Kevin Durant was right about looking at graphs while trying to talk about hoops.
The final week of the regular season hasn’t exactly been the momentum builder heading into the playoffs the Sixers had hoped. Bad losses to the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets knocked them firmly into Play-In tournament positioning.
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More importantly, Joel Embiid has suffered more catastrophically bad luck, having to under go an Appendectomy that will sideline him for a significant amount of time while Tyrese Maxey is again trying to play with a finger on his shooting hand that is very clearly not 100% healthy.
Through all of this, the Sixers sit at 44-37 in the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. They are one game behind the Toronto Raptors and Orlando Magic, who are currently sixth and seventh, respectively.
They are a game ahead of the Charlotte Hornets and, thanks to holding the season series tiebreaker, can’t finish worse than them in the standings. At worst case scenario, the Sixers will make the 7/8 play-in game and will have two cracks at qualifying for the playoffs.
The tiebreakers against Toronto and Orlando are a little more complicated since the Sixers went 2-2 this year against both teams. Thanks to a superior division record, the Sixers own both the tiebreakers over those two teams individually and the three-team tiebreaker should they all finish with the same record.
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That gives the Sixers a chance, a very slim one, albeit, at nabbing a top-6 seed on the last day of the regular season and avoiding the Play-In. To do so will require a Sixers win over the Milwaukee Bucks and losses from both the Magic and Raptors.
Orlando could very well fall to the Celtics in Boston, but the Raptors will be hosting a 20-win Brooklyn Nets team. Given how the Nets have looked as of late, it feels unlikely the Sixers will get that lucky. The Celtics are also locked into the second seed no matter what, so it’s very possible they’re taking it easy for the regular season finale.
That still leaves the seven seed on the table as well, should the Sixers and Raptors win but the Magic fall. The Sixers are so banged up they’ll take any advantage they can get right now, even homecourt throughout the Play-In.
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