Celtics and Bucks Win in Overtime as Preseason Ends With a 12-Game Night

PHILADELPHIA Friday, October 16, 2026

Preseason finales are supposed to be formalities: starters on a short leash, benches emptied early, everybody home healthy. Friday refused to cooperate. Twelve games closed the NBA's exhibition season in one sweep, two of them needed overtime, one favorite spent its win in the training room, and the single most important development of the night was not a score at all — it was a point guard in Indianapolis moving like the last year never happened. The rehearsals are over. What follows is everything that mattered on the last night before the games start counting, with the full scoreboard from our sports front and a look ahead in our opening-night preview.

Two overtimes in the East

Start in Philadelphia, where the 76ers got the star performance they wanted and lost anyway. Embiid was efficient and forceful — 27 points on 7-of-13 shooting, eight rebounds and five assists — and Maxey added 22 points and six assists as Philadelphia led by eight after three quarters. Boston's answer came from depth and from the glass. The Celtics out-rebounded the 76ers 63-48, outscored them 31-21 in the fourth quarter and 10-5 in overtime, and got a team-high 21 points off the bench from Gonzalez. Jaylen Brown scored 20 points with eight rebounds, Ron Harper Jr. added 16, and Boston finished the preseason unbeaten at 4-0 — against, for long stretches, Philadelphia's real rotation. James, in his first home game as a 76er, finished with eight points, eight rebounds and seven assists on a night the home crowd came to see him as much as the result. Philadelphia held out rookie VJ Edgecombe. The loss will not follow the 76ers anywhere, but the shape of it might: their starters were good enough to build a lead and their depth was not good enough to keep it.

Indianapolis told a similar story with a happier headline buried inside a loss. With Haliburton back running the offense after missing the entire 2025-26 season with an Achilles tear, Indiana produced its best half of the preseason: 71 points, 19 assists and a 15-point lead by halftime. Siakam was nearly perfect — 24 points in 21 minutes on 8-of-10 shooting with five three-pointers — and Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard combined for 13 first-half assists, with Nembhard finishing at 11 points, seven assists and no turnovers. Haliburton's own line, 17 points and six assists in 20 minutes, mattered less than how he got it: pushing pace, changing direction, and trading words with Milwaukee's Ryan Rollins in a first-quarter exchange that earned him a technical foul and told everyone in the building he feels like himself. Indiana rested its starters after halftime — assistant Lloyd Pierce ran the bench with head coach Rick Carlisle away for a family event — and Milwaukee came all the way back, with Ware tying the game at 117 with 1.6 seconds left before the Bucks won the overtime 11-10 and the game 128-127. Tyler Herro scored 16 points in the third quarter to start the comeback. Indiana opens Wednesday at New Orleans; the Pacers and Bucks meet again on October 26, and that one will count.

Detroit's rookie closes, Orlando's win comes at a cost

Detroit beat Toronto 129-125 at Little Caesars Arena in the night's best closing audition. The Pistons shot 58 percent, put six players in double figures and led by as many as 13 behind Cade Cunningham's 18 points and seven assists and Jalen Duren's 14. Then Toronto — resting most of its rotation, including Kawhi Leonard and Scottie Barnes, on the second night of a back-to-back — ripped off a 13-0 run against Detroit's bench to lead 100-99 with 7:08 left. First-round pick Ebuka Okorie, who did not enter until the fourth quarter, scored all 14 of his points in the period and closed the game at the free-throw line. Detroit finished the preseason 3-1 and opens the regular season at home against Boston on Tuesday — the same Celtics closing group the Pistons' rookies just spent a night measuring themselves against.

Orlando's 136-115 win over Miami was the night's most complete performance and its most worrying. Banchero scored 24 points for the second straight game, with seven rebounds and four assists, and Bane hit seven three-pointers on his way to 23 as the Magic erased an early 12-point deficit and ran away. But Wagner left in the third quarter with a sore right shoulder after scoring 11 points, Noah Penda exited with right hamstring tightness, and Jase Richardson was also hurt. Orlando's coaching staff said afterward that all three would be re-evaluated. The Magic finished 3-1 under first-year head coach Sean Sweeney and open Wednesday at home against Atlanta — a game that got more interesting, and more uncertain, with every departure on Friday night.

