Schedule Preview, Part I: East-heavy with four back-to-backs

These segments have been broken down into approximately 20 games to look at the season quarter-by-quarter. It's important to remember that 82 games is a slog, with stretches of it that are more often defined by how the team itself is doing rather than their opponents — especially one with as many new moving parts as this Sixers roster.

Still, it's time to go through section by section of the Sixers season and see what they're up against. The first portion will be broken down to the first 21 games of the season, taking us right up to Thanksgiving, mainly because games 20 and 21 are a back-to-back.

The Sixers will play the minimum 14 back-to-backs this season and will have four of them in this first quarter of the season. The other thing that jumps out about the first quarter of the season is how Eastern Conference-heavy it is. Only two of the Sixers' first 21 opponents play in the West: the Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers .