Sixers’ early games against Eastern Conference’s top teams will serve as a barometer

No disrespect to Tyrese Maxey’s stellar play and the 76ers going undefeated in the preseason. But one could argue none of that counts in the grand scheme of things.

The true early barometer of where the new-look Sixers stand among the NBA eilte begins Tuesday night in the season opener against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. And it will conclude on Oct. 29 against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center.

Those two games will bookend a seven-game stretch that will provide a sense of the Sixers’ competitiveness.

Five games are against opponents coming off postseason appearances — the Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors (twice), and Bulls. Their other games are against the San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers.

We know the Sixers are tougher with the offseason acquisitions of P.J. Tucker, De’Anthony Melton, Danuel House Jr,. and Montrezl Harrell. But we’ll find out soon if the team is better.

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We’ll also see where they are in relation to NBA title contenders and the Eastern Conference’s top squads — the Celtics and Bucks — and what they need to improve upon.

But Doc Rivers will tell you he hasn’t put much thought into the Sixers’ grueling start.

“One of our players was like, ‘Man, did you see the teams we are playing at the start?’ " the coach said Sunday. “I said, ‘Did you think we were not going to play them?’ We don’t get to choose when and where. We just have to show up and play. ...

“If we win them, there’s still no indication of where we are at. If we split them and lose some, that’s still not an indication of where we are at or where we need to be. It’s just that we are playing the top two teams [ Boston and Milwaukee to open the season].”

Rivers has reason to feel that way, considering that the Sixers will still have 75 games remaining after this seven-game stretch.

After visiting the archrival Celtics on Tuesday, they will entertain Milwaukee on Thursday at the Wells Fargo Center to begin a three-game homestand.

Boston is the defending Eastern Conference champion. The Celtics have added point guard Malcolm Brogdon to a roster that suffered a six-game loss in the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors.

The Celtics will be without coach Ime Udoka, who’s serving a season suspension for an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the organization. But Boston still boasts two of the league’s best young stars in All-NBA selection Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. And the Celtics have the reigning defensive player of the year in Marcus Smart.

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Meanwhile, the Bucks are led by two-time MVP and perennial All-NBA selection Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has averaged 23.9 points and 11.3 rebounds in 28 career games against the Sixers.

Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday are the other pieces of Milwaukee’s Big Three. However, Middleton, who had offseason wrist surgery, told reporters at media day that he won’t be ready to play against the Sixers. The Bucks suffered another blow Sunday morning with news that guard Pat Connaughton will miss the first three weeks of the season with a calf strain. However, Milwaukee, which won the 2021 NBA title, is expected to improve upon last season’s second-round playoff exit.

After home games against the Spurs on Saturday and the Pacers on Oct. 24, the Sixers head to Toronto for a two-game series on Oct. 26 and 28.

The Sixers defeated the Raptors in six games in last season’s first round of the playoffs. But Toronto is healthier now than in that series, when starters Scottie Barnes, Fred VanVleet, and Gary Trent Jr. all missed time because of injuries and/or illness.

This could be an early-season hostile environment based on Raptors fans’ disdain for Joel Embiid after his comments about being irritated with them for chanting after Pascal Siakam’s elbow left him with a fractured bone near his eye and a concussion in Game 6 of last season’s series.

“I’ve always thought they’ve had great fans,” Embiid said in May. “But it kind of changed my mind about their fans up there.”

So his reception should be interesting.

The Sixers won’t get a breather during this stretch. From Toronto, they’ll fly to Chicago to face the Bulls on Oct. 29 to complete their first back-to-back of the season.

Chicago is led by All-Star perimeter players DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine. The Bulls also added former Sixers center Andre Drummond in free agency this summer to a team that finished 46-36 and made the playoffs last season.

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Like Rivers, Tucker downplayed the early tests, pointing out that perceptions and expectations can change.

The 12th-year veteran realizes that there are teams with early-season hype that don’t make the playoffs. There also are dark-horse teams that come out of nowhere later in the season.

“I don’t think you measure how you stack up this early in the season,” Tucker said. “So much is going to happen throughout the season. Teams are going to get better. Teams are going to get worse. You just want to play the best you can, keep progressing as a team.

“Obviously, you want to win. But I don’t think it starts to stack up this early. … You just want to consistently get better all year.”