Finding the most important and interesting stretches in the 2025-26 Sixers schedule

Thursday afternoon was a holiday for NBA beat writers across the country, as the league released its full 2025-26 regular season schedule.

The Sixers have an 80-game schedule set; it will eventually add another two contests to get to the customary 82. They open their season in Boston against the Celtics on Oct. 22, with their home opener a few days later against the Charlotte Hornets.

Evaluating long schedules can be tremendously difficult. One way to do it: identifying key segments and stretches within the marathon. After a series of scans, four sections of the Sixers’ schedule jump out as particularly important:

You can view the Sixers’ full schedule here. For an in-depth breakdown of how it differs from other teams’ schedules you can click here, or on the link at the bottom of this story.

Setting the tone

After the Sixers’ miserable 24-58 season concluded on April 13, President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey sat next to head coach Nick Nurse and delivered an eight-minute statement. He talked about where things had gone wrong, why he remains hopeful about the future of the organization and where he felt he specifically had made missteps. Four months later, one quote from Morey stands out.

“We need to hit the ground running starting at the beginning next year,” Morey said, “and I didn’t set the tone well for the group going into the season. So that will be another area we will correct.”

Soon, the Sixers must prove that they have the requisite urgency to attack the early portion of their schedule and set the tone for the remainder of the season. Of their first nine games, seven are either at home or in a nearby city; the longest flight they will have is one from Brooklyn to Chicago. In only two of those nine games — a home contest against the Orlando Magic and a road battle against the Cleveland Cavaliers — will they be definitive underdogs.

But in the following eight-game stretch, there will be nothing handed to the Sixers. Their worst opponent over the court of 17 days will be a Toronto Raptors team that has significant athletic advantages over an older Sixers team and beat them twice before the Sixers pivoted to tanking last year.

None of the Sixers’ opponents during the following stretch are so much better that it would feel like an automatic loss. But there are no guaranteed wins in here, either:

After this stretch, the Sixers will be 17 games into their seasons, just over 20 percent of the way through an 82-game schedule. That coincides with their rock bottom last season, when an overtime loss to the Houston Rockets dropped the Sixers to 3-14 on the season.

Challenges after Christmas

The Sixers will be resting at home on Christmas Day, likely flying out to Chicago that night for a Dec. 26 game in Chicago. They will begin a five-game road swing, tied for their longest of the season. Not only will it be grueling from a travel perspective, but the four games after Chicago will be more challenging — and the Sixers will have a tremendously difficult opponent waiting for them when they return home: 

There were no Joel Embiid vs. Nikola Jokić battles last year due to Embiid’s constant injury issues; Embiid has typically gotten the better of Jokić in individual matchups. This road trip also features the Sixers’ first game of the season against the defending champions in Oklahoma City. Neither of Memphis or Dallas will be easy to beat, and the same is certainly true for the Knicks.

MORE: Who are Sixers’ rotation locks in 2025-26?

Final sprint before All-Star break

The Sixers’ other five-game road swing in 2025-26 will come soon before the All-Star break, when they have their annual West Coast marathon. The Sixers have a particularly wacky itinerary on this trip, going to Los Angeles for a day, immediately heading to the Bay Area and then turning right back around and returning to Los Angeles. Then come games in Phoenix and Portland before the Sixers return home for one more game before the break — and that will be an important one, too:

This will be the second year in a row the Sixers’ visit to Golden State will come on the second leg of a back-to-back. Last season, the Sixers preemptively rested Embiid in Sacramento the night before and the Sixers blew a late lead in a brutal loss to the Kings. The next night, Embiid and the Sixers were lifeless and got smoked by the Warriors.

Another wrinkle in all of this: the trade deadline is on Feb. 5, just a handful of hours before the Sixers tip off against the Lakers. The Sixers could have completely different teams in four straight games: an Embiid-centric team on Feb. 2, an Embiid-less team on Feb. 3, a team without any players traded away on Feb. 5 and a team with the players just acquired on Feb. 7. 

The opener of this trip will be circled on the calendar of Paul George, who was largely greeted with boos in his first trip to the Intuit Dome last November.

MORE: Is there a deadline for a Quentin Grimes resolution?

The home stretch

Another reason it is important for the Sixers to come out swinging: their schedule is back-loaded in terms of challenging opponents. That is especially true down the stretch, when the Sixers finish their season with six games that present real challenges. The Indiana Pacers figure to be the only opponent in here the Sixers will be clear favorites over unless Tyrese Haliburton unexpectedly returns this season.

If the Sixers need to bank wins in April to secure a postseason spot or bolster their seeding, they will not be able to do so while sleepwalking:

This is the third year in a row the Sixers have had a late-season pit stop in Texas, and the caliber of basketball in that state is set to increase dramatically as the Spurs pursue playoff contention with Victor Wembanyama while the Rockets pursue championship contention with Kevin Durant. 

MORE: Full Sixers schedule breakdown

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