Speaker 1: This podcast is part of the seventy sixers podcast Network
Speaker 1: Search seventy sixers podcast wherever you get your pods. Welcome
Speaker 1: back into the seventy sixers podcast network. On this episode,
Speaker 1: we break down the Sixers twenty twenty one twenty two
Speaker 1: season schedule, released Friday afternoon, alongside Lauren Rosen. I'm Matt Murphy.
Speaker 1: Lauren's schedule release day always an exciting one on the
Speaker 1: NBA calendar, a signal of the season to come. It's
Speaker 1: just an exciting time and we're here to break it down.
Speaker 1: Our instant reaction as we say to the new schedule
Speaker 1: instant indeed, And Matt, I realized something while you were talking.
Speaker 1: I had a really hard time broadcasting last year when
Speaker 1: we had to say things like the twenty twenty twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one season, because I had to say twenty three
Speaker 1: times in a row, and I never I lost track
Speaker 1: of how many twenties I said. This season really rolls
Speaker 1: off the tongue. It's three consecutive numbers, twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: twenty two. It's incredible. So I loved the way it
Speaker 1: sounded what you said. It's going to be so much
Speaker 1: easier to say without further ado, I think we can
Speaker 1: jump into the schedule because nobody cares. But when I
Speaker 1: think things like oh, the score is a palindrome or wow,
Speaker 1: this season is so satisfying to say, I hope that
Speaker 1: at least one or two people can agree with me.
Speaker 1: Nobody cares until it's the negative side of it. And
Speaker 1: I found myself rerecording things if I accidentally said two
Speaker 1: twenty last year because it didn't see right. So yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, nobody cares until it's too late. But a
Speaker 1: good one for the upcoming season, which, as we dive
Speaker 1: into it, is back to an eighty two game season,
Speaker 1: not a December start, but in a late October start.
Speaker 1: Once again, we are going to run through a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of things about the seventy six ers schedule. We
Speaker 1: might as well start with from the outside looking in.
Speaker 1: The most important date would be the opener, which is
Speaker 1: on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans in New
Speaker 1: Orleans eight pm on October twentieth, which is a Wednesday.
Speaker 1: And then the home opener is Friday, October twenty second
Speaker 1: versus the Brooklyn Nets at seven thirty. So we've got
Speaker 1: the opener. Zion Williamson on the road, and then we've
Speaker 1: got the home opener against the Brooklyn Nets, which was
Speaker 1: released actually early that date, but those are the two
Speaker 1: games to get things started for the Sixers this season.
Speaker 1: And while we're drumming up excitement prior to that opening night,
Speaker 1: the Sixers also released their preseason slate, which starts Tuesday,
Speaker 1: October fifth, at the Toronto Raptors. Then the team will
Speaker 1: host the Hornets and Brooklyn Nets later that week. Preseason
Speaker 1: finishes up at Detroit on October fifteenth, So October fifth, Matt,
Speaker 1: that's a month and a half away. More pretty wild
Speaker 1: and more nets too. The Nets in the preseason, so
Speaker 1: multiple regular season matchups, of course a few that are early,
Speaker 1: but you get one even earlier with the preseason against
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets October basketball. It's good to have it back.
Speaker 1: I know, I like, and I'm sure you agree with
Speaker 1: this in some respects the sense of normalcy that this
Speaker 1: schedule will bring to me. I even think back to
Speaker 1: playing video games as a kid. NBA video games and
Speaker 1: when the season starts in your franchise mode or whatever,
Speaker 1: they're sometimes Halloween like themed graphics around the first couple
Speaker 1: games or early in the season. I always have associated
Speaker 1: the beginning of the NBA season with Halloween, so we're
Speaker 1: back to that standard. One of my favorite things about
Speaker 1: the NBA season, and this just again, if you listen enough,
Speaker 1: you know I'm kind of a loser, and at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, to me, the fact that the
Speaker 1: NBA season is as long as it is is one
Speaker 1: of the things I love about working in the NBA.
Speaker 1: And we have had two consecutive seasons cut short. I
Speaker 1: am not a fan of the shortened season. I am
Speaker 1: a fan of the long season. Thirteen back to backs,
Speaker 1: starts in October, doesn't end until well, hopefully July if
Speaker 1: my math is correct, but goes certainly through April. The
Speaker 1: rigorous schedule eighty two games. I know a lot of
Speaker 1: people around the league whish it was a little bit shorter.
