Instant Reaction | 2021-22 Sixers Schedule

Our instant reaction as we say to the new schedule instant indeed, And Matt, I realized something while you were talking. I had a really hard time broadcasting last year when we had to say things like the twenty twenty twenty twenty one season, because I had to say twenty three times in a row, and I never I lost track of how many twenties I said. This season really rolls off the tongue. It's three consecutive numbers, twenty twenty one, twenty two. It's incredible. So I loved the way it

sounded what you said. It's going to be so much easier to say without further ado, I think we can jump into the schedule because nobody cares. But when I think things like oh, the score is a palindrome or wow, this season is so satisfying to say, I hope that at least one or two people can agree with me. Nobody cares until it's the negative side of it. And I found myself rerecording things if I accidentally said two twenty last year because it didn't see right. So yeah,

you know, nobody cares until it's too late. But a good one for the upcoming season, which, as we dive into it, is back to an eighty two game season, not a December start, but in a late October start. Once again, we are going to run through a whole bunch of things about the seventy six ers schedule. We might as well start with from the outside looking in.

The most important date would be the opener, which is on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans in New Orleans eight pm on October twentieth, which is a Wednesday. And then the home opener is Friday, October twenty second versus the Brooklyn Nets at seven thirty. So we've got

the opener. Zion Williamson on the road, and then we've got the home opener against the Brooklyn Nets, which was released actually early that date, but those are the two games to get things started for the Sixers this season. And while we're drumming up excitement prior to that opening night, the Sixers also released their preseason slate, which starts Tuesday, October fifth, at the Toronto Raptors. Then the team will

host the Hornets and Brooklyn Nets later that week. Preseason finishes up at Detroit on October fifteenth, So October fifth, Matt, that's a month and a half away. More pretty wild and more nets too. The Nets in the preseason, so multiple regular season matchups, of course a few that are early, but you get one even earlier with the preseason against the Brooklyn Nets October basketball. It's good to have it back.

I know, I like, and I'm sure you agree with this in some respects the sense of normalcy that this schedule will bring to me. I even think back to playing video games as a kid. NBA video games and when the season starts in your franchise mode or whatever, they're sometimes Halloween like themed graphics around the first couple games or early in the season. I always have associated the beginning of the NBA season with Halloween, so we're

back to that standard. One of my favorite things about the NBA season, and this just again, if you listen enough, you know I'm kind of a loser, and at the end of the day, to me, the fact that the NBA season is as long as it is is one of the things I love about working in the NBA. And we have had two consecutive seasons cut short. I am not a fan of the shortened season. I am a fan of the long season. Thirteen back to backs, starts in October, doesn't end until well, hopefully July if

my math is correct, but goes certainly through April. The rigorous schedule eighty two games. I know a lot of people around the league whish it was a little bit shorter. I do not. I am all in on a very long schedule. I found this whole thing very comforting to see the schedule start in October, go all the way through April before the playoffs begin, and all Star break

in February. That's a full, proper all Star break. Really really looking forward to the same old schedule that we've been used to for a while, and I think there are a lot of exciting things within as well. Before we move on to some of the other notable matchups and then select our own, I'm looking calendar month by calendar month to see if anything stands out home, away,

nights of the week, anything like that. I know the might as well identify the season long road trip here, which is six games from the middle of November through essentially Thanksgiving. It'll start in Indiana an end in Golden State, so that is going to take place in the middle of November, so a lot of road games in that month. But all in all, I mean it's usually pretty balanced. It looks like home heavy a little bit towards the end of the season, so maybe the Sixers will be

in their stride. The month of March has more home games than road games, so as the team gets ready for hopefully a playoff run, it looks like March could be a good tune up month there at home pretty balanced. Indeed, it doesn't feel the way that this past season felt, where there was about a four week period where it seemed like the team was really going to be up against it, and then of course Joel Embid ended up sitting for quite a bit of that long tough stretch.

