The Philadelphia 76ers are absolutely title contenders. They have the talent that it takes to genuinely contend and compete for a title. However, it’s not often you see a 6 seed win an NBA title.
The only time it has ever happened was the 1995 Houston Rockets and they had championship experience to lean on. This Sixers team? Not so much.
In order to get to where they want to go, they have got to start climbing up the standings in the East. Considering they would be starting the playoffs on the road, where they are just 9-17, if the season were to end right now, it’s time to really take a look at the standings and see what needs to happen.
“At what point? Probably 10 games ago,” said Tobias Harris on the standings. “You break the season up into different sections. This is coming towards the end of All-Star break and from there, we’ve got to close this out and come back from All-Star break and really find our stride and get ready for the playoffs.”
Al Horford also added that he has been looking at them as well. It seemed like a missed opportunity after falling to the Boston Celtics on Saturday night.
“I’ve been looking at them,” said Horford. “We’ve already been looking at it. We’re aware of it obviously, we’re not where we want to be, but we’re definitely looking at it.”
The Sixers are now three games back of the Celtics for the 3 seed and also are three games back of the Miami Heat for the 4 seed. Considering the Heat are their next opponent on Monday, that gives them another opportunity to take a step forward and gain a game in the race for home-court advantage.
“It’s very important,” Horford added. “We were counting on tonight. We weren’t able to get it done and now we have a very difficult one going into Miami and all of our focus has to be on that and start making up some ground. It starts with that Miami game.”
The Sixers and the Heat square off at 7:30 p.m. EST on Monday night. [lawrence-related id=24709,24708,24689]