The 2026-27 NBA schedule is out.
While there are certainly more important times in the year - holding significantly more weight than whatever ends up transpiring during the annual feeling-out period - it's difficult not to get excited about opening night.
It's the true beginning of a season. Preseason is always a great holdover, but the real thing is what everyone's anticipating. Sometimes, teams get lucky, facing an obviously-inferior opponent to begin their year. Others, however, immediately get thrown into the fire.
For the Atlanta Hawks' first game of the season, it's hard to tell where they fall on that spectrum, but if last season was any indicator - it'll be the former.
Hawks will open the season against a very familiar foe: the Orlando Magic
Oh, the Hawks and Magic...
A detailed history between the two franchises, over the last few seasons, they haven't exactly seen eye-to-eye. Atlanta, however, carved out a fascinating advantage over them last season.
Usually a matchup that goes down to the wire, the Hawks didn't have much of a problem against their biggest division rival in the 2025-26 campaign.
Across four meetings, Atlanta emerged victorious in each of them. Nickeil Alexander-Walker - the 2025 NBA Most Improved Player - averaged 28 points a night. He recorded a career-high 41-point performance on March 16 against Orlando, leading Atlanta to yet another victory over the squad they loved seeing the most.
Things are expected to be different this time around, though.
While on paper, both rosters look mostly similar to what they were last year, a few key changes are expected to alter the Hawks-Magic pattern of late.
For one, Orlando replaced former Head Coach Jamahl Mosley with Sean Sweeney - one of the league's most-coveted assistants on the market.
One thing that really limited Atlanta's clear dominance of their rival last season was the imbalance in physicality, though, and adding Lu Dort should send a clear message to anyone on the other side who chooses to go that route.
Hawks haven't forgotten what Goga Bitadze did last season
As the Hawks were winding down their regular season, preparing for a deep playoff run, Magic center Goga Bitadze pulled down on Jock Landale's shoulder under the basket, causing him to land awkwardly and miss the entire postseason.
Already at a clear size disadvantage, the Hawks losing Landale for the Knicks series made their first-round exit inevitable.
Opening night should be a fun one. The league knew exactly what they were doing.
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