Out west: Jokic over Doncic, Curry in rhythm, Utah rallies

The ESPN nightcap in Los Angeles paired the league's two most creative offensive players, and Nikola Jokic's side controlled it. Denver jumped the Lakers 36-22 in the first quarter and won 121-106, with Jokic posting 17 points, eight assists, six rebounds and two steals. Luka Doncic answered with 15 points and four assists for Los Angeles, and Sandro Mamukelashvili added 15, but the Lakers never recovered from the opening period. It was a fitting final image for the exhibition season: two stars on managed minutes, a result nobody will remember, and two contenders who will see each other again when the possessions are real.

Golden State closed with its best offensive night of the preseason, beating Portland 128-118 at Chase Center. Stephen Curry scored 20 points, Draymond Green ran the offense with 10 assists and eight rebounds, and Brandin Podziemski and Yaxel Lendeborg added 17 points apiece as the Warriors put up 38 in the third quarter and finished 4-2. Damian Lillard led Portland with 23 points — a perfect 13-for-13 at the free-throw line — and Ja Morant added 19 on 8-of-10 shooting, but the Trail Blazers spent the night chasing a deficit that reached 25. In Phoenix, Utah trailed by 13 before rallying to beat the Suns 119-116 on Lauri Markkanen's game-high 19 points. Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks scored 18 each for Phoenix and Devin Booker added 16, and the Suns — who finished 1-4 and were without Luke Kennard and Oso Ighodaro — now take a settled-looking 10-man rotation on the road to open the season Wednesday at Portland.

San Antonio delivered the night's cleanest rout, beating Sacramento 126-97 at the Frost Bank Center. Victor Wembanyama filled the line in limited work — 14 points, eight rebounds, two blocks, two steals and two assists — and the Spurs were never threatened. Domantas Sabonis returned for the Kings with a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double, the one line Sacramento will carry gladly into the real season.

The rest of the scoreboard

Atlanta made the loudest statement of the middle window, routing Dallas 135-111 at the American Airlines Center. Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 25 points with six three-pointers and five assists, the Hawks led 73-54 at halftime, and Dallas got its one unambiguous positive from Cooper Flagg: 26 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two steals in a dress rehearsal his team otherwise failed. Chicago beat Minnesota 133-116 at the United Center, with Matas Buzelis scoring 14 for the Bulls and rookie Joan Beringer starting for a Timberwolves team that rested Rudy Gobert and finishing with 11 points. Memphis beat Charlotte 116-98 at the FedExForum — Ty Jerome scored 17, Cam Boozer added 19, and Hannes Steinbach answered for the Hornets with 19 points and 10 rebounds off the bench — to finish 3-1 ahead of a Wednesday opener at home against Utah. And New Orleans survived the night's quietest thriller, beating Washington 107-106 at the Smoothie King Center after the Wizards won the fourth quarter 36-26 and nearly stole it; Alex Sarr had 12 points and nine rebounds for Washington. Our earlier coverage of how Friday's slate was set up is in the 12-game finale preview, and Thursday's finales are in last night's wrap-up.

What the night settled

Preseason standings evaporate by Tuesday, so grade Friday on the things that travel. Boston's closing depth looks real — a bench that out-finishes a rival's starters in overtime is a rotation advantage, not an exhibition quirk. Indiana with a healthy Haliburton is a different offense entirely, and its 71-point half is the clearest single image of this preseason. Detroit's young players closed a game instead of merely surviving one. And the one result with a cost attached belongs to Orlando, which will spend the weekend waiting on re-evaluations instead of celebrating a 21-point win. The board now clears. Opening night is Tuesday, October 20 — Boston at Detroit, Philadelphia at New York for the Knicks' banner night, and Oklahoma City at San Antonio — with eleven more teams opening Wednesday. The next wrap-up in this space will be the first one that counts.