New NBA Schedule Shows When Jaylen Brown Plays the Boston Celtics

Brown's return to Boston was kept off the initial release of marquee games, but the Sixers and Celtics will still meet on national TV

Aug 6, 2026; Camden, NJ, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Jaylen Brown speaks with the media during his introductory press conference at the Francis J. Myers Recreation Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers were not included in any of the early marquee dates the NBA announced earlier in the week, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be in front of a national TV audience. In fact, all four regular season matchups will be on national television.

Here are the dates, times, and networks for all four of Boston’s regular season matchups against Jaylen Brown, Lebron James, and the Sixers. 

Th first regular season matchup is Tuesday, November 10, at Philadelphia, at 8 p.m. on NBC. Brown makes his return to Boston on Thursday, January 21, at 7:30 p.m. on Prime. The Celtics visit Philadelphia again on February 7, at 7 p.m. on NBC. And Brown returns to Boston again on Sunday, March 7, at 1 p.m. on ABC.

The Celtics and Sixers also play two preseason games against the Sixers, one in Boston on October 10 at 8 p.m. and one in Philadelphia on October 16 at  7 p.m. It’s possible those preseason games took some of the steam out of the matchup, which kept the Celtics and Sixers off the early batch of schedule announcements. 

Boston is opening the NBA schedule in Detroit on Tuesday, October 20, at 3 p.m. The NBA is reportedly testing the 3 p.m. start as a new opening day triple-header tradition. The Sixers take on the New York Knicks at 7 p.m. and that's followed by the OKC Thunder at the San Antonio Spurs at 9:30 p.m. All of those games are on NBC and Peacock. 

The league also passed on other opening week opportunities to have Brown face off against his old team, instead choosing to build their schedule around the addition of LeBron James. The Cleveland Cavaliers visit the Sixers that Thursday, October 22 while the Celtics host the Knicks on Friday October 23. 

Then on Christmas Day, the league chose to send James back to his old city to face the Los Angeles Lakers, while putting the Miami Heat at Boston in the 2:30 p.m. slot.  

The bottom line for the league is they’ll go with what sells first, and then find other ways to push some of these other storylines. The Golden State Warriors aren’t expected to be very good this season, but Steph Curry and crew appear twice in the opening week and Christmas Day announcements. Curry and LeBron are still huge draws, so anything with those two guys will supercede any kind of revenge narrative between Brown and the Celtics. 

That story will still be pushed, but it’s like the B-story in a TV show. The main characters get the top billing, but the supporting cast has to have something interesting to do as well. It's clear the NBA doesn't see Brown's return as the A-story.