB start.
The 22-year-old right-hander was a first-round pick in 2024.
Yesavage draws rave reviews from veteran teammates Max Scherzer and Kevin Gausman.

TORONTO — Julio Rodriguez took ball four, tossed his bat away, clapped twice and exhorted his teammates in the Seattle Mariners dugout. Sure, they were in a two-run hole in the third inning of Game 6 in this American League Championship Series, but Cal Raleigh, the likely AL MVP, was coming to the plate and the bases were loaded.

The score was fixing to be flipped with one swing from a man who’s hit 64 home runs through the playoffs. Just one hanging splitter or mislocated fastball or cement-mixer slider from a 22-year-old rookie who was in Class AAA ball a month ago, and the Mariners would be on track for their first trip to the World Series.

Yet the Toronto Blue Jays were thinking something entirely different: Trey Yesavage, with all of six major league starts behind him, is no ordinary newcomer.

“When he has the ball,” Max Scherzer, the 41-year-old future Hall of Fame right-hander tells USA TODAY Sports, “we all believe in him.”

And so Yesavage threw just one split-finger fastball to the MVP, and Raleigh scorched a 100-mph worm burner right to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., beginning a fundamentally gorgeous 3-6-1 double play that finished with Yesavage blindly finding the bag with his right foot.

It ended the threat and began an almost absurd sequence of three double-play grounders in three innings, guiding the Blue Jays toward a 6-2 victory that squared this series 3-3 and set the stage for the most pulsating delight in the sport.

Game 7, winner to the World Series, loser left with a winter of regrets.

For now, that loser won’t be the Blue Jays, who overcame a desultory Game 5 defeat to keep their season alive.

Give some flowers to Guerrero and Addison Barger for their home runs and Barger’s three RBIs, and closer Jeff Hoffman for his two near-perfect innings of relief.

But know this: The Blue Jays are a win away from their first World Series since 1993 because of a kid drafted 20th overall barely more than a year ago, who started the year in lowest Class A, climbed the ladder all the way to Toronto in September and has faced down October’s biggest demons to gain the trust of a veteran clubhouse and, in Game 6, the entirety of Canada’s baseball-watching population.

But how?

“He has this silent confidence,” says Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman. “He’s kind of jokingly said he’s pitched in a lot of big games before (turning pro), and it’s funny that he thinks those were super-big games. But he really looked back on those and how he went about these, just with a bigger crowd.

“He’s not scared of anybody. Maybe he’s a little young and maybe naïve, but he’s just going to go after guys.”

That was the only way to escape the trouble that found him in Game 6.

An inning after Raleigh’s double play, the one-out drama returned, Seattle going single-single-walk to again load the bases. Now talk about going right at ‘em: Yesavage jumped ahead of J.P. Crawford with two quick strikes, and the splitter was back, Crawford grounding a one-hopper to Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who snagged it, threw to second and was already pointing to the sky before shortstop Andrés Giménez made the turn.

“His splitter is next level,” says Scherzer. “He’s making the best hitters in the game look foolish on it. It’s such a big pitch, it gets him out of so many dangerous situations.”

Want one more? Fifth inning, a Dominic Canzone single, a Leo Rivas strikeout on a split, but now the lineup turned over. Yesavage’s pitch count had hit the 70s, and he’d suffered diminished velocity from his first playoff start against the Yankees (historic) and his second one in Game 2 against the Mariners (terrible).

What’s more, Rodriguez had scored a three-run homer off Yesavage in Game 2

So, how was your mental state at that time, John Schneider?

“Not great,” says the Blue Jays manager.

Not to worry. Rodriguez swung at a first-pitch fastball and this time it was Giménez’s turn to initiate, the 6-4-3 DP keeping the emotional edge – and the momentum – in the third base dugout.

That’s no small thing in an ALCS that, from the Blue Jays’ perspective, has gone loss-loss-win-win-loss-win. Lesser players might be dizzy from such a whirlwind.

After the gorgeous third-inning double play, the Blue Jays dugout erupted and a 2-0 lead quickly became a 4-0 advantage, when Ernie Clement’s two-out triple preceded Barger’s two-run laser into the right field seats.

“It’s everything. It’s such a momentum game,” says Clement, who had two more hits, giving him eight in the series. “You can see it the last couple games: Whoever has the momentum kind of rises and gets it done.

“For (Yesavage) to make those pitches in those situations shows a lot of poise and maturity.”

He gave them 5 ⅔ innings, gave up two runs, struck out seven, setting down six in a row to set the tone before dodging trouble in epic fashion come the middle innings.

And with each escape, the 44,764 fans who stuffed Rogers Centre roared, the tension of the night releasing with each inning.