Speaker 1: I do not. I am all in on a very
Speaker 1: long schedule. I found this whole thing very comforting to
Speaker 1: see the schedule start in October, go all the way
Speaker 1: through April before the playoffs begin, and all Star break
Speaker 1: in February. That's a full, proper all Star break. Really
Speaker 1: really looking forward to the same old schedule that we've
Speaker 1: been used to for a while, and I think there
Speaker 1: are a lot of exciting things within as well. Before
Speaker 1: we move on to some of the other notable matchups
Speaker 1: and then select our own, I'm looking calendar month by
Speaker 1: calendar month to see if anything stands out home, away,
Speaker 1: nights of the week, anything like that. I know the
Speaker 1: might as well identify the season long road trip here,
Speaker 1: which is six games from the middle of November through
Speaker 1: essentially Thanksgiving. It'll start in Indiana an end in Golden State,
Speaker 1: so that is going to take place in the middle
Speaker 1: of November, so a lot of road games in that month.
Speaker 1: But all in all, I mean it's usually pretty balanced.
Speaker 1: It looks like home heavy a little bit towards the
Speaker 1: end of the season, so maybe the Sixers will be
Speaker 1: in their stride. The month of March has more home
Speaker 1: games than road games, so as the team gets ready
Speaker 1: for hopefully a playoff run, it looks like March could
Speaker 1: be a good tune up month there at home pretty balanced. Indeed,
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel the way that this past season felt,
Speaker 1: where there was about a four week period where it
Speaker 1: seemed like the team was really going to be up
Speaker 1: against it, and then of course Joel Embid ended up
Speaker 1: sitting for quite a bit of that long tough stretch.
Speaker 1: Doesn't feel like there's a stretch that's that tough. Compared
Speaker 1: to the twenty twenty twenty one season, this feels a
Speaker 1: lot more balanced. One little basketball nerd note that I
Speaker 1: enjoyed is is seeing the return of the series. I
Speaker 1: like that the team is playing at Charlotte in December
Speaker 1: on December sixth and again on December eighth. That was
Speaker 1: obviously something that the league rather experimented with this past season,
Speaker 1: and due to COVID and due to the condensed nature
Speaker 1: of the schedule, they wanted to have more games played
Speaker 1: back to back in the same location. Cool to see
Speaker 1: that they're at least going to test out keeping that around.
Speaker 1: Obviously on a much smaller scale. The team did it
Speaker 1: a lot last season and won't do it nearly as
Speaker 1: much this season, but cool to see that that might
Speaker 1: be something that's here to stay. Doc Rivers was a
Speaker 1: big fan of those little series. A lot of the
Speaker 1: players enjoyed those little series as well, So looking forward
Speaker 1: to that one, and that'll be the first time that
Speaker 1: the team does it this season in December. There's yeah,
Speaker 1: there's the Charlotte one. There's also some just geographically where
Speaker 1: they don't go too far. I mean, there's one early
Speaker 1: on in Texas which we might talk about a little
Speaker 1: bit more, the Spurs and the Rockets at the end
Speaker 1: of January, both on the road, back to back nights.
Speaker 1: There's also speaking of Doc Rivers, his former team, the Clippers,
Speaker 1: on the back end of a Lakers Clippers two games
Speaker 1: set in Los Angeles. That's March twenty third, and then
Speaker 1: March twenty fifth, starting with the Lakers, ending with the Clippers.
Speaker 1: But let's talk about some other notable matchups before we
Speaker 1: pick which ones we are looking forward to. The Brooklyn
Speaker 1: Nets obviously are the first opponent for the Sixers in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: They will play twice more in December and once in March,
Speaker 1: So that NET series three of the four games are
Speaker 1: pretty early in the season, and that series is probably
Speaker 1: the one that most people are going to be looking
Speaker 1: for first when they look at this. Yeah, it's top
Speaker 1: heavy for the at least the Sixers NET series, but
Speaker 1: a little bit more bottom heavy with the Milwaukee series,
Speaker 1: which I think would probably be the other top marquee
Speaker 1: matchup at least in the East. The first one come
Speaker 1: November eleventh, the second comes February seventeenth, and the final
Speaker 1: one comes March twenty ninth. Only three times against Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: four times against divisional rival Brooklyn. Really looking forward to
Speaker 1: all seven of those matchups and hopefully with the season
Speaker 1: being more stretched out, having a little bit more rest time.
