Maybe it’s my Boston bias showing, but it certainly felt like the marquee storyline of the NBA offseason was the Celtics trading Jaylen Brown to Philly, which led to the 76ers signing LeBron James. So, you’d think that the biggest matchup that everyone’s waiting for would be the Sixers and Celtics.
On Tuesday morning, the NBA released a preview of the 2026-27 schedule, including opening day, the first week of the season, and Christmas Day. The Celtics and Sixers are both prominently featured, but surprisingly, they play none of these marquee games against each other.
Both teams play on opening night, which is a Tuesday, but Boston will travel to Detroit to take on the Pistons in an afternoon game while the 76ers head to MSG for the Knicks’ banner night. Then, the Sixers will play Thursday night in the first ESPN slate, when they host the Cavaliers. And the Celtics open the Amazon Prime Friday night slate, hosting the Knicks.
So, with those matchups out of the way in October, you’d imagine that Brown’s much-anticipated return to Boston would be saved for Christmas, but that’s not the case either. Instead, the Celtics will play host to the Heat at 2:30, and the 76ers will travel to Los Angeles to take on the Lakers at 5 pm.
Celtics-Sixers won't play opening week or Christmas
The Celtics got plenty of love from the schedule makers, but at the end of the day, they clearly prioritized LeBron’s return to LA over Jaylen’s return to Boston, and wanted to hype up the Sixers-Knicks and Celtics-Knicks rivalries over the obvious one with the Celtics and Sixers.
It’s an interesting choice and a bit of a surprising one, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really make a difference. The Celtics and 76ers will still face off four times during the regular season, and I’m sure each game will be a national television spotlight game.
Still, it’s a bit weird that the league had such an obvious rivalry with some real juice and potential for animosity that has been building for a while, and they didn’t choose to fully lean into it for the biggest showcases on the calendar.
The full schedule is set to release on Thursday, and we’ll find out exactly when these teams will face off and when Brown will make his return to TD Garden. The Celtics are certainly being more prominently featured than they were a year ago, when they shockingly didn’t have a Christmas game at all, but it’s clear the league doesn’t view them as one of the biggest shows in town, and that’s on the Celtics to change that narrative this season.
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