Every Stupid Little Thing You Need to Know About the Sixers’ 2024-25 Schedule
Of all the offseason articles to be written, this certainly is one of them.
You know it’s deep in the NBA offseason when the last two articles I’ve written include precisely zero film analysis.
The 2024-25 NBA regular season schedule was released in full on Thursday, with all 80 games being revealed for each of the 30 teams in the association (reminder that each team has two games yet to be determined due to the advent of the NBA Cup/In-Season Tournament). It makes for peak mid-August filler content, with nearly every fan base either mad at how few national TV games their squad was gifted, or at how many back-to-backs their team has to deal with.
If you’re like me and a) don’t like having to use the somewhat rickety official NBA website to look up the schedule, and b) want to have your own file where you can sort everything as you please, then you’re in luck! I ran through the Sixers’ entire schedule and sorted it into a helpful google sheet which includes the date, opponent, location, and TV broadcast information for each game. It’s initially sorted in chronological order, but feel free to filter it however you like:
The Danny’s 2024-25 Sixers’ Schedule Spreadsheet
Now if you’re like me in another way and want to know the answers to some very stupid and very meaningless questions, I’ve done that for you as well. Here’s a bunch of different things to know about the Sixers’ schedule including where all their easy wins should be, where the league kind of gave them a gauntlet for no particular reason, and the games that will likely make everyone upset no matter what happens. Enjoy!
Q: What’s the longest road trip on the Sixers’ schedule?
A: The Sixers have two different six-game road trips on their schedule this season, with the first beginning on Christmas day, and the other taking place in late March. The Dec. 25 matchup will be in Boston against the Celtics, and the Sixers follow that up by traveling to Utah, Portland, Sacramento, Golden State, and Brooklyn all before Jan. 4. The second road trip is (mostly) a tour through the Western Conference, as the Sixers play the Mavs, Rockets, Thunder, Hawks, Spurs and Pelicans, all on the road, in the span of just eight days.
Q: What’s the longest homestand?
A: Also six games, and sandwiched right in between the two road trips. The Sixers close out the toughest stretch of their entire season (more on that later) by welcoming all of the Lakers, Kings, Nuggets, Celtics, Mavs and Heat to the Wells Fargo Center over the course of a single week in late January.
Q: What’s the rundown of the Sixers’ national TV games look like?
A: The Sixers are currently slated to play four games on ABC, seven games on ESPN, six games on NBA TV, and eight games on TNT, making for 25 national TV slots in total. Here’s each of those matchups divided by network:
ABC
@ Boston Celtics on Dec. 25
@ Milwaukee Bucks on Feb. 9
Vs Golden State Warriors on Mar. 1
@ Dallas Mavericks on Mar. 16
ESPN
Vs Milwaukee Bucks on Oct. 23
@ LA Clippers on Nov. 6
@ LA Lakers on Nov. 8
Vs New York Knicks on Jan. 15
Vs Denver Nuggets on Jan. 31
Vs Boston Celtics on Feb. 2
Vs Detroit Pistons on Feb. 7
TNT
Vs New York Knicks on Dec. 12 (NBA Cup)
@ Golden State Warriors on Jan. 2
@ Denver Nuggets on Jan. 21
Vs Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 28
Vs Dallas Mavericks on Feb. 4
Vs Boston Celtics on Feb. 20
@ New York Knicks on Apr. 1
@ Milwaukee Bucks on Apr. 3
NBA TV
@ Phoenix Suns on Nov. 4
Vs San Antonio Spurs on Dec. 23
Vs Phoenix Suns on Jan. 6
Vs New Orleans Pelicans on Jan. 10
@ San Antonio Spurs on Mar. 21
@ Miami Heat on Apr. 7
Q: Do the Sixers have another early season stretch of games where they could stack up a ton of wins on bad teams?
A: Yes! And it’s in the exact same spot as last year!
Last season, the Sixers sprinted to an 18-7 start due to a six-game stretch where they played the Hawks, the Hornets, the Wizards twice and the Pistons twice. That resulted in six straight wins for Philly before the schedule turned more difficult in January.