Not exactly East Carolina, where Yesavage was pitching a year ago. Not that he tried to block out the noise.

“It wasn’t really how I had to deal with it,” he says. “It was how I could use it to my advantage.”

That’s one way to handle the stress, an ability that’s jumped out to his far more veteran teammates since the Blue Jays recalled him in September, hoping to workshop an October weapon out of a guy who ascended A, AA and AAA ball in just a few months.

“That’s what strikes you right away when you meet him: He’s very levelheaded, very calm,” says Hoffman. “He’s got a great presence about him and the fact he holds it in big games like this is a really good sign, a really cool thing for the Blue Jays for the future.

“You can see the makeup. And he’s got what it takes, and he’s got a great group of guys around him to help him any way we can moving forward.”

Yesavage’s work, finally, is done for the year. Every member of the Blue Jays pitching staff expects to be available for Game 7 except Yesavage, who can simply watch and learn, and marvel at this amazing opportunity to win a championship ring before he’s even spent a month in the big leagues.

At the same time: He’s the reason they’re still alive.

Says Guerrero: “I’m very proud of him: 22 years old, young, hungry and you can tell he goes out and does everything he can to win the game.” 

The 2025 NWSL regular season is winding down and the playoff picture is shaping up.

Less than two weeks remain in the regular season, which concludes on Nov. 2, and the remaining matchups have major playoff implications as teams jockey for the postseason, seeding and home field advantage.

Three teams — the Kansas City Current, Washington Spirit and Orlando Pride — have punched their tickets to the playoffs, while eight teams are fighting for the last five spots. The opening round of the 2025 NWSL playoffs kicks off Nov. 7-9, followed by the semifinals (Nov. 14-16) and 2025 NWSL championship game (Nov. 22).

Who won the 2025 NWSL Shield? Who is the frontrunner in the Golden Boot race? USA TODAY Sports got you covered. Here’s what you need to know ahead of the playoffs as the NWSL regular season comes to a close:

Who clinched NWSL playoff bids?

The top eight teams atop the standings at the end of the regular season advance to the playoffs, with each team’s seeding determined by their record. The Kansas City Current (20-2-2) was the first team to to clinch a postseason bid (Week 18) and became the fastest club in league history to clinch the NWSL Shield (Week 21), which is awarded to the team with the best regular season record.

The Washington Spirt (12-4-8) and defending champion Orlando Pride (10-8-6) also clinched playoff berths. The Chicago Stars FC, Bay FC and Utah Royals have been eliminated from the postseason.

Here’s the current NWSL standings, as of Tuesday, Oct. 14:

Bold teams have clinched playoff berths, while (E) notes teams that have been eliminated from the playoff contention.

NWSL playoff format

The 2025 NWSL playoffs consists of three rounds of single-elimination matches.

The postseason will kick off with four quarterfinal matchups with the No. 1 seed Kansas City Current hosting the eighth seed and the fourth seed hosting the fifth seed on one side of the playoff bracket. On the other side of the bracket, the No. 2 seed Washington Spirit hosts the seventh seed and the third seed will host the sixth seed.

The winners of each quarterfinal match will face off against each other in the semifinals. (Seeding does not reset after each round). The two semifinal winners will face off in the 2025 NWSL championship game on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. ET (CBS, Paramount+) at PayPal Park in San Jose, California, home of NWSL’s Bay FC and MLS’ San Jose Earthquakes.

Can anyone catch the Kansas City Current?

We have to circle back to the Current, who have turned in one of the most dominant seasons in NWSL history. Not only did the club secure its first NWSL Shield faster than any other team in league history, the Current set a record for the most wins (20) and points scored in a single season (62) with two regular-season games left.

The Current show no sign of slowing down. Kansas City tied its longest undefeated streak in franchise history with 17 consecutive undefeated matches, dating back to May. Goalkeeper Lorena also set a record for single-season shutouts (14) following the Current’s 2-0 win over Gotham FC on Oct. 11.

The eighth seed will have the tall task of defeating the Current at home at CPKC Stadium. Kansas City is the only team in the league that’s undefeated at home this season (10-0-2).

A NWSL Shield doesn’t equate to a NWSL Championship by any means. Since the league began play in 2013, only three teams have won the shield and championship in the same season, most recently the Pride in 2024. Will the Current become the fourth team to claim both the Shield and title?

Who leads the Golden Boot race?

Can Temwa Chawinga repeat as the Golden Boot winner? The Kansas City Current forward is the frontrunner of the 2025 Golden Boot Race with 15 goals in 22 matches. Chawinga holds a two-goal advantage over Gotham FC forward Esther González, who is up to 13 goals in 23 matches.

