The Celtics finished the 2025-26 regular season with a 56-26 record and will open the Eastern Conference playoffs as the No. 2 seed against the No. 7 76ers. Philadelphia earned its spot by beating the Magic in the NBA Play-In Tournament, setting up the first playoff meeting between the teams since 2023.
That pairing gives Boston a postseason path that looks different from much of its regular season, when it played without Jayson Tatum for long stretches because of an Achilles injury. Even so, the Celtics closed with top-five offensive, defensive and net ratings, finishing No. 2 on offense, No. 4 on defense and No. 4 in net rating, numbers that help explain why they stayed near the top of the East despite the absence.
The first round also lands in a changed television landscape. Under the NBA's new broadcast agreement, the Celtics have been featured across ABC, and NBC, and the opening round will be widely available through DIRECTV, the app, Peacock and Prime Video. For fans tracking the rest of the bracket, the setup mirrors the pressure elsewhere in the postseason race, from the trail Blazers vs. Suns race in Phoenix to the Flyers playoffs outlook as Philadelphia tries to clinch in the East.
Boston now moves into a matchup that tests whether its regular-season balance can carry into April pressure. Philadelphia arrives with momentum from the play-in, and the next round begins to answer the question that has hung over both teams since 2023: which side is ready to turn a good season into a deeper run.