Doesn't feel like there's a stretch that's that tough. Compared to the twenty twenty twenty one season, this feels a lot more balanced. One little basketball nerd note that I enjoyed is is seeing the return of the series. I like that the team is playing at Charlotte in December

on December sixth and again on December eighth. That was obviously something that the league rather experimented with this past season, and due to COVID and due to the condensed nature of the schedule, they wanted to have more games played back to back in the same location. Cool to see that they're at least going to test out keeping that around. Obviously on a much smaller scale. The team did it a lot last season and won't do it nearly as much this season, but cool to see that that might

be something that's here to stay. Doc Rivers was a big fan of those little series. A lot of the players enjoyed those little series as well, So looking forward to that one, and that'll be the first time that the team does it this season in December. There's yeah, there's the Charlotte one. There's also some just geographically where

they don't go too far. I mean, there's one early on in Texas which we might talk about a little bit more, the Spurs and the Rockets at the end of January, both on the road, back to back nights. There's also speaking of Doc Rivers, his former team, the Clippers, on the back end of a Lakers Clippers two games set in Los Angeles. That's March twenty third, and then March twenty fifth, starting with the Lakers, ending with the Clippers. But let's talk about some other notable matchups before we

pick which ones we are looking forward to. The Brooklyn Nets obviously are the first opponent for the Sixers in Philadelphia. They will play twice more in December and once in March, So that NET series three of the four games are pretty early in the season, and that series is probably the one that most people are going to be looking

for first when they look at this. Yeah, it's top heavy for the at least the Sixers NET series, but a little bit more bottom heavy with the Milwaukee series, which I think would probably be the other top marquee matchup at least in the East. The first one come November eleventh, the second comes February seventeenth, and the final one comes March twenty ninth. Only three times against Milwaukee,

four times against divisional rival Brooklyn. Really looking forward to all seven of those matchups and hopefully with the season being more stretched out, having a little bit more rest time.

A lot of the complaints among fans, among players, among coaches last season where the players weren't able to play in all the marquee matchups that they wanted to play, and I remember a lot of people were really excited about that last game between the Sixers and the Nets, but then of course the Nets ended up having to postpone their game ahead of their matchup with the Sixers, which meant they ended up not having everybody available for

their matchup with the Sixers. Looking forward to a more traditionally spaced out schedule in the hopes that some of these marquee matchups that we're talking about will truly be the marquee matchups that everybody looks forward to. The Milwaukee series you mentioned, it'll be in Philadelphia in November, in Milwaukee and February, and then at the end of March

back in Philadelphia, So I agree with you. Nets Series Bucks series another one that's interesting to note is the Washington Wizards game on Martin Luther King Junior Day, two pm in the Nation's Capital, so a playoff opponent of the seventy Sixers last season. The Washington Wizards the first round opponent that is an afternoon game on MLK Day January seventeenth in DC, which is a pretty fun, interesting game,

no doubt about it. Looking forward to that one know that there will be some maybe a little extra at stake when those teams meet again. Something to prove from these Sixers as the guys have trickled back into town or some folks have signed new contracts, that's something that left a sour taste in their mouth, and it'll be good to see the guys have an opportunity at redemption early and in a pretty marquis situation. I know. Martin Luther King Day is a game that people really look

forward to and circle on their calendars. So it'll be cool to have that one be a little extra meaningful for of course, many profound reasons, and then one or recent Sixer's history reason. And then they get the another playoff opponent from last year pretty early Atlanta on October thirtieth. Speaking of my Halloween preferences. When it comes to the NBA season, Saturday night home against Atlanta will be the

first rematch against the Hawks October thirtieth. All right, let's wrap up with which individual matchups you and I are looking forward to the most we can do. I think we're going to do one of each. One marquee matchup that we're looking forward to most, and then one under the radar matchup that other people might not talk about as much, but we are looking forward to that one for whatever reason. Let's I will go first for the

marquee matchups. My pick was going to be the Brooklyn Nets, but I've talked the first one, the home opener, but I've talked at length about that one already, so I can't talk anymore about the Nets. So I'm going to pick the Lakers coming to Philadelphia, which is always a fun game, and one that's in the spotlight, which by my calculations is Thursday January. Oh, excuse me, that might not be No, you're right, Thursday January twenty seven. Okay,

thanks for the health the assist PM on TNT. There you go, so Thursday night, I don't I'm second guessing it. It is the Lakers. I don't know if I want to. Can I come back and adjust my pick after you go for the market. I just want to remind you that there's absolutely nothing at stake here, and i'd maybe encourage you to just stick with your guns on this way. It's so fresh, it's so fresh that I'm just bouncing around. There's so many teams, There's so many thoughts going through

