Sixers Daily Brief ·

Sixers’ Celtics rematch puts preseason rotation questions on display

The Sixers are back home to face Boston on Friday after getting blown out 144-106 in their last game at TD Garden. ESPN lists Philadelphia at 0-0 in the standings, but the preseason result and the player usage around it are already giving Nick Nurse a lot to sort through.

What changed after Boston

Philadelphia’s last game was the 144-106 loss at Boston on Saturday, a reminder that this group is still sorting out who plays, and where. PhillyVoice reported that Jaylen Brown sat out and the Sixers were missing a long list of regulars in that game, so the score is only part of the story, but it still showed how far the roster has to go before it looks settled.

The rematch comes Friday at Xfinity Mobile Arena, and that makes this a useful checkpoint for the rotation rather than a referendum on the whole preseason.

Sources: PhillyVoice, The Philadelphia Inquirer

LeBron chatter keeps building

The other thing fans keep hearing about is LeBron James, and the coverage since the weekend has been mostly about how he is fitting in. The Athletic story aggregated by NBA.com said James is acclimating to the team, even down to small things around a scrimmage, while Yahoo Sports and other outlets have leaned into the attention around his leadership and presence.

That is the backdrop here: less about a made-up crisis, more about a high-profile player still getting comfortable while the team figures out its on-court combinations. That makes Friday’s game against Boston one of the more useful spots yet to watch how this rotation is taking shape.

Sources: NBA.com, Yahoo Sports, Indiatimes

A few roster notes to keep in mind

Earlier this week, PhillyVoice laid out the players the Sixers were expected to be without for the Boston preseason game, including Joel Embiid, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Anfernee Simons, Adem Bona and Ariel Hukporti. That helped explain why the group looked so incomplete in the first meeting.

PhillyVoice also mentioned the Boston setting of that game and the broader rotation picture, while Reutersconnect had a pool photo from Brooklyn in the mix. None of that changes the main takeaway: the Sixers are still in evaluation mode, and the next Celtics game is more about answers than the record page.

Sources: PhillyVoice, Reutersconnect

Further reading

Philly Sport Daily writes this brief each morning with the help of AI, working only from the reporting linked above. Spot an error? Let us know @sport_philly.

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