Philadelphia 76ers inch closer to No. 3 seed after help from Heat

Thanks to some help from the Miami Heat defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Philadelphia 76ers are only a half-game back of the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Right now, the Philadelphia 76ers are the team no one is going to want to face in the playoffs, as they are arguably one of the hottest teams in the Eastern Conference, riding a seven-game winning streak heading into Wednesday’s game against the New York Knicks. To top it off, the Sixers received an unexpected surprise earlier in the week when Markelle Fultz, who had previously been sidelined since October, suited up for Monday’s game against the Denver Nuggets, and actually made a solid contribution with 10 points to go along with eight assists in 14 minutes of play.

All of a sudden, Philadelphia may end up being even more dangerous heading into the playoffs than teams expected before if Fultz manages to stay healthy enough to continue making these kind of contributions to the rotation. At the moment, the Sixers currently hold a slight lead over the Indiana Pacers for the No. 4 spot in the conference, but Brett Brown and company have their eyes set on a higher goal of earning the No. 3 seed.

If that’s going to happen, this means Philadelphia will have to overtake LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who coincidentally are coming off a tough loss on Tuesday to the Miami Heat in a game they would love nothing more than to forget. But as bad as it sounds, Tuesday’s loss for the Cavaliers mean the Sixers could actually take over that No. 3 spot if all goes well on Wednesday.

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For that to happen, Philadelphia would need to defeat New York while Cleveland ends up on the losing end for the second night in a row while facing the Charlotte Hornets, who would need an absolute miracle to earn a trip to the playoffs at this point. Then again, the Hornets battling for their playoff lives means this could actually benefit the Sixers since they’re desperate to win every game possible, so the Cavaliers will be facing a little extra pressure heading into Wednesday night since they would hate to fall another spot in the playoff standings. Either way, at least it’s exciting to see Philadelphia in the playoff discussion again, right?