The London Lions play the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center on Monday afternoon, and it is the first time in history that a British professional basketball club has faced an NBA team.
Tip is 1 p.m. local, 4 p.m. ET. It is on Portland’s official preseason schedule, which means this is a real NBA game and not an exhibition tacked onto the calendar.
Why This Has Never Happened
British basketball has existed at the professional level for decades without ever producing a club the NBA wanted to schedule. The closest precedent is the Sheffield Sharks appearing in the 1995 McDonald’s Championship alongside the Houston Rockets, and the Sharks never actually played them.
So the Lions are first on the record, and they earned the booking. They are the reigning British champions after a domestic quadruple in 2025-26, and in 2024 they became the first British men’s club to reach the EuroCup semifinals.
The club was founded in 1977 as the Hemel Hempstead Lakers and took the London Lions name in 2012. They play in Super League Basketball, Britain’s top division, out of the Copper Box Arena in Stratford, East London.
The Coach Has a Portland Connection
The Lions are coached by Tautvydas Sabonis, son of Arvydas Sabonis, the Hall of Fame center who played seven seasons for the Trail Blazers.
That is a nice piece of symmetry, and it is probably not a coincidence that this is the NBA building where the first British club ended up getting its shot.
Devante Jones, Tarik Phillip and Maxwell Lewis are among the names on the London roster worth watching.
Portland Is a Different Team Than Last Year
The Blazers added Ja Morant this offseason and brought Damian Lillard back. In Portland’s preseason opener on Oct. 7 they beat Golden State 123-118, with Lillard scoring 15 points in 19 minutes.
That is a roster with two high-usage guards, a loud building, and every incentive to look good in front of a home crowd in October.
What to Actually Watch For
Nobody should expect London to win, and the scoreline is not the point. The thing to watch is how long the Lions stay competitive once Portland’s rotation players are on the floor.
European club teams that play NBA opposition tend to lose on athleticism and depth rather than on execution. The Lions are a well-coached champion with real pieces, and the gap between a very good British club and an NBA roster has never been measured before.
“The London Lions will become the first British club ever to face an NBA team when we take on the Portland Trail Blazers,” the club said in a statement. After Monday, that sentence stops being a prediction and becomes a result.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.