The Boston Celtics are used to the spotlight, but they might be more in the dark next season with a potential down year on the horizon. The NBA’s early 2025-26 schedule release confirmed that, as the Celtics won’t play on opening night or have a Christmas Day game for the first time in a decade.
The most marquee matchup on the books for them at the moment is a Martin Luther King Jr. Day contest with the Detroit Pistons. The Eastern Conference showdown tips off at 8 p.m. (ET) at Little Caesar’s Arena and will air on Peacock and NBC. This marks the fifth year in a row that the Celtics have played on the January holiday, meanwhile, the Pistons haven’t hosted a game on MLK Day since 2018.
The Celtics and Pistons find themselves on different paths heading into the 2025-26 season. Boston will have to overcome a devastating injury to its go-to guy, Jayson Tatum, and make sense of a retooled roster. Conversely, Detroit will enter the regular season with more optimism than usual since the East is relatively up for grabs and Pistons star guard Cade Cunningham is healthy and fresh off his first All-Star appearance.
The rest of the Celtics’ schedule remains a mystery, yet the entirety of the upcoming slate should be released by the end of the week.
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