New Delhi, Oct. 21 -- At 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday, the NBA's 2026-27 season began in Detroit while some of NBC's own viewers were watching something else. Fans in several markets reported that their local NBC stations had replaced the Celtics-Pistons opener with regular programming, undercutting the network's debut of a midday opening-day game.

The Pistons hosted the Celtics at Little Caesars Arena in the first game of NBC's NBA Tip-Off tripleheader, then erased a 22-point second-half deficit to win 121-113. ESPN reported that it was the largest comeback on the first day of an NBA season in the play-by-play era, which begins in 1997-98, and that Detroit closed the game on a 23-0 fourth-quarter run.

The broadcast problem arrived before the c...