Brutal Start to Boston Celtics Schedule Comes With An Opportunity

The Celtics will play a quarter of their overall schedule and a third of their back-to-backs by the end of November, which is tough, but can come with a chance for some pl

Mar 29, 2026; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Boston Celtics guard Hugo González (28) keeps the ball away from Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball (1) during the second half at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Brian Westerholt-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Thursday NBA schedule release revealed a brutal stretch for the Boston Celtics to start the season. 

Thanks to road-heavy November, the Celtics will head into December having played nearly a third of their away games for the entire season before December rolls around. Six of the team’s 16 back-to-backs will be played before December, all of which will be part of the dreaded three-games-in-four-nights that always cause problems. A quarter of their entire regular season schedule will be played by the end of November

The travel, chartered plane or not, will be tough. The Orlando-Houston back-to-back alone will require about 3,600 miles of travel over the course of three days. The league snuck a weird, three-game Western Conference swing in the middle of the month that will send Boston to Denver, Sacramento, and Golden State before coming back east for two games (one at home) and then back out to Texas for a back-to-back against San Antonio and Dallas. All in all, the Celtics will travel nearly 16,000 miles in November. 

All of this does lead into a home-heavy December where the schedule eases a bit, but the travel and crush of games in the early going will be difficult to navigate. 

And the Celtics have a few players that will miss some, if not all, of the team’s back-to-backs. That means Paul George, Mitchell Robinson, and maybe Jayson Tatum will all be forced to miss some time, possibly up to six games, just because of the schedule. That's not ideal. 

However, this does present Boston an opportunity. 

With George, Mitchell, and maybe Tatum missing time, it’s going to open up a lot of minutes for guys behind them to fight for time in the rotation. Joe Mazzulla is going to have to lean on his depth to get through these stretches, which will give younger players like Hugo Gonzalez and Jordan Walsh, a real chance to put their youthful legs to work. With a couple of months now to prepare, those young wings, along with Baylor Scheierman and Ron Harper Jr., will have enough time to work on building the stamina necessary to get through these stretches and eat up minutes. 

There will undoubtedly be some heavy legs on the floor in these early games, so November can act as a proving ground for all of these wings looking to prove they can be a bigger part of the rotation than they’ve been in the past. 

Last season, the Celtics found some success in all of these wings, but no one took the job, which turned a strength into a bit of a problem.

“It's really hard when there's not clear separation,” Brad Stevens said after the season ended. “The reality is Hugo has had a great rookie year and I think is a critical part of us moving forward because his athleticism can beat the moment in the big games. That's a real thing. You can see it, you know it …

“That said he didn't separate himself from those other guys … At the end of the day, that’s part of a team, but I'm encouraged by all of them, but there wasn't a lot of separation.”

Some of those wings will be part of Boston’s long-term plan. For others, the ride might end after this season, or before their contracts run out. November will give all of them an opportunity to play and separate themselves from the rest, because the minutes will present themselves organically. It will be less tinkering and more necessity when different groups of these players hit the floor. 

And because of the Jaylen Brown trade, there will be a bit of additional pressure on the Celtics to show they are still as good as they were last season. Raising the stakes right away will be good, because we’ll get to see how they respond to the competition and pressure. All of these guys have created arguments for and against themselves with their play to this point. By December, we might already get a clearer picture of which of those arguments are correct. 

The schedule will not be easy for the Celtics, but any of the reserve wings who make life a little easier in November will give themselves a big chance to be part of the rotation heading into April and May.