76ers' Plan for Starters in Preseason Finale Makes a Ton of Sense

One of the biggest questions for the Philadelphia 76ers heading into their final preseason game against the Boston Celtics on Friday night is how much, if any, the starters would play in the game.

We now have an answer to that question courtesy of head coach Nick Nurse.

During a media session on Thursday, Nurse revealed that he plans to play the Sixers starters into the second half of the contest in order to help the unit gain some rhythm and consistently that they could hopefully carry into the start of regular season play next week. He doesn't plan for them to play much in the second half, however.

"I think the plan is, and it's always fluid and flexible, we would like to get the majority of them in until the second half, I think," Nurse said. "It's now time to play. Go in at halftime, come back out and get ready to go again. Just again to start seeing what that feels like, and then it's probably fairly short after that."

So far, key contributors for the 76ers like LeBron James and Joel Embiid have only appeared in one preseason game, while fellow stars Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey have played in two. Even when these guys did play, they didn't log many minutes, so the preseason finale should represent an uptick in playing time for Philly's starters.

Why this decision makes sense for 76ers

Nick Nurse has had to strike a delicate balance throughout preseason play. With a new-look roster, he wanted to help the players develop some chemistry together in games that don't actually count. But, he also hasn't wanted to overly tax the players ahead of the grind that is the regular season, especially guys with many miles on their bodies like James and Embiid.

Giving the starters some extended burn in the preseason finale could help them gel, grow some chemistry and give them something to build off of heading into the regular season.

Obviously, if an injury occurs to a key contributor during the preseason finale, the decision won't look so good in hindsight, but the risk of injury is an inherent part of basketball, and it can't be avoided completely at the expense of building chemistry.

The team also has a big task to begin the year with the reigning champion Knicks celebrating their title on Tuesday, which is going to make a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd even more challenging.

The Sixers going in and beating the current title holders would surely be a nice way to kick off a 2026-27 campaign that's been designed to knock New York off in the East, so it's a benefit for Nurse to have his starters a little bit more on the same page before then by playing in the final exhibition together.

It remains to be seen exactly how much Philly's starters will play in the final game of the preseason, but it certainly sounds like we should expect to see them for a decent chunk of time.