The 2023-24 Sixers will start their preseason right where they ended last year.
The team’s first preseason game under head coach Nick Nurse will be an Oct. 8 matchup at TD Garden against the Celtics. Jayson Tatum scored 51 points and Boston blew the Sixers out last postseason in Game 7 of the second round.
After coming home for another meeting with Boston, the Sixers will travel to Brooklyn and face the Nets, who they swept in the first round of the 2023 playoffs. Below is the Sixers’ full preseason schedule. Both home games will be broadcast on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
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• Oct. 8 at Celtics, 6 p.m. ET
• Oct. 11 vs. Celtics, 7 p.m. ET
• Oct. 16 at Nets, 7:30 p.m. ET
• Oct. 20 vs. Hawks, 7 p.m. ET
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Tyrese Maxey was a major standout for the Sixers last preseason, scoring 20 first-half points in their opener against Brooklyn and flashing some of the expanded offensive skills that led to him averaging 20.3 points and shooting 43.4 percent from three-point range in his third NBA season.
Jaden Springer should be another young guard to watch. The 2021 first-round pick will hope to show further development as a shooter and give Nurse a better sense for how his defensive talents can help the Sixers.
The dominant storyline of this Sixers offseason has been James Harden’s decision to exercise his player option and ask to be traded. Regardless of Harden’s preseason status, Nurse will experiment with plenty of schemes and aim to establish a disruptive defensive style. And though Joel Embiid’s preseason minutes have often been light, it’s safe to assume Nurse will work on implementing more movement and variety around the reigning MVP big man.
As far as the games themselves, the results won’t matter at all. The Sixers went 4-0 in the 2022-23 preseason, then began the regular season 0-3.
Still, they surely wouldn’t mind a victory in Boston.