PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia 76ers clinched their spot in the NBA playoffs with their 127-83 domination of the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday at Wells Fargo Center. It is becoming a habit for them, this being their fourth consecutive time in the postseason, the longest streak since they made it five times in a row from 1999 to 2003.
And yet the Sixers have bigger goals. Tobias Harris said they would rather celebrate going on a deep run through the summer.
"Everybody knows that’s expected, to clinch playoffs," Harris explained. "Philadelphia basketball, where greatness is really something that is expected from our fans, is expected from us as a group, and it’s one of our goals day in and day out."
Now it’s a matter of whether they can achieve the No. 1 seed in the East — a feat they have not matched since 2001.
"Coming into this season, our goal was to win a championship, but there’s a lot of steps to get there," Joel Embiid said. "It’s a long road. You got to be focused for it, and I think we have everything we need to make it happen. So it’s all about us coming out and just dominating every game."
Heading into Thursday’s action, the Sixers trail the Brooklyn Nets by one game for first place in the East, while they lead the Milwaukee Bucks by 2 1/2 games for second. The Sixers own the head-to-head regular season tiebreaker over the Nets, but the Bucks have that distinction over the Sixers.
None of the Sixers' matchups with Brooklyn or Milwaukee has been an accurate preview of the postseason. The Nets were without Kevin Durant in all three meetings. James Harden wasn’t there for two of them, and the same goes for Kyrie Irving. Brooklyn’s "Big 3" actually haven't played much together at all — let alone against Philadelphia.
Embiid, meanwhile, missed two of the three showdowns with the Bucks, as did fellow All-Star Ben Simmons.
Predicting how a potential second round or conference finals playoff series between the Sixers and any of these two teams is difficult, if not impossible.
"We actually don’t talk about the No. 1 seed very often," 76ers head coach Doc Rivers said before the win over Atlanta. "I think I’ve mentioned it, maybe, once or twice the entire season. It’s just that we want to win. We feel like the No. 1 seed is important and it'd be nice if we can get it, but I really focus more on just winning and getting better. We don’t really worry about matchups because there’s no way you can control that."
Rivers said if a team wants to be the best, matchups should be irrelevant. "You should just win games."
What’s been fairly evident in rare and small doses this season is the Sixers win more often than not when they have their complete regular starting lineup together — Embiid, Simmons, Harris, Seth Curry and Danny Green. After Wednesday’s win over the shorthanded Hawks, the Sixers are 21-4.
Rivers has had his regular starting five together for only 25 of their 62 games.
"That’s incredible, when you think about it," Rivers said, prior to that 25th game. "You think about how young we are and how new we are to each other and how well we’ve still played. That’s pretty incredible."
The final 10 regular season games starting Friday night are crucial for a number of reasons — making sure the team is healthy for the playoffs and trying to get that top seed.
While what the matchups will be like is unknown, and Rivers says it doesn’t matter anyway, it’s fair to say that facing either Brooklyn or Milwaukee to get to the NBA Finals would be far better than having to play them both.