What’s The Sixers Need To Happen To Get The 6 Seed

We are nearing the end of the regular season. The Sixers have just two games left. One against the Magic tomorrow night, and then 1 against the Nights on Sunday at 1 pm. It is their last chance to improve their seeding and avoid the dreaded play-in tournament.

As of now, they are 45-35 and sit in the 7 seed. But just 1 game separates them, The Pacers, and the Magic. 1 game also separates them and the 8 seed, currently held by the Heat.

Win out, and they are guaranteed at least the 7 seed, which means they would get to play the play-in at home. The hope is to avoid it altogether though. In 1 game, anything can happen. Losing that first game wouldn't eliminate them, but it would mean they would have to beat the winner of the 9 and 10 seed. If they do win that game, they would have to play the Celtics in the 1st round. Not ideal.

The 6 seed is the best case scenario. You avoid any play in, and could avoid the Celtics until the Eastern Conference Championship. You would have to go through either the Bucks or the Knicks in the first round, and then they would likely face the other one in the 2nd round. Not an easy path, but it is the ideal path. But what do they need to claim the 6 seed?

This one is obvious. If the Sixers want to get the 6-seed, they need to win their final two games. Beating the Magic also has the side effect of knocking them down a game. But just winning out will not be enough for them to claim the 6-seed.

Winning Friday night would start this off right. But the Magic will also need to lose on Sunday to the Bucks. The Bucks are without Giannis, but they just beat them last night without him 117-99. The Magic are 4-6 in their last 10 games, so it is certainly possible they lose. And the good news is the Bucks might need that game to secure their own seeding.

But what happens if the Sixers win out, and the Magic win on Sunday? The Sixers have the tie breaker over the Magic. But they could still end up in the 7 seed depending on what happens with the Pacers.

It seems counter intuitive to say one of the teams you are contending with needs to win. But the idea is we want them to avoid a 3-way tie. If the Pacers, Magic, and Sixers, all finish with the same record, the Magic would get the 5 seed, the Pacers would get the 6 seed, and the Sixers would be stuck with the 7 seed.

The reason why is the Magic won their division, and the Pacers have the tie breaker over the Sixers. To avoid all of that, it is easier for the Pacers to win, and win the 5 seed, outright.

If the Magic just lose out, and the Sixers win out, it wont matter as much. The Sixers would have a better record than the Magic and there would be no need for tiebreakers. But just in case the Magic do win on Sunday, we want to root for the Pacers to beat the Cavs on Friday. If that happens

Technically yes. If the Pacers lose out too, the Sixers could pass both of them. But the 6-seed is preferable to the 5 seed. They are far better off in the 6-seed, so they can avoid the Celtics in round 1 and round 2.

The Cavs losing out would also change things. The Cavs and the Pacers play each other. So 1 of them will get a win, guaranteeing they finish above the Sixers. But the Sixers could catch them too if they lose out, and the Pacers win out.

The situation listed above, with the magic losing, and the Paces winning, is the simplest way for them to get in. The best part is, it is highly possible. The Magic losing their final two games is not out of the question. The Magic will be underdogs in both games.

If the Sixers just take of their own business, the rest may work itself out. Instead of battling for their life in the play-in, they could be comfortable in the 6-seed, playing with the Knicks without Julius Randle, or the Bucks without Giannis.

Joel Embiid is back. After 3 LONG months without the reigning MVP, Embiid is set to make his return this week. Woj reported early Monday morning that the Sixers expected him back at some point this week.

Boy do the Sixers need him. They were the 3 seed in the Eastern Conference when he injured his meniscus. Now they are the 8 seed. If the season ended today, they would be in the Play-In Tournament. With him, they had the 2nd best record in the league, 26-8. Without him, they are 14-27, the 8th-worst record in the league.

No Joel Embiid has meant teams can key in on Tyrese Maxey. Maxey has done his best, but he alone is just not enough, and the guys behind him haven't all carried their weight. Tobias Harris in particular has failed to live up to the moment, and Buddy Hield has struggled to adapt to his new team.

