The Philadelphia 76ers are in the middle of a tight race in the Eastern Conference as they look to earn the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. On Monday, the team is 32-14 and sits atop the conference with 26 games left to play.
The loaded Brooklyn Nets (31-15) are right on their heels, one game back. Philadelphia is 19-4 at home, so earning home-court advantage is an important thing for the Sixers as they head into the playoffs in May.
Due to how tight the race is in the East, star forward Tobias Harris catches himself looking at the standings on an daily basis.
“I look at the standings,” Harris stated. “I know where we are. I know the race. I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t look at the standings every day. It’s just something that I do.”
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On top of the Sixers already being a very good team at the Wells Fargo Center, they are also able to play in front of their fans again. The Sixers did not have a home crowd until March 14, but now fans in the building can give them a spark. That will give them a bit of a boost when the playoffs roll around.
“I think we all know how important home-court advantage is in the playoffs,” Harris added. “We know what our crowd and fans bring to us and that’s a real thing. Of course, we want to stay No. 1, and we just got to do our best night in night out.”
The Sixers and the Nets should be in a tight, back-and-forth battle until the season ends in May.
“It’s a close race, which is good,” Harris added. “At the end of the day, that’s another challenge and that’s something that myself, I look forward to going out and just doing whatever we can to win a basketball game and to stay up at the top of the East.”
The Sixers take on the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday in their next chance to jell as a team.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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