Speaker 1: A lot of the complaints among fans, among players, among
Speaker 1: coaches last season where the players weren't able to play
Speaker 1: in all the marquee matchups that they wanted to play,
Speaker 1: and I remember a lot of people were really excited
Speaker 1: about that last game between the Sixers and the Nets,
Speaker 1: but then of course the Nets ended up having to
Speaker 1: postpone their game ahead of their matchup with the Sixers,
Speaker 1: which meant they ended up not having everybody available for
Speaker 1: their matchup with the Sixers. Looking forward to a more
Speaker 1: traditionally spaced out schedule in the hopes that some of
Speaker 1: these marquee matchups that we're talking about will truly be
Speaker 1: the marquee matchups that everybody looks forward to. The Milwaukee
Speaker 1: series you mentioned, it'll be in Philadelphia in November, in
Speaker 1: Milwaukee and February, and then at the end of March
Speaker 1: back in Philadelphia, So I agree with you. Nets Series
Speaker 1: Bucks series another one that's interesting to note is the
Speaker 1: Washington Wizards game on Martin Luther King Junior Day, two
Speaker 1: pm in the Nation's Capital, so a playoff opponent of
Speaker 1: the seventy Sixers last season. The Washington Wizards the first
Speaker 1: round opponent that is an afternoon game on MLK Day
Speaker 1: January seventeenth in DC, which is a pretty fun, interesting game,
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. Looking forward to that one know
Speaker 1: that there will be some maybe a little extra at
Speaker 1: stake when those teams meet again. Something to prove from
Speaker 1: these Sixers as the guys have trickled back into town
Speaker 1: or some folks have signed new contracts, that's something that
Speaker 1: left a sour taste in their mouth, and it'll be
Speaker 1: good to see the guys have an opportunity at redemption
Speaker 1: early and in a pretty marquis situation. I know. Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King Day is a game that people really look
Speaker 1: forward to and circle on their calendars. So it'll be
Speaker 1: cool to have that one be a little extra meaningful
Speaker 1: for of course, many profound reasons, and then one or
Speaker 1: recent Sixer's history reason. And then they get the another
Speaker 1: playoff opponent from last year pretty early Atlanta on October thirtieth.
Speaker 1: Speaking of my Halloween preferences. When it comes to the
Speaker 1: NBA season, Saturday night home against Atlanta will be the
Speaker 1: first rematch against the Hawks October thirtieth. All right, let's
Speaker 1: wrap up with which individual matchups you and I are
Speaker 1: looking forward to the most we can do. I think
Speaker 1: we're going to do one of each. One marquee matchup
Speaker 1: that we're looking forward to most, and then one under
Speaker 1: the radar matchup that other people might not talk about
Speaker 1: as much, but we are looking forward to that one
Speaker 1: for whatever reason. Let's I will go first for the
Speaker 1: marquee matchups. My pick was going to be the Brooklyn Nets,
Speaker 1: but I've talked the first one, the home opener, but
Speaker 1: I've talked at length about that one already, so I
Speaker 1: can't talk anymore about the Nets. So I'm going to
Speaker 1: pick the Lakers coming to Philadelphia, which is always a
Speaker 1: fun game, and one that's in the spotlight, which by
Speaker 1: my calculations is Thursday January. Oh, excuse me, that might
Speaker 1: not be No, you're right, Thursday January twenty seven. Okay,
Speaker 1: thanks for the health the assist PM on TNT. There
Speaker 1: you go, so Thursday night, I don't I'm second guessing it.
Speaker 1: It is the Lakers. I don't know if I want to.
Speaker 1: Can I come back and adjust my pick after you
Speaker 1: go for the market. I just want to remind you
Speaker 1: that there's absolutely nothing at stake here, and i'd maybe
Speaker 1: encourage you to just stick with your guns on this way.
Speaker 1: It's so fresh, it's so fresh that I'm just bouncing around.
Speaker 1: There's so many teams, There's so many thoughts going through
Speaker 1: my head. But maybe I'll change it, maybe I won't.
Speaker 1: But which is yours that you're looking forward to the most?
Speaker 1: I promise I did not put in as thought as
Speaker 1: you did on this one. I'm gonna go pretty plain
Speaker 1: and simple, straight up. Milwaukee Bucks defending NBA champions The
Speaker 1: first matchup between the Bucks and the Sixers November ninth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. Too. It's a Tuesday night, It's nationally
Speaker 1: televised on TNT, It's at the Center. It's going to
Speaker 1: be very loud. I think Joel and Beat and Yannisanto
Speaker 1: Dakumpo will always be a little bit linked based on
Speaker 1: their backgrounds, based on their rise in the NBA, based
Speaker 1: on the caliber of player that both of them are,
Speaker 1: obviously two MVP level players, one of whom of course,
Speaker 1: has accomplished that feat, one of whom is set to
Speaker 1: accomplish that feat. And I know that Joel really wanted
Speaker 1: to see Janis at his best with his team at
Speaker 1: his best this season. It didn't happen. This is the
Speaker 1: opportunity to do that. And anytime you get a go
Speaker 1: at the defending champs, you're going to bring your best.
Speaker 1: I'm really looking forward to Tuesday, November ninth, seven thirty pm.
Speaker 1: One of sixteen nationally televised games as of today, that
Speaker 1: one is going to be awesome. No arguments there, and
Speaker 1: I don't care what you say. I'm going to change
Speaker 1: my pick before we pick are under the radar ones
Speaker 1: because simply because of the day of the week and
Speaker 1: it's another nationally televised game. It's December eleventh, another Western
Speaker 1: Conference opponent, but it's on a Saturday night rather than
Speaker 1: the Lakers game on a Thursday. Saturday night game against
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors on December eleventh is my official pick.
