Scouting the Sixers’ final eight regular-season games

The Philadelphia 76ers have a solid pre-playoffs schedule.

It’s here; it’s finally here. After months and months of anticipation, the NBA is finally back Philadelphia 76ers fans!

Well… kind of.

While the NBA has agreed in principle to a return for an abbreviated regular season before kicking off the playoffs in Disney World, players won’t be reporting to camp until the end of July, with games presumably set to start in August.

Still, extensively, the season is back, and we even know who the Sixers will be playing in their final eight regular-season games thanks to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Keith Pompay: The Indiana Pacers, the Washington Wizards, the Toronto Raptors, the Phoenix Suns, the Portland Blazers, the Houston Rockets, the Washington Wizards(again), and the Orlando Magic.

That’s hmm… that’s actually a pretty good schedule.

Of the 76ers’ seven opponents to finish out the season, only three, the Pacers, the Raptors, and the Rockets have winning records going into the pre-playoffs playoffs. Over the course of the 2019-20 regular season, the Sixers have a 2-5 record against those teams, going 2-0 at home and 0-3 on the road.

That trend pretty perfectly encapsulates the Sixers’ season and would be funny if it wasn’t so gosh darn tragic.

With a spot in the playoffs already secured regardless of their record, the Sixers are really just competing for positions, a factor that matters a bit less since every game is technically on a third-party site regardless of who is technically home or away.

All that in mind, what should fans expect from the Sixers’ return to the court later this summer? Assuming the team doesn’t go full-on ‘road game’ mode and lose easy games against the Wizards, or Suns – or Wizards again – how do the Sixers compare to their final eight regular-season opponents? Let’s comb through the stats and try to find out!