Looking At Potential Playoff Matchups
Well, we’re heading down the home stretch, and another NBA regular season is finishing up. But, for the second season in a row, our Sixers are heading into April knowing our team will host a playoff series. This year, the expectations are even higher.
Barring a historic choke, the Sixers will be the 3rd seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. You probably know this means the Sixers will match up against the 6th seed in the first round of the playoffs. However, which team will finish as the 6th seed is still completely up-in-the air. There are a tiny 1.5 games separating the 6th place Pistons and the 9th place Magic, with the Nets and Heat sitting in between. As one of these teams won’t make the playoffs, we can expect these teams will we playing hard these last handful of games, regardless of playoff seeding consideration. So, how do the Sixers match up against each of these four teams? What can we expect from each possible match up?
Detroit Pistons
The Pistons are always an intriguing match-up for the Sixers. The Sixers beat the Pistons in the season series 3-1, with the only loss coming in a monster Blake Griffin game without Ben Simmons. When these two teams clash, everyone’s eyes are on the Joel Embiid-Andre Drummond match-up. For some reason, Joel Embiid just seems to have Drummond figured out. Every single game seems like a dominant performance for Embiid, with Drummond always flirting with a foul-out.
But, to be honest, the most important match-up is Blake Griffin-Ben Simmons. Ben is definitely the best guy the Sixers have to defend Griffin, but Griffin is considerably stronger than Simmons at this point. Additionally, Griffin is arguably having the best season of his impressive career. The only real threat the Pistons have of stealing a game or two from the Sixers is if Griffin puts the Pistons on his back, which he very may well do. The most important contribution Ben can make in such a series would be to lock down Griffin.
The Pistons would also present a relatively rare opportunity for the Sixers to use Boban Marjanovic in the playoffs. Boban, as much as we all love him, is unplayable against teams running small-ball lineups. But with the Pistons using traditional a Big Man in Drummond, Boban will get his chance to shine against a former team of his. This would be huge as the Sixers try to keep Embiid fresh for a deep playoff run.
Brooklyn Nets
The Nets are probably the toughest matchup for the Sixers. The Nets are very young, and probably have no real chance of beating the Sixers in a seven game series, but they can certainly give the Sixers a hard time. The Nets managed to beat the Sixers twice in three games this season.
The main problem the Nets pose is their trio of dynamic scoring guards. D’Angelo Russell leads the pack, coming off his first all-star appearance. But Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris Levert have both had break out seasons, and between the three of them the Sixers will always have a mismatch to deal with. You can bet one of these guys will be torching JJ Redick on a regular basis.
Jarrett Allen, on the other hand, has no real chance of stopping Joel Embiid. Allen has shown some serious flashes of potential, but he has nothing on Jojo.
Miami Heat
We all remember the Sixers’ win against the Heat in last year’s playoffs. If the Heat manage to grab the 6th seed, you can expect things to go about the same way as last year. This year’s Heat team isn’t quite as pesky as last year’s, as shown by how the Sixers handled the Heat in both match ups this year.
Dwayne Wade managed to torch the Sixers last year in a single game of last year’s playoff series, but I seriously doubt he is capable of winning a playoff game for the Heat this season. Lastly, we all know how Joel plays against Hassan Whiteside. To be honest, Jojo should have a monster series no matter which of these four teams the Sixers get in the first round.
Orlando Magic
The Magic are fighting for their playoff lives at the moment, and showed it last week when they beat the Sixers by 21 points. Despite that, though, the Magic have no real threat at point guard, which is a huge advantage for the Sixers. Whether it is DJ Augustin or our old friend MCW, expect the Sixers to hide JJ Redick on the Magic point guard if we end up facing the Magic in the playoffs.
However, Nik Vucevic, another former Sixer, has had a serious break-out year this season for the Magic. He has given the Sixers problems at times, and can really rack up points and rebounds. He has even turned himself into a serviceable defender. This series would be all about locking down Vucevic, a task for one Joel Embiid.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think any of these teams have a chance of beating the Sixers in a seven game series. However, it will be vital that the Sixers take care of their first-round business as quickly as possible, in order to rest up for the second round, while using the opportunity to continue to mesh together this new-look team.