my head. But maybe I'll change it, maybe I won't. But which is yours that you're looking forward to the most? I promise I did not put in as thought as you did on this one. I'm gonna go pretty plain and simple, straight up. Milwaukee Bucks defending NBA champions The first matchup between the Bucks and the Sixers November ninth, twenty twenty one. Too. It's a Tuesday night, It's nationally televised on TNT, It's at the Center. It's going to

be very loud. I think Joel and Beat and Yannisanto Dakumpo will always be a little bit linked based on their backgrounds, based on their rise in the NBA, based on the caliber of player that both of them are, obviously two MVP level players, one of whom of course, has accomplished that feat, one of whom is set to accomplish that feat. And I know that Joel really wanted to see Janis at his best with his team at his best this season. It didn't happen. This is the

opportunity to do that. And anytime you get a go at the defending champs, you're going to bring your best. I'm really looking forward to Tuesday, November ninth, seven thirty pm. One of sixteen nationally televised games as of today, that one is going to be awesome. No arguments there, and I don't care what you say. I'm going to change my pick before we pick are under the radar ones because simply because of the day of the week and

it's another nationally televised game. It's December eleventh, another Western Conference opponent, but it's on a Saturday night rather than the Lakers game on a Thursday. Saturday night game against the Golden State Warriors on December eleventh is my official pick. The popular pick. I liked that one as well. That's an ABC primetime game. It doesn't really get better than that. I too, am looking forward to that one. I love

the pick. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you want me to pick my under the Radar game first. Okay, So if you've listened to the pod for a while, you know I hail from the great beautiful state of Texas. A lot of beautiful things about Texas. I'm not as beautiful, but we're not going to get into that today. The Sixers are going to play a back to back. It's a Sunday Monday back

to back in January. That's not going to be one of the ones that folks that are traveling with the team as fans or as staff are going to be looking forward to. I am going to be looking forward to that one. I love San Antonio. I grew up sending time in San Antonio, and of course Houston is my hometown. And the Rockets don't look the way that they've looked in the past decade or so. Some of that, one might say, could be could be due to the Man at the Helm, who now, of course is the

man at the Helm of the Sixers, Daryl Morey. Switching over to the Sixers front office. We of course are thrilled to have him here. But I am looking forward to that matchup. I look forward to it every year at Houston in my hometown with my new team. It's sentimental. It's not going to be that exciting. Christian Wood fans might enjoy it. I don't know. I'm grasping at straws to make it relevant to Sixers fans. But here we are, Monday,

January twenty fourth. That's my undergaradar matchup Houston Rockets with Jalen Green. There's a lot of top picks that I'm intrigued to watch this season, including Jalen Green. Another one is Kaide Cunningham, which makes the Pistons a somewhat underrated matchup. But I'm not going to select the Pistons. I'm going to pick the game right before that. It's early in the year. It's at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks.

My under the radar game, given that the Knicks aren't a top top team in the NBA despite a pretty good season for them last year. Only because you're from Houston, you picked Houston. I'm from Jersey, so the Sixers were my home team growing up. But I went to school in New York, so Madison Square Garden there's nothing quite like that for me, So any game at Madison Square Garden always catches my eye, and this one is early again at the Knicks Tuesday, October twenty sixth at seven thirty.

That's my under the radar pick deal. Any game at MSG is exciting. The vibes are high. Looking forward to seeing what Kemba looks like with them. I've always been a fan of Kemba Walker as a human and as a player, so really excited to see him playing his hometown. That's gonna be a good one. There there are things across the schedule. I mean, look, if you're a basketball fan, you're gonna love any of these games. If you're Sixers fan, you're gonna love them even more. I'm really looking forward

to an eighty two game season. I find it extremely comforting. This was a comfort pod for me. Matt. Thank you for walking me through it. I'm really excited. Thank you. I hope we didn't miss anything. I don't think we did. There are eighty two games, and I think we probably covered about twenty of them, and let us know if we missed something. Seriously, I'd love to know which which of these games our listeners and fans are most excited about. You guys, never hold back, so don't start doing it now.

Bonus episode where we go through game by gide ye two games with a ten minute breakdown of each game. Hey, if anyone could do it might be us. That is, this is not the time for that, I should say so. On that note, NBA training camps open September twenty eighth. Again, the Sixers home opener Friday, October twenty second verse the Brooklyn Nets at seven thirty, and then prior to that they opened a season on the road at New Orleans Wednesday, October twentieth at eight pm. That's going to do it

for Lauren Rosen. I'm Matt Murphy. Thanks as always for listening. See Yeah,