The Philadelphia 76ers are one of 22 teams heading down to Orlando to resume the 2019-20 season which has been in suspension since March 11. They will play eight regular-season games starting July 30 before the playoffs begin on August 17 and they will have the second easiest schedule when the season does resume.
The Sixers will be facing the Indiana Pacers to begin the restart on August 1–which will be huge for standings purposes–and they will be facing bad teams like the San Antonio Spurs, the Phoenix Suns, the Orlando Magic, and the Washington Wizards. San Antonio will be missing star forward, LaMarcus Aldridge, Phoenix is still trying to develop young stars, Orlando gave Philly some issues, but are young overall, and Washington will be missing Sixers killer Davis Bertans.
Therefore, this gives Philadelphia an opportunity to move up in the standings and it gives them a chance to work on their chemistry as forward Tobias Harris said the team definitely needs some work on that aspect. Also, the weaker schedule gives them a chance to gain some momentum going into the postseason.
Obviously, home-court advantage does not mean anything in the Orlando bubble, but getting up to the 4 seed in the East means Philadelphia can avoid the Boston Celtics in Round 1. It would likely mean a matchup with the Pacers or the Miami Heat which could prove to be beneficial for them.
The Athletic’s John Hollinger breaks it down like this:
As for Philadelphia, the Sixers’ slate is nothing short of a gift – an East-leading 19-point cakewalk. Make a list of the five worst teams in the bubble and four of them are on Philly’s schedule (Washington, Phoenix, San Antonio and Orlando). If they win those and defeat Portland and Indiana, they’ll have the conference record tie-break on the Pacers and have a great shot to land the fourth seed in the East.
The only drawback of possibly getting up to the 4 seed is the possibility of facing the Milwaukee Bucks in Round 2 rather than in the Eastern Conference Finals. However, as mentioned before, home-court advantage is gone in this setting.
One could argue that this hurts Philadelphia more than any team due to their wild home-away disparity–they were 29-2 at home and 10-24 on the road–but their elite defense could make up for that and their belief that they are built for the postseason. They also believe that Ben Simmons and Al Horford can defend Giannis Antetokounmpo over a 7-game series.
This may not be the way Philadelphia wanted to do the 2020 postseason, but this gives them that opportunity to work on some things during these final eight games before the playoffs and make sure that they are on the same page. The goal for the 2019-20 season was to win a championship and that has not changed. They now have their chance.
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