The NBA’s first international export of the 2025-26 regular season is a promising one, with two recent No. 1 draft picks leading their teams into Mexico City. Cooper Flagg headlines the 2-3 Dallas Mavericks. He’s fresh off his second career double-double, ramping up toward the prodigious hype with each downhill bucket. His Mavs meet up with the 3-2 Detroit Pistons. Their young bellwether, Cade Cunningham, dropped 30 points and 10 assists in his last outing.
Though the league has played here before, this year’s showcase has a new telecaster and a later tipoff. Here’s what fans need to know in anticipation of Saturday’s game.
How to watch Mavericks vs. Pistons (NBA Mexico City Game 2025)
The NBA’s history in Mexico City
Saturday marks the 34th NBA game overall — and the 15th regular-season contest specifically — staged in Mexico, the most of any nation besides the U.S. and Canada.
“Playing games in Mexico is an important part of our year-round efforts to grow basketball across the country,” Raul Zarraga, vice president and managing director of the NBA’s Mexico office, told The Athletic. “The momentum around basketball and the NBA in Mexico is at an all-time high.”
In last year’s installment, the Miami Heat beat the Washington Wizards by 20 points. The 2023-24 game was a banger — Trae Young scored 41 points as his Atlanta Hawks eked out a 120-119 win versus the Orlando Magic. Back in December 2019, then-Maverick Luka Dončić dazzled this arena with a 41-point triple-double.
Dallas has been a staple of Mexico City action. It was involved in the inaugural regular-season edition in 1997, dropping a 108-106 battle to the Houston Rockets at Palacio de los Deportes. Charles Barkley paced that game with 19 points, 17 boards and six dimes for the Rockets. The Mavs’ Michael Finley was the top scorer with 35 points, on efficient 10-of-19 shooting.
The CDMX floor gets its own special design to commemorate Día de Muertos, which falls on Saturday and Sunday.
The themed court from 2023’s Mexico City game. Photo by Kirby Lee / USA TODAY Sports
The new telecast
As part of the NBA’s new media rights deal, NBC and Peacock are broadcasting 100 games in 2025-26. In general, Mondays are Peacock exclusives and Tuesdays are “Coast 2 Coast” doubleheaders airing on NBC and Peacock. There are some Sunday matchups on NBC later in the season. This is NBCUniversal’s lone Saturday showing.
Mavs-Pistons will air on Peacock and Universo, with a 10 p.m. ET tip time. Mark Followill has play-by-play responsibilities, while Hall of Famer Grant Hill flanks him in analysis and Ashley ShahAhmadi reports from the sideline. There’s a pregame show as well — former hoopers Robbie Hummel and Austin Rivers are in studio, with Jordan Cornette as the anchor.
The matchup
Through five games, seven different Pistons are averaging double-figure scoring. Cunningham leads the way at 22.2 points per game, though his early shooting splits are a bit unsightly (39.6 percent from the floor and 24.2 percent on 3s). Jalen Duren leads the starting rotation in defensive rating. The 21-year-old center is off to an encouraging start. His 14.8 points and 1.6 blocks per game would be career bests. Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff finished second in Coach of the Year voting last season, engineering the franchise’s first winning campaign since 2015-16.
Dallas is positioned at an interesting crossroads. Mavs fans held a fake funeral after the team abruptly traded away Dončić in February. But hope renews with Flagg, who had one of the best freshman efforts in NCAA history with the Duke Blue Devils. Flagg doesn’t turn 19 until December, and pogo-stick center Dereck Lively II is 21. But the roster is also dotted with big-name veterans like D’Angelo Russell (29), Anthony Davis (32) and Klay Thompson (35), though Davis will miss Saturday’s game due to a calf strain. The offense has struggled from the outside, at a paltry 31.9 percent clip behind the arc. Coming into Saturday, Jason Kidd’s crew is playing with the league’s fifth-fastest pace, per the NBA. Detroit, by contrast, is at No. 14.
The other international games
After Saturday, there are two more “Global Games” left on the schedule. Ja Morant’s Memphis Grizzlies and Paolo Banchero’s Orlando Magic take a midseason Eurotrip together in January, with stops in Germany and the U.K.
Memphis Grizzlies vs. Orlando Magic
- Thursday, Jan. 15: Uber Arena in Berlin, 2 p.m. ET
- Sunday, Jan. 18: O2 Arena in London, noon ET
Both of those broadcasts are set for Prime Video.
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