The Philadelphia 76ers were finally able to finish up their regular-season goal on Friday as they knocked off the Orlando Magic 122-97 at home. The win meant that the Sixers will officially enter the 2021 NBA Playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and they will have home-court advantage in the East.
Led by a talented star duo of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, the Sixers are the No. 1 seed for the first time since Allen Iverson led the group to the NBA Finals in 2001. This is a big accomplishment for this group, but it obviously is not what they want their final destination to be.
“It means what we said we wanted to do from the start of the season and that was getting that No. 1 seed and obviously having home-court advantage, but besides that, we got to get ready for playoffs,” said Simmons. “We have one more game finish out and then the real job starts. We put ourselves in a good position, but we ultimately want to win a championship so we’re gonna take it each series, one step at a time.”
Obviously, it is a pretty big goal achieved by this group. They have been through a lot of adversity and they were still able to come out on top in the regular season and be able to push through it. They have had success so far, but it has to be able to continue now.
“That’s an accomplishment,” said coach Doc Rivers. “I don’t want to downplay it I, tell our guys they should enjoy the second, because it’s not what we want, but it’s part of what you can get on your way to what you want. I think for this team, being as young as we are, to have home court is really important. It’s nice to have and we should feel proud of it.”
Of course, the Sixers would not be in this position if it was not for the phenomenal play of Embiid. The big fella has thrown the team on his back in big moments and he and the team finally got done what they wanted to get done.
“We did it as a group,” Embiid said. “It felt like everybody contributed. Offensively, just playing with each other, moving the ball, finding the right guys. Tobias doing his thing Ben doing his thing, me being dominant, and the bench coming in and pushing leads. A great coaching staff, a great front office, the group that we’ve had this year has been exceptional.”
One of those new additions was Seth Curry who scored 20 points to lead the way on Friday and he is expected to make a big contribution on the playoff run. He was big in the win after the team missed their previous two chances to clinch that top seed.
“We wanted to take care of business,” said Curry. “We kind of let the ball down past two games, but we want to come home and get it done and do what we got to do next week to get ready for the playoffs. It was a good one for us to get some good vibes back.”
The Sixers will finish up the season on Sunday in a rematch with the Magic.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
