The Philadelphia 76ers finished the season 54-28 and are headed to the playoffs to match up against Mikal Bridges and the Brooklyn Nets. After one of the best seasons the Sixers have had in recent years, they will be the three seed and will have home-court advantage in the first round. Superstar center Joel Embiid led the league in scoring by averaging 33.1 points per game as his co-star James Harden led the league in assists, with 10.7 assists per game. The Sixers enter the playoffs yet again with high expectations. A Pennridge High School student, Nick Leight, showed a lack of optimism, stating that “The Sixers will be first-round exits.” After years of disappointment, the Sixers will hopefully find a way to get the job done this year.

The Sixers started the year off rough, going 1-4 through their first five games. Nothing was going well for them; when they were hitting their shots, their defense was horrible. When they were defending really well, they weren’t hitting their shots. Sixers stars James Harden and Tyrese Maxey fell down to early injuries, and it was up to Joel Embiid to bring the Sixers out of this deep hole. The back-to-back runner-up for MVP immediately put the team on his back after these injuries, putting up a 59-point game against the Jazz, which accounted for more than 50 percent of the team’s points. Embiid continued this rampage, dominating team after team and getting the Sixers in a good position when Maxey and Harden returned.

For most of the season, the Sixers bounced between the second and third seed, threatening to take the one seed at one point. Eventually, the Sixers ended the season as the three seed, which put them in a good position for round one, but sadly this meant needing to face a Boston Celtics team which is one of the deepest in the league and a team that has owned them for the past several years in the second round if both teams advance. The Sixers’ first-round matchup, Brooklyn Nets, is in a rebuilding/retooling phase, as they traded away both their superstars at the trade deadline this season. The Sixers matchup great with them, as they have no answers for Joel Embiid. Erik Unterberger, a Pennridge High School student, believes this series won’t even be close, having the Sixers “winning 4-1 in an easy series”.

The Sixers enter the playoffs being in the top six in odds to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy, being +1000 (fanduel). Many believe that the Sixers are one of the three best teams in the NBA, all of them being from the East. Although they are a top team in the NBA, the Sixers have arguably the toughest path to a championship, as they are going to need to get through the Celtics, Bucks, and whoever wins the West. The road is tough, but the Sixers have the MVP Joel Embiid, the scoring leader and anchor of their defense, to carry them throughout this hopeful magical run.

Sources:

“https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2023-nba-predictions/76ers/”>https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2023-nba-predictions/76ers/

“https://www.espn.com/nba/team/roster/_/name/phi/philadelphia-76ers”>https://www.espn.com/nba/team/roster/_/name/phi/philadelphia-76ers

“https://www.nba.com/stats/leaders”>https://www.nba.com/stats/leaders

“https://www.nba.com/stats/leaders?StatCategory=AST”>https://www.nba.com/stats/leaders?StatCategory=AST