The Philadelphia 76ers’ dramatic road win over the Heat on Friday certainly goes a long way in helping them to avoid the NBA play-in tournament. But hey, does that even matter to the Sixers?
Philadelphia (42-35) enters Friday in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, just a game back of the Indiana Pacers for sixth. The top six teams in each conference avoid the play-in.
“It was a tough environment and it was a team that’s super athletic and physical that had [us] up against the ropes and kept on swinging, and we somehow got out of there,” coach Nick Nurse said of the 109-105 win over the Heat, via Tim Bontemps of ESPN. “That thing looked at times like it could have gotten away from us at times.
“But I thought that we stood in there and we did it through a lot of intensity and pressure.”
Meanwhile, All-Star center Joel Embiid said he’s not concerned with where the Sixers end up in the NBA playoff race.
For the record, the Sixers are 2-0 since Embiid returned from a months-long absence with a knee injury.
“We don’t care where we end up,” Embiid told reporters. “For me personally, I didn’t have to come back, but I want to play. I love playing basketball, and I want to be on the floor.
“[But] it doesn’t matter. Obviously I would rather not be in the play-in, but that’s the situation we’re in. If that’s where we end up, that doesn’t change. The goal is to go out there and try to win every single game. So it doesn’t matter when we end up.
“I think we have a pretty good chance. We just need to find a way to get on the same page, and I need to find a way to get back close to where I want to be.”
Eighth? Sixth? Fifth? Embiid is right — it doesn’t really matter. As long as he’s healthy, you have to like the Sixers’ chances against just about anybody.
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