Finally, die-hard Boston Celtics fans can start planning their lives now that the full NBA schedule for the 2026-27 season has been released. It’s an exciting time, especially with the complete void of news or literally anything interesting this time of year.
There’s not much to dislike about it, but the schedule release is not a pain-free occasion. Every year, we all learn how many times we’ll be put upon to stay up deep into the night because the Celtics have to play on “Pacific Time.”
This season, the answer is eight times. That’s right, Boston will play the following octet of games with tip-offs at 9 p.m. ET or later:
- Wednesday, Nov. 18 @ Denver Nuggets, 9 p.m. ET
- Saturday, Nov. 21 @ Sacramento Kings, 10 p.m. ET
- Friday, Jan. 1 @ Utah Jazz, 9:30 p.m. ET
- Saturday, Jan. 2 @ Portland Trail Blazers, 10 p.m. ET
- Monday, Jan. 4 @ Phoenix Suns, 9 p.m. ET
- Thursday, Jan. 7 @ Los Angeles Lakers, 10 p.m. ET
- Saturday, Jan. 9 @ Los Angeles Clippers, 10:30 p.m ET
- Wednesday, Feb. 17 @ Oklahoma City Thunder, 9:30 p.m ET
Fortunately, for the average student or 9-5 worker or, only four of the games fall on school/work nights. If you’re someone, like I used to be at my old office job, that uses PTO to sleep in after late West Coast tip-offs, then these are the big days for you.
Someday, the NBA will start scheduling West Coast games at a reasonable time
You know, when the league released the opening night and Christmas Day schedules earlier this week, I had some hope that Adam Silver and his evil regime may have found some creativity when it comes to tip times. Of course, Boston fell victim to the first-ever (?) Tuesday 3 p.m. start time for their season-opener against the Detroit Pistons.
As odd as that was, it did inspire some hope that the league would start other games at odd start times throughout the season. Maybe they’d slot some West Coast games between 4 and 5 p.m. local to accommodate the East Coast viewer.
Silly me.
I can somewhat understand it on weekdays, when most people are still at work or are just getting out in that window. But for the three Saturday games that all start at 10 p.m. ET or later, there’s absolutely no reason at all (aside from the Jan. 2 game being the second-night of a back-to-back) that the league couldn’t have scheduled these earlier in the day.
Maybe someday my vision will come to fruition. For now, I’ll just keep dreaming -- well… I actually won’t because I’ll be up all night.
Add us as a preferred source on Google