The first look at both the Sixers’ young nucleus and their new uniforms will be Oct. 4, when the team hosts the Grizzlies at the Wells Fargo Center for the first of five preseason games announced Thursday. The Celtics, Nets and Heat make up the rest of the Sixers’ exhibition opponents.
After the opener against Memphis, the Sixers’ draft-day trade partners in the Celtics come to South Philly for the first bout of a home-and-home. The Oct. 6 matchup is the Sixers’ final true home game of the preseason. The team will then travel to play the Celtics at TD Garden Oct. 9.
Next, comes an Oct. 11 trip to Long Island to face the Nets at NYCB Live, home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Although the Sixers are technically the home team when they play the Heat in their final preseason game, they’ll still have to travel more than a thousand miles. The game will be played at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri, on Oct. 13. It’ll be somewhat of a homecoming for Joel Embiid, who played one year at the University of Kansas in 2013-2014.
All games will be broadcast on the radio on 97.5 The Fanatic. The game against the Grizzlies can be watched on TCN, and CSN will have both matchups with the Celtics.
The league’s regular season will start about a week earlier this year to cut down on the amount back-to-backs teams play. With that, preseason slates have fewer games than the usual six or seven — the Sixers went 2-5 last year.
Last season's full league schedule was released on Aug. 11, so expect an announcement soon for 2017-2018.