As the Philadelphia 76ers finally resume play with a much-anticipated matchup against the defending champions, the Boston Celtics, this marks the first of the many must-win outings for the team to end the season. With their sights set on making the playoffs, they cannot afford any more losses if they want to continue playing games beyond mid-April.
As their 20-34 win-loss card suggests, the final stretch of the season would be a trek for the 76ers. Teams boasting a similar record would normally be out of the equation already and would simply look to securing a higher pick in the draft, but the club has reiterated that tanking is not on their plans.
To their credit, the playoffs are still within reach. The 10th-seeded Chicago Bulls are only 1.5 games ahead of Philadelphia in the standings, and the former is expected to try to botto out as much as they can in light of the trading their biggest star on the team before the trade deadline. Clearly, the path is wide open for the 76ers to make the play-in tournament.
The 76ers are using an unlikely run as a model to catch everyone napping
To keep things grounded, though, the 76ers would most likely top out at the play-in tournament. After all, there is a significant distance between them and the last guaranteed playoff spot. Sixth-seeded Detroit (yes, you read that right), is 8.5 games ahead of Philly, and even ninth-place Miami is 5.5 games above them in the standings.
The team’s fate, at its apogee, seems to lie with the play-in as the tenth seed. That means they will have to win twice on the road just to make it to the playoffs, where they will most likely be greeted by the Cleveland Cavaliers, which are heads and shoulders above above their contemporaries in the East.
However, the 76ers seem inspired to make the impossible, well, possible. Tyrese Maxey recently pointed out that there is still a backed-up way for them to make it all the way to the Finals.
We’ve seen some crazy things happen with the play-in, right? I think Miami went all the way from the play-in to the championship. They got hot at the right time. They meshed at the right time. Jimmy Butler went on a run. They had a guy who at that time was playing like a top 5 player. So who knows?
Maxey was referring to Miami’s run to the FInals in 2023 as a de facto eighth seed. They finished the regular season with the seventh-best record in the East, losing to No. 8 Atlanta before eventually making it to the playoffs with a big play-in tournament win. They then went on to upset the top-seeded Bucks before making it all the way to the biggest stage, where they came up short against the Denver Nuggets.
The path for the 76ers would of course be much tougher, but what works in their favor is their overall talent. On paper, Philly may be even more talented than that Miami team, although that squad was way more than the sum of its parts.
With Joel Embiid, Maxey, and Paul George spearheading the team, the 76ers can still be in the position to make a deep run. After all, in a one-off game in the play-in, anything could happen, and having the more robust collection of talent could tip the scale in their favor.
Having said that, the Philadelphia 76ers have to play with much more consistency on both ends. Otherwise, they may not even get to a place where they can launch this ambitious plan of theirs.