The Sixers Need To Take Care Of The Nets, And Quickly
Starting this Saturday, the Philadelphia 76ers will begin their 1st round playoff series with the Brooklyn Nets. It’s, of course, a best-of-7 series that will allow one of these teams to advance to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. For a look at the full schedule for the Sixers-Nets series, you can see a breakdown here. Now, most likely, that semifinal matchup will be a matchup with the 2 seed Boston Celtics, who will have home court advantage if they do indeed advance themselves. The winner of that series is highly likely to take on the top seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals. So, there you have it; the Sixers’ playoff path is set. Brooklyn, Boston, Milwaukee seems to be the highly likely path, and it doesn’t look like an easy one. That’s why Joel Embiid and company have to take care of business in the 1st round, and do it quickly.
The Bucks and Celtics, who hold the top 2 seeds in the East, have the luxury of playing the 2 Eastern Conference play in teams. One of those matchups is already set, with the Atlanta Hawks taking down the Miami Heat to seal their position as the 7 seed. Don’t let a couple years ago fool you, the Hawks are not a competitive team when tasked with playing a series against Boston. The Celtics are 3-0 this year against Atlanta, with an average margin of victory of more than 13 points. That sounds like a series that would take a miracle to get to even 5 games, which means Philly could be set to face a pretty fresh Boston team in round 2. Milwaukee is still awaiting their opponent, as the Miami Heat now prepare to play the Chicago Bulls for a chance to be the 8th seed. No matter who the winner of that honor is, though, Milwaukee should also be facing an easy 1st series. The Bucks are actually 2-2 against both the Bulls and Heat this year, but playoff Milwaukee is a totally different animal. They’re the top seed in the NBA for a reason.
The Sixers have faced the Nets 3 times this year. They have won all 3 contests, but the margin of victory has only been about 5 points. That doesn’t exactly scream sweep like the margin between the Celtics and the Hawks, but it does say that it’s a possibility. The bottom line? If the Sixers series goes any further than 5 games, the 1st round will have to be viewed as a failure. Not only is a shorter 1st round series more conducive to overall playoff success, but the other top 2 teams in the East seem like they have very favorable matchups ahead of them with chances to be done in 4 or 5 games. The Sixers cannot be the odd team out, or they’ll find themselves sitting on the couch sooner rather than later.
