Source: Sixers will play the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day
The Sixers will play on Christmas Day for the third consecutive season, and 34th overall.
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The 76ers will play the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Christmas Day, a source with knowledge of the NBA schedule confirmed Thursday night.
The league is expected to announce the matchups for its annual Christmas showcase in the coming days. The games usually feature high-profile matchups.
This will mark the third straight season and 34th time overall that the Sixers will play on the holiday. They’re 19-15 on Christmas after losing to the Miami Heat, 119-113, at Kaseya Center last season.
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The Sixers, who finished 47-35 last season, have high expectations following multiple offseason acquisitions.
Meanwhile, the Celtics are coming off a championship season. Returning their core players, most notably All-Star wings Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Boston is favored to defend their title.
But the Sixers entered free agency as one of the NBA’s most interesting teams as they held plenty of cap space.
Their most significant move of the summer came when Paul George signed a four-year, $212 million contract to form a big three with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. But signing free agents Caleb Martin, Andre Drummond, Eric Gordon, Reggie Jackson, along with re-signing Kelly Oubre Jr., Kyle Lowry, and giving Maxey a max extension, has catapulted the Sixers as one of the team’s capable of challenging the Celtics.
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George, Embiid, and Maxey have a chance to be the best Sixers trio since Hall of Famers Julius Erving, Mo Cheeks, and Charles Barkley during the 1986-87 season. All three were All-Star selections that season, marking the last time Philly had three participants in the same All-Star game.
But the Sixers now have a guard in Maxey, a wing in George, and a center in Embiid all coming off All-Star seasons. That’s why their chances of overtaking the Celtics as the league’s elite team overwhelmingly improved.
According to an NBA source, the other Christmas games are the New York Knicks vs. the San Antonio Spurs, the Dallas Mavericks vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Golden State Warriors vs. the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Phoenix Suns vs. the Denver Nuggets.