With each passing day, we inch closer to the full revelation of the Philadelphia 76ers’ schedule for the 2025-26 regular season. Today, the NBA announced Philadelphia’s NBA Cup Group Play schedule and it’s a decent slate of games, which could serve as a premature postseason preview.
we're locked in.
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) August 13, 2025
NBA Cup schedule ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/AlUOpfquqr
These games matter for the 76ers
The 76ers will kick off their Group Play by hosting the Boston Celtics on October 31st at 7 p.m. EST. It will be nationally televised on Amazon Prime, which ruined my afternoon. This will likely be the first time Philadelphia will face Boston without Jayson Tatum. No one knows what to expect from either team, so this will be an intriguing matchup. There’s also a world where these Atlantic Division foes will clash in the Play-In Tournament.
Next, the 76ers will visit the Detroit Pistons at 7:30 p.m. EST on November 14th. It will most likely be shown on NBC Sports Philadelphia. This will be another fun matchup as the Pistons are another team projected to be in the same tier as the 76ers. Tyrese Maxey squaring up against Cade Cunningham will make for a fun guard duel.
Then, Philadelphia will battle the Orlando Magic at Xfinity Mobile Arena on November 25th at 8 p.m. EST. This will be nationally televised on NBC. The Magic are poised to make another leap after the acquisition of Desmond Bane and could be one of the Eastern Conference’s finest teams. Orlando will serve as a great challenge for Philadelphia, assuming it's relatively healthy.
The 76ers will travel to Barclays Center to face off against the Brooklyn Nets in their final Group Play Contest. The game will take place on November 28th at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be locally televised on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Regardless of who’s on the floor for the 76ers, this should be an easy victory for them. Brooklyn is expected to be a bottom-feeder in the Eastern Conference and Philadelphia must take advantage of that.
How the NBA Cup works
As a refresher, all teams are divided into six different groups. The 76ers are in East Group B with the Celtics, Pistons, Nets, and Magic. Each team will battle in four Group Play games to determine which team advances to the Quarterfinals.
The team with the highest win total in its group advances, and each conference has a wildcard team that moves on. The wildcard team is the best-performing runner-up, which is determined through various tie-breakers. The six group winners and two wildcards will face each other in a traditional playoff setting. Rounds include the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Championship, with the last two rounds having been played in Las Vegas the last two years. Got it? Cool.
Philadelphia hasn’t yielded much success in the NBA Cup’s first two years of existence. It was eliminated in Group Play in both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Assuming the 76ers are somewhat healthy, they should finish with a 3-1 record in Group Play this coming season, which should be enough to advance to the knockout rounds for the first time.