The 76ers (50-30) have known for a while they’ll be in the playoffs.
Now, the team knows its seeding.
With the Boston Celtics (48-33) losing Sunday to the Orlando Magic, the Sixers have been assured a third-place finish in the Eastern Conference.
The C’s setback dropped them 2.5 games behind the Sixers with just one game left on their regular season schedule.
The Sixers, meanwhile, have two outings to play before the postseason begins - a road / home back-to-back that begins Tuesday in Miami, and ends Wednesday in South Philadelphia against the Chicago Bulls.
The Sixers will be the no. 3 team in the East for a second consecutive year. On the heels of Saturday’s victory in Chicago, they’ve also secured 50 wins for a second straight season.
By virtue of landing the three-seed, the Sixers will face the East’s six seed in the opening round of the playoffs. Their opponent in the best-of-seven conference quarterfinal series has yet to be determined.
The Brooklyn Nets (41-40) and Orlando Magic (41-40) have matching records, but due to Brooklyn winning its season series versus Orlando, the Nets currently lay claim to a tie-breaker, and thus possession of sixth place. Depending on how each club’s respective regular season finale goes this Wednesday, they could end up flip-flopping spots.
The Detroit Pistons (39-41), on the other hand, are still in the post-season picture, occupying eighth place right now. With two games to go, they still have a chance to move up.
Should Brooklyn, Orlando, and Detroit end in a three-way tie, could it be the Sixers and Detroit? No.
The tie-breakers would be determined by whichever of the three teams has the top winning percentage in games against each other (Brooklyn 4-2 vs Orlando and Detroit; Orlando 4-3 vs Brooklyn and Detroit; Detroit 2-5 vs Brooklyn and Orlando). As a result of Detroit having the poorest record in these games, and its season series loss to Brooklyn, there is no way the Pistons can do better than seventh.
Because Detroit beat the Magic head-to-head this season, the Pistons could, though, wind up seventh, and Orlando eighth.
There’s also the possibility that Detroit misses the playoffs all together. The Charlotte Hornets (38-42) and Miami Heat (38-42) could catch the Pistons; however, unlike Detroit, neither squad is able do better than the eight seed, and thus would not be eligible to play the Sixers in the first round.
In other words, stay tuned…
[For the record, the Sixers during the regular season went 2-2 vs Brooklyn and 2-2 vs Orlando.]