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The Philadelphia 76ers had high expectations coming into the 2017-18 NBA season. Although center Joel Embiid and point guard Ben Simmons have established themselves as the most promising duo in the league, the team's performance had largely fluctuated throughout the year up until recently.
Philadelphia has now won eight of their last nine games since before the All-Star break in an effort to clinch a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. However, Embiid is not satisfied with just making it to the postseason. According to Jessica Camerato of NBC Sports Philadelphia, he wants to have homecourt advantage as well:
Article Continues Below“Our objective is, in general, playoffs, but I want homecourt advantage. To know that going into the playoffs, you have a bench that can come in and keep the lead or keep building the lead, it's great. In the playoffs you need that.”
While it is encouraging to see Embiid so optimistic about the team's playoff chances, the goal seems a bit lofty at this point. Philadelphia has been in and out of the playoff picture all year before their recent winning streak.
The Sixers currently own a 32-25 record, which puts them at the seventh spot in the East. In order to clinch any type of homecourt advantage in the playoffs, they will need to finish with at least the fourth seed. Both the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics have built up a sizeable lead coming out of the All-Star break. Meanwhile, it is unlikely that the Cavs will finish any worse than they did the first half of the season.
That realistically leaves one spot for the rest of the conference to compete for if they have any desire to potentially play more games at home. Although Embiid's comments may be a bit far-fetched, it is not by any means impossible. Outside of Boston, Toronto, and Cleveland, the Eastern Conference playoff race seems to be wide open once again.