Chawinga previously won the 2024 NWSL Golden Boot and MVP after becoming the first player in league history to score 20 goals in a season. If Chawinga repeats, she’ll be the first player to win multiple Golden Boots since Sam Kerr won three consecutive (2017-2019).

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

The 2025-26 NBA season starts tomorrow. The Oklahoma City Thunder will kick off the season looking to defend their title with a matchup against the bolstered Houston Rockets, fresh off adding and extending superstar forward Kevin Durant.

That contest could certainly end up as one of the best games of the season, but it’s not the only awesome matchup we have to look forward to in the first week of the year. Between showdowns featuring Eastern Conference powerhouses, rematches from last year’s playoffs and interstate clashes between two squads expected to leap forward, the first week of the season offers a salivating appetizer to the remainder of the regular season.

Here are the five best matchups of the NBA’s opening week:

Best games to start 2025-26 NBA season

5) Denver Nuggets at Golden State Warriors, Thursday, Oct. 23 at 10 p.m. ET

Last year, the Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets both lost in the Western Conference semifinals, meaning in some alternate universe, this was the matchup we got to see who represented the West in the Finals.

Unfortunately, a few bad bounces kept the Nuggets out of the Finals, losing Game 7 to the eventual champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder. On the other side, the Warriors were without Steph Curry for their series against Minnesota, which could’ve absolutely turned the tide in that series. Given how well the Warriors played last year after acquiring Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat, there’s a reasonable chance that that this could be a preview of this year’s Western Conference Finals matchup.

4) San Antonio Spurs at Dallas Mavericks, Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 9:30 p.m. ET

The San Antonio Spurs weren’t expected to make waves in the league last year, but any chance they might have had to do so was dashed when Victor Wembanyama was forced to miss a chunk of the season while suffering from deep vein thrombosis. Now, the most dominant defensive force in the league has returned and looks to lead the Spurs to a playoff appearance, accompanied by a myriad of young talent.

However, their first game of the year won’t be easy. After Nico Harrison and the Dallas Mavericks shocked the world by trading Luka Doncic away to the Los Angeles Lakers, the team has completed the quickest rebuild in league history after earning the first overall pick and landing Cooper Flagg.

This new era of Mavericks basketball will kick off with a riveting matchup between interstate rivals, and perhaps the outcome of this game will dictate how the season will go for both of these squads.

3) Houston Rockets at Oklahoma City Thunder, Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. ET

This will be the game that kicks off the regular season, and boy what a game it is. Not only were these the two highest seeds in the Western Conference last season, but the Rockets have overhauled their team to push for a championship.

This offseason the team went all-in, trading for superstar forward Kevin Durant. Will that be enough to overcome the defending champions and odds-on favorites heading into the season though? Emotions will be high as Oklahoma City will hang their championship banner. Perhaps Houston can take advantage.

2) Oklahoma City Thunder at Indiana Pacers, Thursday, Oct. 23 at 7:30 p.m. ET

What’s better than a showdown between the two top seeds in a conference last year? How about a showdown between the two teams that competed for a championship? The Pacers took the Thunder to seven games last year, and although they lost Tyrese Haliburton for the season, the Pacers will certainly have vengeance on their minds.

1) Cleveland Cavaliers at New York Knicks, Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. ET

With Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum out for the season, the Cavaliers and Knicks head into the season as two of the heavy favorites in the Eastern Conference (along with the Milwaukee Bucks). These two teams were two of the top-three seeds in the East last year and could very well end up being in the same boat this season, barring big steps forward from teams like the Orlando Magic or Detroit Pistons.

INGLEWOOD, CA — The Los Angeles Chargers honored their alumni players on Sunday. They really needed LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Gates and company on the field against the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts routed the Chargers 38-24 to improve their record to an AFC-best 6-1. It’s Indy’s best start since 2009. The Colts began the contest with three straight touchdown drives as they galloped to a 20-3 first-half lead. Indianapolis added a field goal after a Justin Herbert interception to build a 23-3 halftime advantage.

Los Angeles made the contest respectable in the second half, but Jonathan Taylor and the Colts maintained a comfortable lead.

“(Jonathan Taylor) with a couple really big runs down there. That makes it easy for us when he does that,” Colts QB Daniel Jones said. “I think it’s just being prepared, knowing what to expect (and) executing. Today we got a couple of looks that were a little bit different. I thought we did a good job with that. I think the gameplan and the preparation has been really big.”

The NFL’s top scoring offense scored on six of their first seven possessions, including five touchdown drives against a defenseless Chargers defense. Jones passed for 288 yards and two touchdowns.

Taylor showed his versatility on the ground and through the air. The Colts star compiled 132 yards from scrimmage (94 rushing yards and 38 receiving yards) and three touchdowns. It was his third touchdown hat trick of the regular season. The Colts running back is the third player in the past 20 seasons with three games of three-or-more rushing touchdowns in a season. Futhermore, he’s the only AFC player with at least 85 scrimmage yards in each of the first seven weeks.

