Philadelphia 76ers likely NBA Playoff opponents

The Philadelphia 76ers have guaranteed their appearance in the NBA playoffs. But if they played today, who would their likely opponents be?

The Philadelphia 76ers have climbed to a 45-30 record and have seven games remaining. For now, have played to the 4-seed of the NBA Eastern Conference. Still, they are just .5 games behind 3-seed Cleveland Cavaliers, and just .5 games ahead of the 5-seed Indiana Pacers. Complicating the matter is the recent injury to star center Joel Embiid.  Can the Philadelphia 76ers sustain their place?

Well, the team has seven remaining games to play. If they win 5 of the last seven, they will end the season at 50-32. That’s far better than anyone had expected. So if the playoffs started today, who would the Philadelphia 76ers face? Could they advance? And if they did advance, who would they face? In short, which teams will the Philadelphia 76ers face each round of the playoffs if they move ahead to the next round?

NBA Bracketology

The Philadelphia 76ers, currently as a 4-seed, has this path in the NBA Playoffs Bracketology:
Best of seven series against the 5-seed team (Indiana Pacers). Advancing to round two, the 76ers next face the winner of the 1-seed (Toronto Raptors) versus the 8-seed (Milwaukee Bucks).

That  winner then advances to face the winners of the 3-seed (Cleveland Cavaliers) versus 6-seed (Washington Wizards) and the 2-seed (Boston Celtics) versus the 7-seed (Miami Heat). The winner of that series goes on to face the winner of the NBA Western Conference in the NBA Championship. So lets break down the most likely opponent for each best-of-seven series.

Indiana Pacers (5-seed) versus Philadelphia 76ers (4-seed)

The 4-seed team gets the home court advantage in the best of seven series in the NBA Playoffs. And the Philadelphia 76ers are a far improved team at home. That could make all the difference in this series, since the Philadelphia 76ers now face a playoff scenario without star center Joel Embiid.

In the regular season, The Pacers won the series 2-1 against the Sixers, despite the series playing two games in Philadelphia. The last loss, a true test of the 76ers ability to play in a postseason-like atmosphere, deflated the mood in Philly temporarily.  But that game was a springboard for the team’s current nine-game winning streak.

Best of seven – 76ers in seven

The win-or-go-home style of basketball is tough to adapt to, and the Philadelphia 76ers have never faced that as a team. But this team adapts rather quickly. You see, regular season games are about sticking to a scheme, the playbook. In the NBA Playoffs, teams must take away from their opponent, and take whatever the other team gives them. Phiadelphia 76ers’ head coach Brett Brown has shown some savvy at this. But the playoffs will prove to be his toughest test yet.

The Pacers lost one game to the Philadelphia 76ers when Philly shot 50 percent from the perimeter. And without Joel Embiid’s presence in the paint, that could prove to be a difficult plateau to achieve. Still, the Sixers are finding Ersan Ilyasova serviceable in a relief role for Embiid, and Saric, Covington, Redick, Belinelli, and now Fultz can salvo the Pacers. Defensively, the 76ers have done a great job against Victor Oladipo. If they can contain Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis to a combined under-24-points in the series, they can pull out a best of seven. But it won’t be pretty at first.

Philadelphia 76ers (4-seed) versus Toronto Raptors (1-seed)

The Philadelphia 76ers now take on the higher seeded Toronto Raptors and do so with more games on the road. Plus the 76ers only won one of the four games against the Raptors in the regular season. No matter how you slice this one, the Sixers come in as a true underdog in every sense of the word.

The Raptors are one of those teams powered by a tremendously talented back court in SG DeMar Derozen and PG Kyrie Lowry. This season, they have matched a compatible front court to go with them. But it was that bench, and in particular 6-foot-5 point guard Delon Wright, who has done the most damage to the 76ers. He’s averaged 15 points per game off the bench, and has proven to be someone the 76ers have not taken into account.

Philly has a chance

But not all is lost. The hope is that the Philadelphia 76ers will benefit from the return of center Joel Embiid. And by this time, Markelle Fultz’s comfort with the line-up should be good. The Philadelphia 76ers did manage to win a game  against the Raptors. Joel Embiid’s 34 points, and T.J. McConnell‘s 18 point outburst power the Sixers to that win.

Now the team has Markelle Fultz, there is a higher offensive upside off the bench. And the Raptors bench will give up points.  Philadelphia will lose some games against Toronto by a huge margin. But in the best of seven, it’s all about winning four games. That is within the realm of possibilities. Toronto will appear to be the better team. But the scrappy 76ers can win four games against any NBA Team.  I don’t say the Philadelphia 76ers advance. I expect the train ends here. But if they advance, they next face the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Philadelphia 76ers (4-seed) versus Cleveland Cavaliers (3-seed)

Despite facing the 2-seed Boston Celtics, I believe the Celtics injuries catch up to them against the healthier Cavaliers. And honestly, isn’t this the matchup the NBA wants to see?  Ben versus LeBron. But the media will go nuts over the prediction Joel Embiid made at the end of the 2016-2017 season.

And that will take this contest to another level. Don’t look for lovey lovey in this one. Everyone in this contest know the stake, and will not be looking to lose gracefully.

A series Philly can win

The Philadelphia 76ers gain confidence with each playoff game, win or lose. While I won’t bet the Sixers get past the Toronto Raptors, I hope they do. In this series, the Philadelphia 76ers match up very well.  You see, this is NOT a championship Cavaliers team from two years ago. It’s not even a Cavaliers team that started the season. This team was assemble on the fly, and the instinctive communication will be worse than that of the 76ers.

To get here. LeBron will need to get the Cavaliers past the Wizards and the Celtics. He can do that. But by the time LeBron encounters Philadelphia, the strain will be showing. LeBron will rule the Playoffs. But much like the 76ers team with Allen Iverson, a team can beat the Cavs by winning the other contests. Right now, the series favors the Cavaliers 1-2. And with Embiid out, the Cavs will be favored to win the next contest. But should Philadelphia advance two rounds, they will be up to the challenge.

NBA Championship: Philadelphia 76ers versus Houston Rockets

After the smoke clears, this is the NBA Championship folks. Philadelphia will be lit. After winning a Super Bowl, the young upstart Philadelphia 76ers could take the NBA Championship game to an entirely new level of popularity. But it’s not television viewership nor merchandising which drives my hope for this matchup. The Philadelphia 7

6ers are playing some of the best basketball in the NBA now.

And as such, I’d like to see that “best basketball” in the best games of the year – the NBA Championship.

76ers paid their dues

The deeply rooted NBA pundits and sportscasters won’t be up for this one. Many will cite the “Philadelphia 76ers didn’t pay their dues” matter. But they did. At the bottom of every talking-head troll, there were the Philadelphia 76ers. And what better marketing matchup than to have two coaches who worked together just two years ago meet in the NBA Championship series two years later.

Next: Remembering the Sixers 2012 playoff run and everything since

The teams split the series this year, and both were active signing players after the trade deadline to load up for a playoff run.  Should the Rockets overcome the Golden State Warriors, they will be heavy favorites against the Philadelphia 76ers. But Philly wears the underdog role well, and the fever of the Philadelphia Eagles success will be red hot.  Win or lose, this is an NBA Championship series to record and save as a family heirloom.  The Houston Rockets and Philadelphia 76ers will be new teams competing for the title. That’s good for the league.  The Philadelphia 76ers are on a nine-game winning streak. In post season, it’s a series of best-of-seven.  The Philadelphia 76ers need only get four wins in each round to advance. And this team is getting better all the time.