PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The start of the NBA playoffs are just over a couple of weeks away for the Sixers, and there are a few variables that are very important for that stretch of basketball.
In no particular order, the 76ers owning the top seed in the East would be huge for their chances to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in 20 years.
Heading into Thursday night, their magic number to do so is four with six regular season games remaining.
Equally, if not more, important — depending on who you talk to — is the health of the Sixers when the postseason begins. When they have their full compliment of regular starters, the 76ers are 25-4.
How much should keeping it safe with minute distribution over the final weeks of the regular season come at the expense of endurance, or being in a good rhythm?
Sixers star Joel Embiid explored that topic after Wednesday’s 135-115 trouncing of the shorthanded and very inferior Houston Rockets.
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Embiid scored 34 points in 25 minutes to lead the team on its sixth consecutive win — matching a season high. But many of those wins have come against non-playoff caliber teams like Houston.
Because of the lopsided results, Embiid has played less than 30 minutes in four of those six games.
“It’s good and it’s not, because I wanna play as much as I can just to make sure that I’m ready for the load in the playoffs,” Embiid said.
“When we get there, I’m gonna have to play 36-38 minutes a game so I just want to make sure that I’m also ready.”
It’s important to remember that Embiid, who indicated he’ll have to do his own conditioning outside of games to keep up his endurance in the meantime, has missed 19 games this season — most of which are due to injury.
Fair or not, unlucky or not, it’s no secret Embiid has a lengthy injury history that has impacted to varying degrees overall postseason performance in his career.
While Embiid recognizes the benefits of playing a normal minute load to stay sharp, if the Sixers lead the New Orleans Pelicans by 20 Friday night and he’s playing in the fourth quarter and then injures himself, the fan base would go bonkers.
“I’ve always gone back and forth on whether not playing your normal minutes is good or not if you’re playing,” head coach Doc Rivers said. “So, I think it’s good for all of our guys. I think the science people would actually differ. They think the guys, their normal minutes is actually what they should play. It helps them in the long with conditioning, but I just know getting them out in a big lead is safer. So for me, I look at it that way. Getting all those guys through a game healthy right now is very important as well.”
But Rivers also suggested that others (he may have said scientists, but it was tough to hear) disagree and think it helps with conditioning.
“I just know getting them out in a big lead is safer, so for me I look at it that way. Getting all those guys through a game healthy right now is very important as well.”
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Ideally, the Sixers are the top seed and are at the top of their game, so they can build momentum for potential postseason matchups with either the Brooklyn Nets or Milwaukee Bucks — the other teams currently vying for the top seed in the East.
None — and that’s not an exaggeration — of the Sixers' six total meetings with either team this regular season were a good indication of what a possible playoff showdown would be like.
The Sixers were missing either Embiid or Ben Simmons in every Milwaukee game (and both in the final meeting), and the Nets were without multiple members of their “Big 3” — Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving - in every regular season matchup against the Sixers.