The Philadelphia 76ers are in a tight race with the Brooklyn Nets for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference as the regular season heads into its final stretch. The Sixers are looking to ensure they have home-court advantage entering the playoffs on May 22 and they have work to do to make sure they have that.
They did get some help on Sunday when the Nets fell to the Milwaukee Bucks on the road. The loss vaulted Philadelphia back into the No. 1 seed by virtue of them owning the tiebreaker over the Nets when they won their final matchup on April 14.
As the Sixers head into a matchup with the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday, they have a chance to now take the top spot in the East and be all alone in that spot. One would assume that they would push their top guys hard in order to get the job done, but coach Doc Rivers is not going to let that influence his team. Especially with them dealing with a slew of nagging injuries.
“We want to keep guys healthy,” said Rivers. “At the end of the day, we want to win games, we want to give them the proper amount of rest, we obviously have a plan on what we want to do and, and we’ll follow it. We’re not going to look at the standings or anything like that to decide what we’re going to do. I can say that.”
The Spurs will be missing key pieces such as DeMar DeRozan, Dejounte Murray, and Jakob Poeltl when the teams tip off at 8 p.m. EDT from San Antonio. The Sixers have a big chance here to earn that top seed as they head into the final stretch controlling their own destiny.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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