“I mean the things JT is doing is kind of crazy,” Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. said. “He’s a threat to score anywhere, like on the field. Like we’d be backed up, we could be in the red zone, like JT is going to get the ball and he’s going to go. So, it just keeps us going.”

The running back is an Offensive Player of the Year frontrunner as the NFL approaches its midway point of the regular season. A running back has won the award in three of the past five seasons, including the last two years.

While Jones is having a career renaissance, Taylor is the engine to Indy’s offense.

“It’s just a testament, of course, to the hard work that I’ve put in individually, but then also collectively as a team,” Taylor said postgame. “What we’ve put in throughout training camp to be able to execute at a high level.”

Taylor entered Week 7 with a league-leading 603 rushing yards and eight touchdowns from scrimmage. He’s now increased his total to 697 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns from scrimmage.

“I think we’re just hitting on all cylinders right now,” Taylor said.

The Colts are “hitting on all cylinders right now” and Taylor is leading the charge.

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Tyler Dragon on X @TheTylerDragon.

The 2025-26 NBA season is about to begin, but several teams are already being forced to press forward without key players on their respective rosters.

The season will officially begin on Tuesday, Oct. 21, with the Houston Rockets taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Golden State Warriors taking on the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics, forward

Tatum has not officially been ruled out for the 2025-26 season. However, his Achilles injury will still likely force him to miss a significant amount of the season. He posted a video on social media of himself back on the court at the end of September, just four months after suffering the injury and having surgery.

Darius Garland, Cleveland Cavaliers, guard

Garland participated in a scrimmage last week, according to Cleveland.com. Garland played with a turf toe injury during the final part of the season and forced him to be a limited participant during the postseason. He did have surgery during the offseason. Garland is expected to be back at the start of November, according to ESPN.

Kyrie Irving, Dallas Mavericks, guard

Irving is not expected to make a return to the court until the start of 2026. Irving is recovering from a torn ACL that he suffered in March. Mavericks coach Jason Kidd shut down the thought of Irving being “ahead of schedule” when speaking to reporters at the team’s media day session.

Fred VanVleet, Houston Rockets, guard

Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers, guard

Haliburton will miss the entire 2025-26 season after suffering an Achilles injury during Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The guard did have surgery on his right Achilles tendon during the offseason.

T.J. McConnell, Indiana Pacers, guard

McConnell is suffering from a hamstring injury that will keep him out of action for a month, according to WTHR Channel 13 in Indianapolis. He is expected to return in mid-November.

LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers, forward

James is not expected to play in the Lakers’ season opener against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 21. He is dealing with sciatica, which is a pain caused by some level of irritation, pinching or compression of the sciatic nerve. He’s not expected to make his season debut until mid-November, according to ESPN reporter Shams Charania.

Zach Edey, Memphis Grizzlies, center

Edey has been cleared to begin ramping up his basketball activity as he recovers from a left ankle injury. He isn’t expected to be available until early November, according to ESPN. The big man had surgery in early June.

Tyler Herro, Miami Heat, guard

Herro will not play in the season opener against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, Oct. 22, after he underwent surgery for a left foot/ankle injury in mid-September. After speaking at media day, the guard expects to be available to return in mid-November, according to The Sporting News.

Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder, forward

Williams underwent surgery in July for a torn scapholunate ligament in his right wrist. His status is uncertain for the Thunder’s season opener against the Houston Rockets on Tuesday, Oct. 21.

Jared McCain, Philadelphia 76ers, guard

McCain underwent surgery during the offseason to repair a torn UCL. He is expected to be re-evaluated in early November, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia. The guard has participated in 5-on-5 workouts as he continues to work his way back.

Jalen Green, Phoenix Suns, guard

Green aggravated his hamstring injury during the Suns’ trip to China during the preseason. He’s expected to be evaluated later this week, according to ArizonaSports.com. He’s likely to miss the Suns’ season opener against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday, Oct. 22.

Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers, guard

Lillard is expected to miss the entire season after suffering a torn Achilles tendon during the 2025 playoffs as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks. He underwent surgery in May. After the Bucks bought him out, the guard returned to Portland to continue his rehab.

Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento Kings, center

Sabonis is expected to miss the start of the season with a hamstring injury. He has a grade 1 strain and is expected to be re-evaluated next week.

Keegan Murray, Sacramento Kings, forward 

De’Aaron Fox, San Antonio Spurs, guard

Fox is doubtful for the season opener against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday, Oct. 22, according to the Athletic. He is dealing with a hamstring injury.