The Boston Celtics released their four-game preseason schedule Monday, and half of it runs through the team that now employs Jaylen Brown. Boston plays a home-and-home with the Philadelphia 76ers — October 10 at TD Garden and October 16 at Xfinity Mobile Arena — around a trip to Cleveland on October 8 and a home date with Charlotte on October 14, per the team’s announcement reported by Boston.com’s Khari A. Thompson. All four games air on NBC Sports Boston.
With the NBA’s regular-season schedule not yet released, that October 10 game stands as Brown’s first scheduled appearance at TD Garden since the July trade that sent him to Philadelphia for Paul George and four draft picks — the end of a ten-season run that included banner No. 18. The return trip six days later puts George back in the building where he spent last season. Preseason crowds are forgiving and rotations are short, but both reunions now have dates.
There is also a competitive edge under the exhibition framing. Philadelphia eliminated Boston in the first round in April, then acquired the Celtics’ second-best player in July. Jayson Tatum, who called the trade “weird” at the ESPYs, gets his first look at the new arrangement in October rather than whenever the league office schedules the real thing. This franchise has staged plenty of charged returns at TD Garden over the decades; few arrived this quickly after the handshake.
The Celtics went 3-1 in last year’s preseason and 3-2 in Las Vegas Summer League this month, missing the championship bracket on point differential.
For fantasy purposes, these four games are the first live evidence of how Boston redistributes Brown’s usage. Watch George’s minutes load and shot profile, whether Payton Pritchard and Derrick White open with expanded roles, and how much run Hugo González gets after his strong summer — October box scores are the earliest honest signal for redraft rankings.
