After tonight’s game, Philadelphia will either be heading to New York for playoff basketball or be one more loss from the season coming to an end.
Sure, the NBA Play-In Tournament is fun as a neutral observer. It makes for great drama and a half-week of entertaining, high-stakes basketball. However, when the NBA has three-way tiebreakers breaking out the ancient concept of divisions, suddenly Philadelphia 76ers fans are as regressive thinking as LeBron James on the matter:
LeBron on the NBA Play-In Tournament: “Whatever the case may be or we end up in the Playoff whatever that things is. Whoever came up with that s**t needs to be fired. But whatever.” pic.twitter.com/lwRReGAQQ8
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) May 3, 2021
Riding an eight-game winning streak to end the season, the 47-35 Sixers will play host to the 46-34 Miami Heat, with the winner receiving the pleasure of facing the second-seed New York Knicks in the first round, starting Saturday evening. The loser will need to defeat the winner of tonight’s Chicago Bulls-Atlanta Hawks game on Friday in order to play the Boston Celtics in the first round, or see their season end.
It didn’t have to be this way. The paths of the five-seed Orlando Magic or six-seed Indiana Pacers, who finished with the exact same 47-35 record as the Sixers, look much smoother. The Sixers could be avoiding the Play-In altogether to face a Cleveland Cavaliers team who stumbled to the finish line seemingly held together with scotch tape and a couple clothespins, or the MIlwaukee Bucks without Giannis Antetokounmp at least to start and possibly Damian Lillard as well, with Doc Rivers already in full-on excuse-making mode. However, that’s not the lot Philadelphia has drawn.
On paper, the Sixers should be able to extinguish the Heat at home, particularly with Tuesday’s news that Terry Rozier will be out due to a neck injury. As of this writing, DraftKings lists Philadelphia as five-point favorites. A number of things can go wrong in a one-game, do-or-just-about-die setting, though. Maybe the Sixers go cold against Miami’s 2-3 zone defense. Maybe Jimmy Butler returns from his regular season walkabout and goes on an epic heater. Maybe Haywood Highsmith randomly hits four threes like he did in Miami’s 109-104 win in Philadelphia back in February, and Process nation collectively looks up the definition of irony. You might not be worried about facing the Heat, per se, but there’s not a single person out there happy that Erik Spoelstra, Jimmy Butler, and Bam Adebayo have been laid in front of the Sixers’ path.
Nevertheless, let’s instead focus on ways this could go right. The Sixers are 31-8 this season with Joel Embiid on the court. Although he’s listed as questionable (along with KJ Martin, with De’Anthony Melton and Robert Covington both out), all signs are pointing towards the star big man being out there. That’s a great place to start. Plus, Tyrese Maxey is poised to go on an absolutely bonkers postseason run:
Tyrese Maxey recalls being “exhausted” and his body “breaking down” by the 2nd round of the playoffs in his 2nd year. Now he puts in more work to keep his conditioning up throughout the season.
“This is the best I feel going into the playoffs since I started playing in the NBA.” pic.twitter.com/hWNyPncMDY
— Sam DiGiovanni (@BySamDiGiovanni) April 16, 2024
Kyle Lowry has played approximately a million big postseason games; he’s as battle-tested as they come and you know he isn’t going to let his hometown team fall without a heck of a fight. Kelly Oubre Jr. hasn’t been in the postseason in six years, but if you’ve watched the veteran forward at all this season, you have to believe he’s ready for this moment.
I’m choosing to believe things are going to work out in the Sixers’ favor for a change. Daryl Morey has put together the most flexible roster of two-way components we’ve seen yet in this era of Sixers basketball and Nick Nurse seems to have a knack for knowing what buttons to press. This version of Tyrese Maxey is the most dangerous co-star Joel Embiid has had. This group really seems to like and pull for one another. I can’t see all of that meaning nothing because a displaced flap threw a temporary wrench into things. So Heat Culture can take their postseason voodoo and go ahead and beat (likely) Chicago before putting a scare in the Celtics. Tonight is our night.
Game Details
Who: Philadelphia 76ers vs. Miami Heat
When: 7:00 p.m. ET
Where: The Center, Philadelphia, PA
Watch: ESPN
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Follow: @LibertyBallers
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