This upcoming season, the Sixers have an 11-game stretch from Nov. 22 to Dec. 23 that goes as follows — vs Nets, vs Clippers, vs Rockets, @ Pistons, @ Hornets, vs Magic, vs Magic, @ Bulls, vs Hornets, @ Cavs, vs Spurs. It’s not nearly as free as the six-game stretch from the season prior, but that’s still a full month of basketball where the Sixers shouldn’t play any team that is better than them at full health. The Magic and the Cavaliers are the only ones that come close.
(Note — the 2-3 undecided games on the Sixers’ schedule fall from Dec. 8 to Dec. 20, when the NBA will have its mini break for the finale of the in-season tournament)
It’s far from a guarantee, but it’s not hard to imagine a world where the Sixers roll into Boston on Christmas day with a 20-7 record.
Q: Are there any brutal gauntlets on the Sixers’ schedule? Any stretches of the season where things could get pretty tough?
A: Once again, the answer is yes, and it falls in relatively the same stretch of the season that it did last year.
From Jan. 10 to Feb. 5, the Sixers will only play one team who finished last season with an under .500 record in a span of 15 games. And it’s not like that one under .500 squad is a total pushover: It’s the Bulls, who still scratched their way to the Play-In last year and could easily steal a game from the Sixers in Chicago on the second night of a back-to-back.
Just look through these 15 matchups and try to spot any no-doubt-about-it wins. There really aren’t any to find.
The one positive here — 10 of the 15 games will be at the Wells Fargo Center, including a six-game homestand that begins with the Lakers on Jan. 28, and ends with the Heat on Feb. 5. If the Sixers can make it through this brutal stretch relatively unscathed (anything from 8-7 to 10-5 would be stellar), it should be seen as a huge success and bolster their chances at making a deep playoff run.
Q: By what day will the Sixers have played every team in the NBA?
A: March 10, the day the Sixers finally play the Atlanta Hawks. Despite both being Eastern Conference teams, all three Philly-Atlanta matchups take place in the final 35 days of the regular season, with three of the Sixers’ final 19 games being matchups against the Hawks. For all The Draft Council listeners out there — yes, Ahmed and I will talk a lot about these games, especially if the Hawks get absolutely mollywhopped.
Q: What are the games at the very end of the season gonna look like?
A: Much like last season, the Sixers will likely close things out with a small win streak, seeing that their final three opponents are the Wizards, the Hawks, and the Bulls. No one in that trifecta figures to be anything more than a Play-In team already locked into its seeding, if not a team trying to lose for better draft lottery position. It’s entirely plausible the Sixers face three starter-less squads in a row and push ahead of someone else in the standings right before the postseason begins.
Q: Why are the Sixers playing in 15 back-to-backs? Isn’t that way too many?
A: Yes, it’s way too many. Yes, it’s likely that Embiid is already scheduled to miss 15 of these 30 games in order to preserve his health for the postseason. Yes, it’s very plausible that this leads to Embiid sitting out a huge game like an ESPN matchup against the Knicks, or the Jan. 28 matchup against LeBron and the Lakers. Or even worse, Embiid sits out one of the Denver games, neither of which is the second night of a back-to-back, but both of which serve as the third game in a four-day stretch, and in the absolute thick of the season no less.
This is all just to warn you ahead of time that the exact same horrific and toxic discourse that pops up every time Joel so much as breathes in a way that people don’t like is probably going to happen again. It’s fine, just ignore it. This is just how things are in the NBA until the narrative flips, which necessitates a playoff run that makes it past the second round. Save your time and your anger, it isn’t worth it.
And always, always remember the following:
Daniel Olinger is a writer for the Rights To Ricky Sanchez, and author of “The Danny” column, even though he refuses to be called that in person. He can be followed on X @dan_olinger.
“The Danny” is brought to you by the Official Realtor Of The Process, Adam Ksebe.
3/1 vs Warriors is also on ABC, only home game on ABC