How do you eat a whale? Well, in this case, the 82-game gauntlet of an NBA season. The old adage is to approach the NBA season game-by-game, but it’s always helpful to look at it in chunks, just like the team’s equipment manager might when planning road trips and homestands. In that spirit, let’s try and predict the Celtics record.
at Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls: The Celtics kick off the entire NBA season with an opener in Motor City on Tuesday, October
20th with an odd 3 pm EST tip-off. Maybe that’s for an international audience. Regardless, that’s the #1 and #2 seed from last year ushering in the new year of hoops. Boston is then rewarded with a four-game homestand that includes a visit from the defending champs and a 4-1 start to get 2026-2027 rolling.
at Orlando Magic, at Houston Rockets, Milwaukee Bucks, at Charlotte Hornets, at Milwaukee Bucks, at Philadelphia 76ers, at Toronto Raptors: If you take a 30,000-foot view of the schedule, it’s a lot of long homestands and road trips. Thankfully, the Celtics rank 20th in miles travelled for the entire year. This roadie includes Boston’s first look at Jaylen Brown, LeBron James, and the 76ers — after facing them twice in the preseason — and some of the upstarts in the East with Orlando and Toronto on the docket. Going above-.500 would put Boston at around 8-4.
Dallas Mavericks, Orlando Magic, at Denver Nuggets, at Sacramento Kings, at Golden State Warriors, at Washington Wizards: Boston has 16 back-to-backs next season, tied for most in the league with the Nets and Pelicans. Two of them are part of this five-games-in-eight-nights stretch with the team making their first foray into California. 12-6 with nearly a quarter of the season under their belt.
Atlanta Hawks, at San Antonio Spurs, at Dallas Mavericks, Charlotte Hornets: Hosting the Hawks wraps up the Celtics’ NBA Cup four-game regular season. It’s a group of up-and-comers that also includes the Hornets, Bulls, and Wizards. Boston should rep Group C in the playoff round with a 3-1 record in group play and an overall 15-7.
*Let’s go out on a limb and say the Celtics raise Banner 18.5 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis and get to 17-7, too.
at Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards, Washington Wizards, Utah Jazz, Detroit Pistons, Portland Trail Blazers, Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers: A seven-game homestand that includes waking up in their own bed for Christmas is such a treat for NBA players. It also has the only home-and-home on the schedule with hometown hero A.J. Dybantsa visiting TD Garden with the Wizards. A strong showing pushes Boston to 24-8 before the new year.
at Chicago Bulls, at Utah Jazz, at Portland Trail Blazers, at Phoenix Suns, at Los Angeles Lakers, at Los Angeles Clippers: This marks the Odyssey portion of the schedule. This six-game road trip marks the longest of the year with CelticsBlog’s Noa Dalzell ranking it the most difficult:
The Celtics haven’t had a 6-game road trip since March of 2025, when they became the first team in franchise history to go a perfect 6-0 in one road trip. They’ll look to replicate that success this winter when they face three Western Conference playoff teams from last year, and a Jazz squad that could be much-improved. The Bulls and Clippers should be easier outs, but there’s no telling how competitive this road trip will end up being.
There are some tough outs, but really, their biggest opponent might just be fatigue and monotony as the NBA gauntlet nears the halfway point. A split gets the Celtics to 27-11.
Houston Rockets, New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, at Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, Charlotte Hornets, Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns: Home sweet home with nine of the next ten games at the Garden. Next year, the NBA trade deadline is on February 11th. The Celtics and their front office will have a long runway in January to see just how good this team is and what holes need to be plugged. There’s just one back-to-back that includes Brown’s homecoming on the 21st. 34-14.
at Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Lakers, at Charlotte Hornets, at Atlanta Hawks, at Philadelphia 76ers: Boston won’t leave the Eastern Standard Time zone for this road trip, but I’ll predict a bit of a mid-year stumble to drop them to 36-17.
Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Toronto Raptors, at Oklahoma City, at Memphis Grizzlies: Another homestand, a few battles against the West’s elite before the All-Star break, and the aforementioned trade deadline.
If the Celtics are 39-20 at this point, it’s most likely that President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens doesn’t make a big move that might disrupt the chemistry of the team…or he’s made a big trade to push them over the top. Let’s operate the rest of the way as if a deal was made on the edges, but nothing big with the team relatively healthy. Fingers crossed.
Cleveland Cavaliers, at Minnesota Timberwolves, at Indiana Pacers, at Detroit Pistons: The Celtics have their first three-game losing streak of the season. 40-23 has them in the hunt to host a first round series in April.
Philadelphia 76ers, at Chicago Bulls, Memphis Grizzlies, Oklahoma City Thunder, at New York Knicks, Sacramento Kings, Orlando Magic, New Orleans Pelicans, at Brooklyn Nets, San Antonio Spurs: This might be the most consequential stretch of the year with games against title contenders and bottom feeders. The Celtics will have to at least split games against the 76ers, Knicks, Thunder, and Spurs and take care of business with the Grizzlies, Kings, Pelicans, and Nets to really be considered one of the elites. 47-26.
at Miami Heat, at New Orleans Pelicans, at Indiana Pacers, at Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, at New York Knicks, at Orlando Magic, at Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks: Last season, the Celtics finished with 56 wins to clinch the 2nd seed. Their final kick this year will include seven of their last nine games on the road with visits to Miami, Indiana, Cleveland, New York, Orlando, and Atlanta — all teams predicted to be in the playoff mix. Optimistically, 52-30 would be a strong season for this team which would have made them #4 last year.