Looking at how well Embiid played when healthy, the struggles make sense. Embiid averaged over a point per minute. Wilt Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to do that over a full season. 35.3 points per game, despite averaging 34 minutes per game. He dropped 70 on Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs. That type of production is hard to replace.

In just 34 games, he had 9 40-point games. Many of them despite barely playing in the 4th quarter because the Sixers got out to such a massive lead. He was having a truly special season, that was derailed by the unfortunate injury.

But with him finally making his return, let's relive some of his greatness from earlier in the season. From dropping 48 on the Wizard in early November to his 70-point masterpiece in late January. We kept track of all 9 of his 40-point games, so that we can remember how great he was playing before the injury.

His first 40-point game this season came in early November. The Wizards came to Philly, and Embiid bullied them all game long. He played so well, he needed only 31 minutes to score 48 points. 29 came in the 3rd quarter. Which is a franchise record for the most points in a single quarter. He also had 11 rebounds, 6 assists, and only 1 turnover in that game. The Wizards are not exactly an intimidating opponent. But they have played 42 games this season, and not many other plays have dropped 48 on them in 31 minutes.

Exactly one month later, Embiid went off against the same team. But this time he didn't just break 50, he got to 50 points in the game. Not to mention he also racked up 13 rebounds, 7 assists, and shot 65.5% from the field. 11 of those points came in the last 5 minutes of what was a close game. It was 113-106 when Embiid scored the first of those 11 points. And for you haters that want to talk about Free Throws, he would have scored 39 in this game even if you took away every FT.

A week later, he did it again. This time dropping 21 on the Pistons. And like in that first Wizards game, he needed only 31 minutes to do it. He also had 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, and only 2 turnovers.

What is more impressive than scoring 40 in 31 minutes? Doing it in 30 minutes. The Sixers destroyed the Hornets that night, like most teams do. The final score was 135-82 and Embiid never saw the floor in the 4th quarter. He shot 78.3% from the field. And while the Hornets are not exactly a tough team, only 4 other players, Karl Anthony Towns,  Tyrese Haliburton, Paul George, and Jayson Tatum, have scored like this on them this season. And all of them needed at least 38 minutes to reach 40. Though Towns actually wound up scoring 62.

The very next game, Embiid did it again, scoring 40 in 37 minutes. But this time it was in a loss. Maxey scored 29 in the game, but the rest of the team combined managed just 35 combined points. The Sixers had just 38 combined FGs in that game, and Embiid either scored or assisted on 21 of them. He also had 14 rebounds. It was not a great night for the Sixers, who lost 108-104. But it was still a very good game for Embiid.

Okay, for those first 5 games, you could argue it was not exactly tough competition. You can't argue that on this night. The Timberwolves have the best defensive rating in the NBA. Rudy Gobert has the 4th best individual rating as a defender. Embiid still dropped 51 on them. He shot 68% from the field on 25 FG attempts. When Embiid also does it against great teams, the cupcake schedule argument kind of falls apart.

Embiid suffered an injury not too long after the Timberwolves game and missed the end of December. And for 2 games after getting back, he only scored 30 points per game and then got hurt again. But in his first game back after that second injury on 1/15, he scored 41 on the Rockets. Once again it took him only 31 minutes, and he sat out in the 4th quarter. Not bad for a guy who had played just 4 games in 24 days before this game.

Okay, so Embiid misses that game, comes back, and has to immediately play a back-to-back. He drops 41 in game 1, and then comes back out the next night and drops another 41. Only this time it was against the reigning champs and the player he has been battling with for the title of Best Player in the league for years now (Nikola Jokic). This is yet another example of how the "soft schedule" narrative is nonsense. Embiid also had 7 rebounds and 10 assists in the game. All on the way to lifting the Sixers to an impressive 126-121 victory over the Nuggets.

Which brings us to the 70-point game. Embiid needed just 37 minutes to score 70. The fewest minutes needed in NBA history to score 70 in a game, and 1 of only 2 players to score 70 despite playing fewer than 40 minutes. And he did it without shooting 3s. Only one of his FGs came from behind the arc. He shot  58.5 from the field. It was a special night, and one of the best performances we have ever seen in Sixers' history. It broke the record Wilt had held previously.