Speaker 1: The popular pick. I liked that one as well. That's
Speaker 1: an ABC primetime game. It doesn't really get better than that.
Speaker 1: I too, am looking forward to that one. I love
Speaker 1: the pick. I'm gonna go out on a limb and
Speaker 1: say that you want me to pick my under the
Speaker 1: Radar game first. Okay, So if you've listened to the
Speaker 1: pod for a while, you know I hail from the
Speaker 1: great beautiful state of Texas. A lot of beautiful things
Speaker 1: about Texas. I'm not as beautiful, but we're not going
Speaker 1: to get into that today. The Sixers are going to
Speaker 1: play a back to back. It's a Sunday Monday back
Speaker 1: to back in January. That's not going to be one
Speaker 1: of the ones that folks that are traveling with the
Speaker 1: team as fans or as staff are going to be
Speaker 1: looking forward to. I am going to be looking forward
Speaker 1: to that one. I love San Antonio. I grew up
Speaker 1: sending time in San Antonio, and of course Houston is
Speaker 1: my hometown. And the Rockets don't look the way that
Speaker 1: they've looked in the past decade or so. Some of that,
Speaker 1: one might say, could be could be due to the
Speaker 1: Man at the Helm, who now, of course is the
Speaker 1: man at the Helm of the Sixers, Daryl Morey. Switching
Speaker 1: over to the Sixers front office. We of course are
Speaker 1: thrilled to have him here. But I am looking forward
Speaker 1: to that matchup. I look forward to it every year
Speaker 1: at Houston in my hometown with my new team. It's sentimental.
Speaker 1: It's not going to be that exciting. Christian Wood fans
Speaker 1: might enjoy it. I don't know. I'm grasping at straws
Speaker 1: to make it relevant to Sixers fans. But here we are, Monday,
Speaker 1: January twenty fourth. That's my undergaradar matchup Houston Rockets with
Speaker 1: Jalen Green. There's a lot of top picks that I'm
Speaker 1: intrigued to watch this season, including Jalen Green. Another one
Speaker 1: is Kaide Cunningham, which makes the Pistons a somewhat underrated matchup.
Speaker 1: But I'm not going to select the Pistons. I'm going
Speaker 1: to pick the game right before that. It's early in
Speaker 1: the year. It's at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks.
Speaker 1: My under the radar game, given that the Knicks aren't
Speaker 1: a top top team in the NBA despite a pretty
Speaker 1: good season for them last year. Only because you're from Houston,
Speaker 1: you picked Houston. I'm from Jersey, so the Sixers were
Speaker 1: my home team growing up. But I went to school
Speaker 1: in New York, so Madison Square Garden there's nothing quite
Speaker 1: like that for me, So any game at Madison Square
Speaker 1: Garden always catches my eye, and this one is early
Speaker 1: again at the Knicks Tuesday, October twenty sixth at seven thirty.
Speaker 1: That's my under the radar pick deal. Any game at
Speaker 1: MSG is exciting. The vibes are high. Looking forward to
Speaker 1: seeing what Kemba looks like with them. I've always been
Speaker 1: a fan of Kemba Walker as a human and as
Speaker 1: a player, so really excited to see him playing his hometown.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be a good one. There there are things
Speaker 1: across the schedule. I mean, look, if you're a basketball fan,
Speaker 1: you're gonna love any of these games. If you're Sixers fan,
Speaker 1: you're gonna love them even more. I'm really looking forward
Speaker 1: to an eighty two game season. I find it extremely comforting.
Speaker 1: This was a comfort pod for me. Matt. Thank you
Speaker 1: for walking me through it. I'm really excited. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I hope we didn't miss anything. I don't think we did.
Speaker 1: There are eighty two games, and I think we probably
Speaker 1: covered about twenty of them, and let us know if
Speaker 1: we missed something. Seriously, I'd love to know which which
Speaker 1: of these games our listeners and fans are most excited about.
Speaker 1: You guys, never hold back, so don't start doing it now.
Speaker 1: Bonus episode where we go through game by gide ye
Speaker 1: two games with a ten minute breakdown of each game. Hey,
Speaker 1: if anyone could do it might be us. That is,
Speaker 1: this is not the time for that, I should say so.
Speaker 1: On that note, NBA training camps open September twenty eighth. Again,
Speaker 1: the Sixers home opener Friday, October twenty second verse the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets at seven thirty, and then prior to that
Speaker 1: they opened a season on the road at New Orleans Wednesday,
Speaker 1: October twentieth at eight pm. That's going to do it
Speaker 1: for Lauren Rosen. I'm Matt Murphy. Thanks as always for listening.
Speaker 1: See Yeah,