What to Expect in the 76ers 8-Game Regular Season
Once the NBA returns at the end of July, the remaining 22 teams will start back up with an eight-game regular season before the playoffs begin.
This eight-game play-in period is designed for the teams who are currently on the outside of the playoffs to make one final push, in both the Eastern and Western Conferences.
For the Philadelphia 76ers, this play-in period will not affect whether or not the team makes the playoffs. Because the Sixers sit nine games ahead of the eighth seed, there is no way the Sixers can miss the playoffs. However, this eight-game regular season could shift where the Sixers land once seeding is finalized.
The Sixers have the potential to finish anywhere from the second seed to the sixth seed, where they are currently positioned.
Here are who the Sixers face for the remainder of the regular season, and what we can expect in those games.
Eastern Conference Games
The Sixers enter the eight-game regular-season period with four games against Eastern Conference teams and four against Western Conference teams. The four Eastern Conference games for the Sixers are against the Indian Pacers, Washington Wizards, Toronto Raptors, and Orlando Magic.
This is a problematic set of games for the Sixers. The Sixers do not hold a winning record against any of these four teams and, in fact, hold losing record to all but one of them (Sixers are 1-1 against the Wizards).
Because the Sixers have beaten all of these teams aside from the Magic at least once, winning a few of these games is possible. The Sixers currently hold a better record than the Magic and the Wizards which, with that logic, would dictate that they are the better team. It will be interesting to see how the Sixers fair against teams they have struggled with this season thus far.
Hopefully, the extended break and a large amount of rest will prove to help the Sixers in these tough matchups.
Western Conference Games
The four Western Conference matchups for the Sixers are the Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs. The Sixers currently have a better regular-season record than all of these teams aside from the Rockets, who are one game up on the Sixers.
The Sixers have played each of these teams one time this season thus far. They are 2-2, holding wins over the Trail Blazers and the Spurs. The Trail Blazers, Spurs, and Suns matchups were all in the first month of the season, so it is fair to say that all of these teams were still trying to find their footing at the time. Also, the Rockets defeated the Sixers before they dealt big man Clint Capela to the Atlanta Hawks, which has since left a hole in the Rockets defensively. This will absolutely be a point of attack for the Sixers’ offense when these two match up. In that game, Capela netted 30 points and 14 rebounds against the Sixers’ tall lineup.
We can expect the Sixers to fair much better against these teams than they may against the teams from the Eastern Conference.
Seeing as how the Sixers are in no danger of missing the playoffs, it’s more likely that this eight-game play-in period will be a great way for the team to get accustomed to NBA basketball once again.
If the Sixers could potentially move up some spaces in playoff seeding in the process, that would certainly benefit them as the playoffs begin.
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