Boston plays four preseason games over nine days, starting at Cleveland on October 8. The schedule turns real on October 20, when the Celtics open the regular season at Detroit.
The preseason slate runs four games in nine days.
Boston opens the exhibition schedule October 8 at Cleveland, then hosts Philadelphia on October 10, carried by NBA TV. Charlotte visits October 14, and the preseason closes October 16 at Philadelphia, also carried by NBA TV. That is four games in nine days, home and road roughly split, before a five-day gap into the regular-season opener October 20 at Detroit, broadcast on NBC and Peacock. None of the four counts in the standings, but they are the only live look at this 21-man roster before it does.
Philadelphia is the only team Boston plays twice this stretch.
The Sixers ended Boston's 2026 season in the first round after the Celtics led the series 3-1, and the summer trade that sent Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia for Paul George and four draft picks makes this exhibition pairing the most-watched of the four. Both meetings are preseason only, with rosters and rotations still unsettled, so neither will answer what last season's collapse or this summer's trade actually changed. The schedule simply put the two teams across from each other twice before October 20, which is as far as the stakes go for now.
No one enters the week with an injury designation.
The injury list is empty heading into camp's first preseason games. Jayson Tatum's day-to-day tag from September 24 cleared the same day, and nothing has replaced it since. Mitchell Robinson, Neemias Queta and the rest of the frontcourt head into Cleveland and the two Philadelphia dates with a clean bill, which matters for a team whose last season ended partly on attrition in a series it led 3-1. A quiet injury report in week one is a fact, not a forecast.
Does the Celtics preseason schedule count toward the standings?
No. All four games before October 20 are exhibitions; the regular season opens October 20 at Detroit.
When do the Celtics play Philadelphia in the preseason?
October 10 at home and October 16 on the road, both carried by NBA TV.
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